I thought I'd pop in and say howdy. Things have been rather busy for me lately. Work is going strong and I'm flagged for more responsibility. That's sucking up more time than it used to. Mom has had a few issues but those seem under control now. Lost a few friends to CV and had others struggle with recovery. I haven't had time to do any real machine work or mess with my gun business.

Sorry there have been no updates on the 541 Imperial build. It's still in progress and I plan on messing with it again tomorrow. I've got the making of another video update but haven't found the time to build the video.

My little 2006 C55 was finally feeling a little too small for a daily driver so I upsized. I landed one of those being in the right place at the right time deals. Bentley Atlanta advertised a 2013 Mercedes CL65 for one day and pulled the ad. I called on it immediately and was told the car was no longer available for retail sale. When I pushed them for details they said their techs had written $27,000 to recondition the car and they were going to wholesale it. After convincing the sales manager that my 15 years of Mercedes experience and 180+ certifications meant that I was no stranger to these cars he sent me the detailed estimate of repairs. It included things like $9700 for replacing the dash for a small flaw on the right side, $5700 to reseal the turbo water lines, $3200 for rear pads and rotors, $2700 to replace the back glass (running crack), and a few other things like the cracked grille and scratches in the paint.

No sweat! Dang near all cosmetic stuff! I called them back and they gave me a wholesale price of $24,800. Score! I'd been seeing these things between $48,000 and $58,000.

Needless to say, I flew to Atlanta the next Saturday and drove my new toy home. It's as glorious as you'd expect for a car that originally cost $218,545. Quiet, smooth, and incredibly powerful. When I got it home I had a good friend and highly respected Mercedes tech go over the car with me. He confirmed that I stole the car and other than mileage service items the car just needed the cosmetics. Less than $2000 later the car has all new fluids. All of them. Even the suspension fluid was done. It also has a new grille. I skipped the $1057 (each) rear rotors and went with aftermarket pieces I found for $96.

In all, the car has been awesome.
An 1/8 mile track day with the Mopar club gave me 1.86 - 1.88 times in the 60' with a best of 7.69 @ 93.8 mph. That's not too shabby for a race weight of 5272 lbs, 5 speed auto, and a 2.65 rear gear on Michelin PS4 tires.
Testing the 60-130 mph times (closed circuit, of course) showed traction issues at a 50 mph roll that lead to 7.9 - 8.0 second runs. When the car hooked up it turned 6.90 and 6.66 times.

Today, I took it to high end tuner and strapped it to their lie detector to see what it was making. he car is geared so long that the 4th gear run went from 40 mph at 1300 rpm to 170 mph at 5800 rpm. We had the dyno locked into 4 wheel mode and started low so we could get the turbos spooled up early.

I think this is a pretty good place to start. The car definitely needs downpipes to open up the exhaust and a tune to unlock some power. Oh, and gotta refinish those horrible calipers. Until then, I'll get back to work on the 541 for the Imperial.