Sleeper Upgrades You Can Buy for Your Benz
Mercedes Performance Shop Sleeper Upgrade Tips
As a well-established Mercedes performance shop we have the privilege of working on some incredible vehicles. One of our favorite past times is helping our clients add subtle potency to their cars. Knowing the immense pleasure these changes can bring a vehicle enthusiast we have decided to share a few tips on some of the many ways you can take your Benz from classic to the ultimate sleeper.
While many people prefer applying the feminine persona to their car, you may want to think of your Mercedes Benz as a UFC fighter in a tailored Italian suit. From your first impression he is immaculate, oozes sophistication, and appears to be best suited to the easy going high societal lifestyle. But, if you push him, test him, you will be surprised to find an absolute beast hidden beneath the patterned cotton. This is the image that best represents a Mercedes, upgraded to sleeper perfection.
As evocative as this image sounds, you may be sitting there already trying to work out how deep your pockets have to be to achieve such beastly sophistication, and you may be pleased to know that with our help, and some clever research you can boost your Mercedes performance using small upgrades which won’t break the bank.
It is important to remember that these performance upgrades are non-trivial when it comes to horsepower. For example, one of the simplest upgrades a newer car can enjoy, is to tune the Engine Control Unit. This reprogramming can enable you to remove any Vmax limits Mercedes has put on your engine, allowing you to go faster without a single modification. You can increase the rev limiter, which can increase power, and is especially good if you are using other aftermarket parts. You can also change your air to fuel ratio. Normally the default is a lean ratio which favors fuel economy, but changing it to a richer mix can drastically increase the power produced by the engine.
On the other hand, you can change actual parts of the engine. Adding a turbocharger or supercharger are guaranteed ways of adding more horsepower. And even if you already have one, there are always more improvements to be made on them. A stock turbo is normally not as finely tuned nor made for performance. Aftermarket parts are lighter and have had time to correct for the mistakes made by the stock turbos, therefore they are normally much better. If you can’t afford a whole new turbo, you can upgrade the pulleys to allow faster rotation and more boost.
In the engine, increasing the bore size, stroke, and compression ratio are all ways to make a major difference to performance. It will mean that your engine receives more fuel at better ratios to improve efficiency. There are also modifications for your exhaust system. Better quality downpipes with higher volumes, will decrease back pressure maximizing gas flow through the engine and out the back.
Moving away from the engine, there is the radiator. High performance cars need high performance cooling and so larger cooler reservoirs and improved air filters are some important aspects to explore, especially for an already modified car. The stock cooling system will definitely not be designed to handle the larger requirements of your higher performing aftermarket engine. Along with the need for better cooling, a more powerful engine needs better handling as well to prevent a mishap.
Better tires are a nice and easy way to improve handling and support the higher forces on the road. Improved suspension will prevent your beast from realigning your spine every time you hit a bump. And finally, most importantly, adding ceramic brakes to your list of upgrades is just an intelligent thing to do. You want to be able to handle this car, not have it handle you.
And even with all these upgrades, you will be able maintain the respectable image of an elegant Mercedes Benz, while knowing it is so much more than a pretty face.