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A great time was had by all....(at Mallala.)

Started by Bandolero, 14 September 2008, 03:26 AM

Bandolero

Some of us Merc Club members went to Mallala on Saturday because the Marque Club who organises the sprint racing conducted a "Come and try" day.

There was a Finnie, a 450SLC and two 6.9s. (Mine and Andreas'.)

(There was a VH Commodore owned by one of our members as well, but we won't talk about that car...LOL.)

Boy, did we have fun!!!!!!

After the first run I came into the pits with smoke coming off the front brakes....yes we were pushing it!!

My brakes were still ok and at the end of the second run Andreas came into the pits with smoke POURING off his front brakes and total brake failure!!!!
After an hour or two they cooled down and he had brakes again.
He made it home safely, but is going to upgrade his brakes very soon.....LOL

It was fantastic fun, can't wait to "do-up" a sprint car, I'd like to use an import 450SE.
(No self-levelling, so can alter springs etc.)

I don't think I'll use my 6.9 again as I'm "terrified" I'll break something.
Tell you what though, after all the high-rev thrashing, the motor feels a bit more responsive. Those "Italian tune-ups" work well!!

We also enjoyed watching Craig sprinting his 280S doing times of about 1.42/lap.

Russell Bond - (Adelaide, South Australia)
1978 450SEL 6.9 .... #5166 .... 12/78 (Sold.) [url="//www.ezycoat.com.au"]www.ezycoat.com.au[/url]

craigb

1.40.7 if you please!

I think I mentioned last time that my pedal went off and some bleeding was done but didn't improve it. So this time I power bled and had a nice hard pedal, even redid it the night before to make sure. 3 practice laps and I'm pushing deeper and deeper into corners and quite impressed with my pads and then woosh, back where I started.  I rebled but it still didn't come back properly, but notably no air came out, just funny looking fluid. After so much effort in preparation to have a good day, very dissapointed and inwardly very grumpy! I went out feeling I had to be careful and prepare myself to take action if they went altogether and having to back off and waste laps if I was getting too close to other cars and needed to back off to make a break. So as my lap times will reflect, I pussied about for the first 2 runs and then thought F**** it in the 3rd, only to find out that despite my pedal going basically to the floor on each corner, it pulled up fine and with no fade, hence my 140.7.  A cars engine blew and put oil everywhere so we only ended up having another couple of runs but of 5 laps and that was a lot of fun tussling with an Alfa and mini etc.

Anyway, its taken me all day to write this much, more later to examine my brake findings and potential cures and questions.
1980 280s

oscar

Great stuff guys.  I'd love to drive or be shotgun in a 6.9 on a hotlap but I don't think I'd be game to push a good one regularly.  But then, why bother in a bad one.

Would've sounded and looked great.  Despite the brakes, glad to hear it was an enjoyable day. 

A bit of a worry about your brakes too Craig.  Doesn't make sense unless the hoses are bulging.
1973 350SE, my first & fave

craigb

With the price of hoses it is tempting to just replace them, particularly as I will put 'Motul 600' fluid in it at $30/ 500ml. Even a new master is only $70. The hoses are only a couple of years old though. Also the characteristic is that once hot the brakes went spongy, but then they don't come back again when cool, unless you rebleed it. Also no air is apparent when bleeding. If the heat was allowing the hoses to bulge, then I would expect them to come good again when cold.

Also, despite this spongy pedal, a quick jab on the brakes easily will lock the wheels. Also I didn't say in the last post, that despite the crap pedal, I was using exactly the same braking markers and pulling up just the same.

Also another tip Oscar that might help if you do any brake work. Being a manual, my clutch shares the same reservoir, with a pipe on the side of it. When power bleeding, it leaks slightly where the hose from the clutch master goes on (not surprisingly) Also the triangular reservoir shits me with these totally enclosed areas. By comparison with my W108, when I want to change brake fluid i put a hose on the end of a large syringe and suck off all the fluid in the reservoir, also does a sort of vacuum job on the bottom of the reservoir too. Then I refill and just need to bleed through the fluid in the lines. The only option with this one is to drain it, and therefore introduce air into the system and then bleed it back out again. Not a big deal though.

Anyway, I propose to see if a 108 reservoir will fit (looks like it will) and also to fit a seperated clutch reservoir off a 108. I happen to have a spare of one of these, didn't see any new ones on Autohaus. Not a lot of manual wrecks around either, but maybe something off another car would fit? I think there were more manual cars in europe, so maybe other places have the reservoirs.

And having written all this, it makes sense not to hide it away in this post on Mallala - will cut and paste into a brake post.
1980 280s

TJ 450

That looks like it was immense fun! It would have been awesome tearing around that circuit in a 6.9, the 280S alike!

Tim
1976 450SEL 6.9 1432
1969 300SEL 6.3 1394
2003 ML500

WGB

Didn't Fangio drive right around other cars in a 6.9 on M-B track day Demos in the 70's.

Bill


TJ 450

1976 450SEL 6.9 1432
1969 300SEL 6.3 1394
2003 ML500