Well, it's new to me, anyway. It's a 2005 with 27,500 miles, in absolutely perfect, apparently garaged, condition. Did I do OK for $29,9?

I totally love it, although I really was looking for something...well, sportier, and "snarlier," I couldn't pass it up after I drove one. There wasn't much else out there I was very interested in, and it's obviously a really awesome car.

Anyway, I hate something really bad about this car: ESP. And it's not like you can just turn it off. It turns itself back on...

Is there a way to either make the default position off, or simply disable it altogether, without adversely affecting the other functions of the computer?

Also, I would like to tease the last few HP out of the beast that are available. Any advice about which performance chip to get, maybe other "easy" mods that will put it nearer 400HP?

I have to be careful that anything I do is either not visible, or easily reversed - as the factory warranty was out, and to get a really good extended/aftermarket warranty out to 5 yrs and 100k miles, I had to spend $5k, and it very specifically excludes much significant coverage in case of mechanical failure if there are performance mods.

Thanks in advance for all of your help.

Clay

 

I've also just bought my first AMG, a 2005 C55 with less than 15,000 miles in perfect condition, and enjoy the clean feel of this car: nothing awesome on the outside but a total feeling of competence when I drive it.
Regarding ESP: I've been teaching track driving for about five years and I've learned there is one thing that the real professional instructors (such as the ones who were teaching AMG Challenge last year) will say in public and private: the ONLY time ANYONE should turn off their ESP is when they are stuck in a snowbank and need to override it to get the car to move.
Two astute comments at AMG Challenge (Thunderhill in California) last year: In the morning, one of the instructors said, "Think of ESP as the quiet instructor sitting next to you who only criticizes you when you do something wrong. If you put the car in a situation where you can feel the ESP -- such as changing speeds abruptly in a corner -- then you've screwed up."
The second comment was at lunch, when discussing why one of the students had flipped an E63 late in the morning. "He turned off the ESP and when he tried to turn the car too abruptly, it wouldn't respond. He dropped two wheels off in an area where the dirt had worn away due to some recent rain. Trying to correct again to get it back on track, he flipped it."

So, the advice I follow is to never turn it off, and when it does cut in, I try to figure out what I did wrong.
Gary Anderson