Well, I finally made it to the drag strip with the 500E. There was no competition there except for the Mustang Cobra in the pics that beat me by a tenth or so. (I'll post the time slip tomorrow.) However, I was able to run a 13.87 at 100.49MPH with the Check Engine light on and the tires chirping off the line. I Love This Car! Also, I recently installed the Carlsson rims, Smoked taillights, and my cool personalized license plate! Lets viewers from the rear know what smoked them!
Enjoy!
Adam

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Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

What's the stock rear end ratio at? Probably geared tall isnt it? Wonder how much you could improve with a shorter gear ratio.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Wow! Those are some great numbers. Among the highest that I have seen for a stock 500E. I wonder why the factory numbers are so far off? The only thing that I can think of is they are giving a worst case scenario which in a M119 can be pretty bad when the engine is hot. It is rather neat/amusing that an 11+ year old luxury sedan can beat mustangs and camaros. I still want to get some 1/4 mile numbers for the 400E. I will say that some of the newer cobras and the Saleens sound awesome. I was driving (in a 300D T loaner) to class on Tues. and I see this car bouncing from lane to lane behind me and I'm thinking "that's sort of a waste in this traffic" until he gets near me and revs it under an underpass. Oh my god that thing sounded so wicked it gave me goose bumps. I don't know what year it was but it said Saleen on the bumper. I totally got why he was weaving in and out of traffic. You can't drive a car like that without punching it all the time. The previous owner of my C36 put 3" pipes from the manifolds back with a 3" Magnaflow muffler because of the turbos but I can't stand the sound. I suppose some people like that but it is just not my cup of tea. Once I get my inspection sticker I'm taking the muffler off and running straight pipes which you can do apparently because the turbos deaden the sound or getting another muffler system. I actually liked the stock AMG sound a lot. IMO Virginia has a bunch of Nazis making the vehicle laws. They don't have a maximum db level but rather make the police officer be judge, jury, and hangman by giving him/her discretion as to whether the exhaust is too loud. Same thing for window tint 50%??? Lame. A bill to reduce it to 35% was withdrawn. What lobbying group kills window tint? Cops or was it just too much revenue??? If it's cops just make a law that says you have to roll down your windows when a police officer pulls you over. Did I mention they passed a law making NOS illegal?

What was RT"s? 60 ft's? Top speed? What was light set for? How many runs? What was average? That Cobra was a 97-98 that, right, so that's good for 13.4X stock (account for driver error), and he caught the light so technically you got him . Build a rear end set up for bite, maybe dot-et's out back, take some weight out, practice the light, a little tune.... upper twelve's look real good.

Mercedes does that with all their cars. The 210 E55 is rated from the factory at 13.9 at the 1/4 but it will pull low 13's all day long. The 211 E55 is rated from Mercedes at 0-60 in 4.7 and the 1/4 mile in the high 12's but will do 0-60 in aroud 4.2 seconds and the 1/4 mile in the very low 12's. I'm not sure how they do their testing but they leave alot on the table as far as the actual acceleration numbers go.

Here are the time slips! All of my runs were on the right side of the track.

As you can see the first run was the best, from there the engine was doing this little lag in second gear, I think it has something to do with the check engine light.
If this seems like a really good time for a 500E it may have something to do with the trans. When I purchased the car I had it checked out by my local dealership. They told me that the trans in the car is an S500 trans. This would probobly be true since the guy I bought it from in Cali told me the trans was "replaced" two weeks before I bought it.
I am suspecting that maybe the S500 trans has different gear ratios than the 500E. I may be wrong though. Also, I did pull the performance chip a few months ago because I suspected it caused my check engine light. So other than the trans, the engine is basically stock.

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Current Stable:
01 ML55 AMG
92 500E (a few mods)
87 300E (lots of mods)
00 Chevy 3500HD Diesel Box Truck
68 18' Donzi Marine
06 GT i-Drive7 1.0 Mountain Bike (with GPS!)

PREVIOUSLY OWNED:83 300SD, 87 420SEL, 88 420SEL, 90 420SEL, 86 560SEL, 86 190E 2.3-16V AMG, 94 E320

Well many fast 500E s run around 97-99 mph trap and 14.1 - 14.3 seconds. I only remember one (maybe two) others that have broken 100 and sub 14 seconds is also very very rare from the data that I have seen. I am sure that some have hit it at some point but only say once a season. I will say that if you can get to the track on a really cold night say ~30 - 45 degrees Farenheight with a cool engine < 65 degrees Celsius you will be amazed. In my 400E I usually get reductions of ~ .8 seconds 0-60 from the hottest to coldest weather and for the quarter mile it just kept pulling harder. It just doesn't seem to slow down and sometimes I feel like it is speeding up as it goes above 80MPH.

I really wish I could get my C36 out of the garage and finish tuning it but finals are more important I guess. It was rather a let down when I got it and nothing worked right especially since I had such high expectations for it 400 HP + etc. Even the transmission had to be re-adjusted majorly for low altitude. I never thought that it made that much difference but the car was undriveable until we adjusted the transmission. It will be neat to see how your 300E turbo stacks up to the C36 TT.

