speedriven | s600 + $9000 = 700 hp

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2009 S600 MERCEDES BENZ

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In the world of Mercedes-Benz tuning, $9000 American doesn't usually buy you a whole lot. If you're shopping at RENNtech, $9000 will buy you a set of RENNtech wheels, but not tires. Over at Brabus, $9000 will buy you all manner of leather-covered things and some shiny, light-up interior bits, but not quite enough shiny, light-up bits to park your Benz with the cool kids from Quadrophenia. $9000 will also buy you the front half of a Mansory bodykit, assuming you want your Benz to look like a Cylon destroyer.

Here at Speedriven, though, things are different. We don't sell flash wheels, LED dress-up baubles, or questionable body kits. Here at Speedriven, we sell speed.

Keep that in mind when you look at the 2009 S600 up there. Sure, it may not look much different from the other Mercedes down at the Whole Paycheck, but one look under the hood of this Speedriven-prepared S600 is all it takes to see that this big Benz is different.

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SHINY

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The Speedriven package fitted to the W221-chassis Mercedes S600 shown here features a polished set of Speedriven's top-mounted water-to-air intercoolers, “scorpion” air intakes, K&N cone filters, and Speedriven's ECU software to manage the extra air density and extra boost. The car also features Speedriven's transmission controller upgrades, allowing the car to handle the extra torque and giving the S600 a more “true” manual mode to hold gears more aggressively while delivering quicker, firmer shifts in “sport” mode (comfort mode retains the S600's usual silkiness).

With all the parts installed, this Speedriven-tuned S600 produces 695 hp and 840 lb-ft of daily-driver torque, which is huge, for a 600.

He(ck), 700 hp and 800 + lb-ft of torque is huge, period. You're not even getting that with the Black Series cars from - and you have to add another zero to the back of Speedriven's $9000 PKG price tag to make up for the difference from a more pedestrian standard AMG.

The cost for all the hardware necessary to replicate this 700 hp S Class is $8800, plus installation. Contact Speedriven for more information. More pics, including dyno figures, at this link.

speedriven | about that block tuner

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EVEN BIGGER IN PERSON

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A few weeks ago, this gorgeous 2010 S63 AMG showed up at Speedriven's Palatine, IL garage ... presenting a perfect opportunity to illustrate how the Block Tuner works on the newer Mercedes / AMG models.

In short, Speedriven's Block Tuner allows the end-user to "flash" their car's ECU through the OBDII port, effectively switching between a "stock" file and a "tuned" file in a matter of minutes - which is ideal for customers with warranty concerns or who choose to go to their local dealer for regular maintenance.

The S63 shown here makes use of the Bosch ME9.7 ECU (in fact, all of the current naturally-aspirated 63 series AMG cars do, as well), which needs to be "unlocked" here at Speedriven before it can be tuned over the OBDII. On the S63, the ECU is located under the hood, at the base of the windshield, on the driver's side (shown, below).

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SIMPLE ENOUGH

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The ECU is usually sent back the day we receive it here at Speedriven, so if you drop the ECU into a FedEx box on Monday afternoon, you'll be back on the road by 10AM Wednesday. Now that the ECU is no longer "write-protected" you'll be able to write to it using the Block Tuner.

NOTE: using the Block Tuner to read the ECU won't be a necessary step on a 63, because we can load a Speedriven file on the ECU while it's here being unlocked, and ship the Block Tuner pre-loaded with the factory file and the Speedriven file, already. Unlocking the ECU is not detectable by the dealer.

The process for loading a file from your computer to the Block Tuner is the same as a USB thumb drive or external hard drive. Just drag and drop the file into the Block Tuner folder (shown here, on a Mac).

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STILL SIMPLE ENOUGH

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You can load 2 files on the Block Tuner, and select between them using the physical switch on the Block (up/down = stock/tuned, or pump gas/race gas, or tuner 1/tuner 2 for a comparison, for example).

Once that's done, you can remove the Block Tuner from the computer. Select the file you'd like to load onto the car by putting the switch in either the up or down position, then plug the Block into the OBDII port, under the dash (below) ...

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IT FITS PERFECTLY

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... turning the key to the "on" position will initiate a programming cycle. The instruments will react and the engine fans will start running throughout the cycle. Once programming is complete, the Block Tuner's LED will glow green. Turn off the car, remove the Block Tuner, and you're ready to go with a new file loaded on the car.

If you ever want to put your ECU back to stock, make sure there is a stock setting on the Block Tuner, select the stock file by setting the switch to the appropriate up or down position, and load the file to the ECU (following the included manual, of course).

renntech for gt speed

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RENNTECH has made some changes to its Bentley product offerings with the addition of an ECU software for the Bentley Continental and Flying Spur GT Speed models. The new ECU upgrade boosts horsepower from the stock Speed GT's 600hp to 640hp and 575 lb-ft of torque.

RENNTECH's Bentley Speed ECU flash retails for $5800US.

CLICK HERE for more information.