There's a new article in the Left Angeles Times about a Mercedes tuner company in Germany called Brabus coming out with a new line of performance parts and services for Chryslers under the Startech name. According to the article, the full Startech treatment runs $50,000 (that's US dollars, for the board's UK and Euro readers :wink, which gets you a stroked engine at 3.8 liters, sport suspension, upgraded wheels and tires, bigger brakes, spoilers, body cladding, and black and blue leather upholstery. Individual upgrades will be available separately. They're supposed to unveil the results at the LA Auto Show on December 29, so those of us in or near SoCal can check it out. I plan on hitting the show after it opens to the public on January 2, and I'll try to find a digital camera to take with me.

Here's the link to the full article for anyone who wants to suffer through the Times' registration system to read it:

Crossfire gains some oomph, options with a little help from Mercedes' tuner friends

Cheers,

Greg

 

At a total of $85K (cost of car plus mods), you're suddenly into a terriroty where there are a LOT of other options for exclusive, unique, and VERY high performance cars (Viper GTS, Lotus twin-turbo Esprit, Acura NSX, etc)...that still have their warranty!

OR are you talking $50K total...$35K for the car and $15K for the mods? Still, at $50K, I'd still at least consider other options.

The Crossfire's a great car, but not THAT great!

If Chrysler continues the Crossfire, my guess is that we first year buyer's will have the first year BMW Z3 syndrome: when the first cars all had 4 cylinders.

Chrysler will likely put the supercharger in, but they'll need to keep the price well below $40K to sell it, 'cause it'll only then be coming up to the 350Z/Honda S2000/RX8 performance par, and if it's $10K plus more than those cars, they still won't move too many.

IMHO

 

Startech has been around for a few years. They were at the LA Auto Show 2 years ago and I remenber they had some very heavy cast wheels for a Viper that they were selling for over $10,000!!

 

The article seemed pretty clear that the $50K was for the mods, above and beyond the purchase price of the standard Crossfire. I agree with kusheen that the cost seems a bit excessive for what you get. I don't personally think any car is worth pouring in almost 150% of the original sticker for performance improvements, no matter how dramatic. In fact, I wouldn't think many people beyond the teen/early-20's "Fast and Furious" type crowd would be into that. But the article indicates that Brabus has been around for quite some time, so apparently there's enough market for such products among Mercedes owners to keep them in business. Maybe there are just more rap stars and rich kids with stupid parents than I realize.

Dyno-Comp's info is also interesting. I can't see paying that kind of money to increase unsprung weight, regardless of how cool the wheels look. It's starting to sound to me like Startech is one of those companies that's going to be easy to ignore.

Perhaps I'm just hopelessly over the automotive hill at the ripe old age of 36. I wouldn't mind if the Crossfire had a bit more power, especially after driving a friend's newly-chipped '03 TT. I'd even be willing to pay a bit extra for it. But I'm talking low four figures, not low-to-mid five figures to do so much work that the engine becomes unrecognizable. I've got plenty of better things to do with that kind of money, and besides, I think the Crossfire is pretty damn fun just the way it is.

Well, except for the stereo. I think I'm going to replace that beast as soon as I can find a good head unit that doesn't look like a sore thumb in the silver dash, or at least can easily be painted not to look like a sore thumb. Or maybe find a replacement for all that cheap-looking silver-painted plastic. Perhaps an anodized or brushed aluminum...

Okay, I think I've gone off topic enough for one post.

Cheers,

Greg

 

Lorinser and Startech did treatments for the 300M a while back, but the cost of their upgrades bordered on the ludicrous. I tried to negotiate with the Lorinser distributor for a reasonable price on a roof wing for the 300M but they would not come off $400, unpainted. Just the other side of the moon on pricing.

 

We will need to get access to the ECU to make any serious modifications to the car. I am sure someone has put together a ROM chip and PC link with software that will allow for modifications on the fly, just need to find it.

There should be more power left in this engine with appropriate tuning.

-- 75 hp per liter is not too hard to attain assuming the heads will flow ok (haven't seen numbers on this yet since I am brand new to this engine)
-- 100 hp per liter is equally attainable with supercharging and a safe tune on pump gas with any heads that will flow reasonably well.

I am checking with everyone I know from the Ford world on ECU mods, but would appreciate any guidence from everyone that has been working iwth the MB engines for a while. While I am willing to work with one of the experienced shops (Renntech, Kleeman, etc.) I would rather not send my chip back 100 times with suggested modifications.