When chips cause the check engine light you need to reset the computer by either using the MB diagnostic computer (if you can access one) or disconnecting the battery for I think a minute or so. That also might cure your transmission problem because I think the ECU controls how soon to shift as well.

Good run! Your reaction time is not bad at all, well except the first run

Are you close to Moroso in W.Palm Beach??

I like your custom tag, Florida tags are sweet! I have the "Protect Florida Whales" one.

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1987 mercedes 300E
1995 e320 conversion(hated the 300e grill)
HID/Xenon (D2S)
Keyless Entry
Monochromatic Paint (Custom Blue)
Smoked Tails
Flat Badged (front)
Debadged (rear)
custom "carbon fiber" console
18 inch HP EVO rims
Sold! Now I drive a Monte Carlo SS
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member.../352975_67.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member.../748335_24.jpg

All W124 500Es share the same transmission as the W140 S500: 722.370. Some VERY early 500Es built around 6/92 has 722.365 units but nearly all of them are indeed the 722.370 trans.

Satish

Back on a cold day in '00, I ran a 13.846@102.12MPH. I still have the slip, but can't seem to upload it with high enough resolution to be able to display it. If anyone's more system-savvy than me, and actually wants to see this thing, I'd be happy to eMail the jpeg to them.

In any case, comparing my slip to your 13.87 run. you were quicker at 60' (I was 2.214), at 330 (5.939) and 1/8 (8.992), although I was apparently moving quicker at that point as my 1/8 MPH was 79.84. I was still behind you at 1000 (11.629) but by the end my incrementally quicker speed got you at the line by, what, .024? Amazingly close runs, but I had the benefit of 37 degree weather! As I recall, I ran with ASR on, and simply didn't slip coming out of the hole.

I haven't run mine in 2 years, and now it has 150k miles - time to run it again, eh?

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"If God had meant for us to walk, why did he give us feet that fit car pedals?" Sir Sterling Moss

Michael
2014 E63S Estate
2006 SLK55
1995 E500
1986 Porsche 944 turbo

Does anyone know or has anyone seen the 1/4 mile time for a 500SL / SL500 with the same M119 engine as the 500E?

I ask because, I've only driven a 1990 500SL and did not find it particularly fast, certainly not sub-14s fast. I'm not sure why, perhaps it was the gear ratios (are they different?) but it seemed to need revving to go anywhere quickly, feeling almost strangled, and it didn't seem 'brawny' or torquey at low revs when just cruising. Felt more like a 4.0 than a 5.0

I was left with the impression it was an 'old-school' 327bhp, and the newer 300bhp V8 (the current 5.0 V8), though less powerful on paper, would probably feel much better & faster. Anyone?


It was disappointing and put me off a 500E; unless a 500E drives substantially differently to the SL I'm not sure I'd want one any more..


Russ

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190E's:
2.5-16v 1990 90,000m Astral Silver
2.0E 8v 1986 107,000m Black 2nd owner
http://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall.jpghttp://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall2.jpg

The newer trannys and torque converter are more efficient and they also shift faster than the older trannys.

The engine is most certainly NOT the same between the 500E and 500SL. The 500E engine is a modified M119 that is BASED ON the M119 that was in the 500SL. furthermore that 500E is about 400LBS lighter than a 500SL. I don't know about differences in gearing, but assuing that the gearing is the same, I would suggest thatt he different engine configuration, as well as the weight differential could be the main reasons why the SL drove as it did.

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'94 W124.036 249/040 leder; 8.25x17 EvoIIs
'93 W124.036 199/040 leder; 8.25x17 EvoIIs, up in flames...LITERALLY!
'93 W124.036 481/040 leder; euro delivery; 8.25x17 EvoIIs
'88 R107.048 441/409 leder; Euro lights
'87 W201.034 199/040 leder; Euro lights; EvoII brakes; 8x16 EvoIs - soon: 500E rear brakes
'70 R113.044 050/526; factory alloys; Euro lights

Thanks for the info

Sorry for the thread hijack here by the way.. it's kinda on topic though!

I know the 500E has LH-Jetronic rather than K(E?), which gives an extra 22 lb.ft (which must make a bit of a difference), but it's the fact that magazine road tests at the time for the SL gave a 0-60 in 5.8 secs - at least as quick as the 500E - that I thought their performance would be similar.

The only other V8 comparisons I can make are against a 1998 BMW 740i 4.4 (286hp) - which was torquey & powerful in equal measures; felt more willing & torquey than the 500SL

and the Audi A8 4.2 V8 (300bhp), less torquey than either and most similar to the Mercedes V8, but with a higher rev limit and newer 5-speed gearbox meaning the power was more accessable.

Does anyone have any comparisons between the M119 and these or other manufacturer's engines?

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On second thoughts, I think you are right, the autobox has a lot to do with it.. even though I find my 'gutless' old 190E 2.0 copes fine with the 4-speed auto.


cheers
Russ

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190E's:
2.5-16v 1990 90,000m Astral Silver
2.0E 8v 1986 107,000m Black 2nd owner
http://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall.jpghttp://www.maylane.demon.co.uk/190esmall2.jpg