The picture above was taken on Saturday (Oct 21st). With watchful eyes you would notice that the C36 has been dropped 1cm (half an inch) fron and rear. However I doubt you would because I need to measure by a ruler to tell. I did not change to sport springs or lowered suspension. I don't dare to think we the humble motorists can do any better job than a team of AMG engineers more than 11 years ago. Those who think they could can continue to dream on and suffer. The C36 still wears original springs and AMG shocks. The trick is to use thinner factory spring rubber pads. Why not lower even more? Well, I still need to go places where ground clearance is of paramount importance. Second, lower height does not mean better since it will hurt the handling balance (front and rear, as well as left and right) and suspesion geometry (usually resulting in more negative camber).
Suspension travel is important in HK, especially in some of the corners and roads that I need to make the car lean and move the center of gravity around to induce rear steering to balance the front understeer. Harder and/or shortened spring will make the task more difficult and I need to carry more speed into the corner to create the desirable amount of wheel loading. Otherwise the car will feel stiff and unwilling to turn progressively. With stiff and lowered springs the turn-in will always be snappy and direct but it also makes the chassis feels lifeless. Most of the time it does not help corner speed and smoothness. I have tried enough "amateur" modified "daily" cars myself who think theirs were a success. But in the end it would be heart-breaking to tell the owner it is much worse than the original car that he has started with. Putting a dent into someone's ego is not my cup of tea, so I always keep that to myself until a certain point.
By that 1cm I already feel sitting lower in the driver seat. I can feel the center of gravity dropped, too. There is no more rocking side to side. It cleans up a lot of quite a lot of body movement. And the suspension seems to deal with road irregularities with faster response, especially the speed bumps and road joints. Turn-in is much improved and the car feels more in one-piece. Corners now feel slower and more stable at the same speed. However ride hurts noticeably (or feels differently) even though the compliance and suspension travels are still retained. It is a good trade-off and the ride isn't offensive either. I have a feeling that once the car (or myself) has been broken-in, the pereceived smoothness and refinement will come back. My fingers crossed.
Steering effort has increased, perhaps due to increase in negative camber. A little amount of tramlining not felt before has presented itself. The front end is more snappy, stable and firmly planted on the road. The rear is no longer tail happy as before (slight disappointment here). There was a trade-off. It took me a few months to get used to the previous setting which I disliked in the first month or two (back in summer). Now it is time for me to learn again how to adopt this new setting. Ride definitely is choppier and less refined (more bump thumps). Gone was the initial softness (floatiness) in the first inch of suspesnsion travel. However the whole package is now more nimble and chuckable. Love it or hate it! I really don't mind the old ride. Either setting will work for me. It is hard for me to believe that reducing 1/2 inch of ride height without any change in springs and shocks provides such significant changes in ride and handling. Dropping the ride height by an inch will definitely be disaster to me.
Engine oil (Miller synethetic from a drum) and transmission oils have been changed at this 72'060km service. Throttle cable has been changed. What a joy and highly recommended! Much finer throttle response and the modulation is fantastic. Feeling I am driving another engine and reminding me the ultra smooth C240 we once owned. Rear parking sensors (4) were fitted. My wife absolutely loved it and wanted the same for the MX-5 even though there was one fitted.
To end this entry I must tell you one story and how I was forced to bring the car to the garage on Thursday leaving workplace. Well I did not drive the C36 nor it was driven to the garage. It was towed! When I told my friends my C36 was stranded in the middle of highway they laughed at me and told me to stop bragging about the reliability of Mercedes AMG cars. And get a life and an updated Japanese car. Well, they were wrong again. Ignoring the fuel warning light for a long time, I ran out of fuel thinking there might be 10 to 20 km worth of fuel left in the tank. My bad. Still I can claim that my C36 is as reliable as I speak now. I am not proud of nor feel bad about my first and hopefully the last bad experience. Now let's see this:
