CGW Performance *M5 '08*Lotus Carlton*SLS AMG*

  • Thread starter Mr-X
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Background info...

CGW Performance formerly known as "RPM Tuning" was founded in the early 80's by a team of tuners hell bent on making extreme cars for extreme drivers. Their success was lackluster as much or the motoring media regarded their cars as just pandering to the uncoming "Boy Racer" scene that was quickly growing in popularity throughout the UK during that time. The editor of Performance Car said: "their cars were fast, stupidly fast, but focussed on style over substance" Jeremy Clarkson of the BBC Top Gear Show added "It's a real shame the [direction that] RPM tuning went, they made some spectacular cars in the early 80's, but pandered to ever growing, racer boys or what ever". RPM gained a cult following that gained notoriety with the car modding world, but slipped further and further away from their tuning and performance roots. In the early 90's the owners of RPM sold their garage and brand, and launched MAX Power Magazine.
Since then RPM has changed hands several times, but never making a real impact on the motoring industry.

Fast forward to 2011 and RPM has been rebranded and re-launched as CGW Performance. New owners Mr X and The Annoying One have stated that this will be the last ond only time that the company changes hands and that their new M5 '08 is a statement to the motor sport industry that shouts so loud you can hear it over a jet engine! CGW are so confident of their success because of their history with fast cars.

Mr X is a classic tuner through and through and was part of the team that responsible for the infamous Volvo 850 T5R Touring car. For those of you that dont remember the 850 T5R was an estate touring car than many said would never be competetive...how wrong they were. The Annoying One began life as an apprentice at 16 with a barely known British sports car manufacture called Lotus. He cut his teeth the Lotus Cortina, Carlton and Lotus Esprit and went on to lead the team that designed and built the Lotus Elise, a car that not only saved Lotus from bankruptcy, but the Elise is widly regarded as one of the best handling cars ever made.

Mr X said "We are really exited about bulding some new cars, and the M5 really is a personal favourite of mine. It may not get the fastest laptimes round the 'ring, but you wont have more fun on four wheels than when in one of our cars". The Annoying one added "We wanted to pay respects to the early days of RPM Tuning, before they went away from performance, infact you won't see hardly any body modifications on our cars.... the odd carbon bonnet here, the odd wing there if necessary. There are even some cars on which we don't even change the wheels. what you get from us is minimum weight and maximum fun!"

There was some rather heated debate in the CGW office over the direction we would take the M5. Some wanted to build on the tech that the M5 is so renowned for, the other argument was to strip it back, tune it up and unleash the beast. So this is what we have done....

So enough of this nonsense here's the tune for our M5 '08.

Everything is maxed out with regards to buying upgrades.

Ride hight -30/-30
spring rate 13.2/11.8
Dampers ext 5/5
dampers com 5/5
Anti roll 6/6

Camber 4.2/2.1
Toe -0.29/-0.20

Colour White perl (3p)

This car is NOT for the feint hearted...loose concentration, and she will kill you in an instant, but if you know what your doing throw on some racing slicks and she is good for laps of the 'ring @ 6.30 ish.

Enjoy this beast and let us know what you think!!

027792c6.jpg


Mercedes SLS Tune

Back by popular demand the CGW Performance is back with another blistering tune!! The team and I have been tucked away in our workshop tuning this car for weeks now and what we have is a magnificent car tuned within an inch of it's life!

Our tuning shed might only be in Leeds UK but we have tested this car at Suzuka and the Nurburg Ring. Also to assist us in our tuning of the SLS we are delighted to announce a very special guest pilot/tuner... Some say he never blinks, and that he roams around the woods at night foraging for wolves... *that right you guest it, the Stig came along for the ride!!!

Even with the wealth of experience that the CGW Performance team provides we still learn something new every day. Mercedes have built an unbelievably good car so the foundation was strong but when you start cranking up the BHP to over 700 you know the corners are going to become really exiting! one thing that did surprise us is that there are no after market break upgrades available for this car yet but luckily the standard anchors cope with the extra horses perfectly well. The most challenging part of the tune was balancing the relationship between, camber toe, anti roll bars etc, for this tune the Stig suggested that "000110 11000 10101 0001" and when on to explain "11110 11 00101 10 1" *which we hastily tested and the results speak for themselves * * *



Ride height -14/-10
spring rate 14.2/14.1
Dampers ext 5/5
dampers com 5/5
Anti roll 5/5

Camber 2.4/1.5
Toe -0.13/0.03

Enjoy this beauty and let us know how you get on!

Thanks *
Mr-X
 
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Let myself introduce myself. I am, as previously mentioned, The Annoying One. A title I have worked hard to earn, and not about to give up. Mr X and I are pleased to offer our tune up service to all you forum members.

We hope you enjoy the M5 tune up, we like to call it the DP tune (Dynamic Performance).

Let us know if you have any requests, we specialise in cars with four wheels.
 
ha ha ha ha!! usually when i open thread and im greeted by a wall of text such this, i just back out faster than a rat up a drain pipe!

however im glad i stuck with it. just what i was looking for seen as iv completed most of the races but dont have time to get involved with the endurance races so messing with others tunes is quite fun and this CGW "Tune " is ridiculous! you say "its not for the faint hearted" well its completely lethal!!!!! but allot of fun just like the "background info"
 
I was pleased to read you specialise in cars with 4 wheels. :) Any chance of a tune for a fully kitted Lotus Carlton chaps?

aahh bless your soul for wanting a tune for the carlton, i do hope all your dreams come true. this is a car that i have so many fond memories of . as i worked on this originally whilst working for lotus in the 90's you would not believe the trouble we had the getting the power from that engine to the wheels we just kept melting entire drive trains, in the end we had to use a gear box from a corvette ZR1!!.

Back in the day, as a lad working on the carlton i imagine i felt somewhat similar about this car as George Lucas felt about the first starwars films. that is; as amazing as they were, they were limited by the technology available at the time.

not only was the technology primitve in comparison to today we were leaned on pretty heavily by the exec's at lotus to make the carlton apeal to the American automotive industry as they wanted to expand their brand over there (this never actually happened in the end due to the recession at that time) incidentally you will notice that the stock carlton is a little soft around the edges and can wollow round the corners if your really pushing it.

ok apologies for the trip down nostalgia avenue i do get carried away from time to time.

as with all fully modded cars these days they are pretty light and super firm, in fact if you put this carlton into a barrier you will hardly notice even so much as a dent or scratch!!

Lotus Carlton Tune

Ride hight -20/-18
spring rate 8.7/9.2
Dampers ext 4/5
dampers com 4/5
Anti roll 5/6

Camber 3.5/1.6
Toe -0.30/-0.15

p.s. we assumed you wanted a general tune for a"drive it like you stole it" type feel, she's pretty good for drifting too as this seems to be rather popular these days!

do let us know what you think. we hope you like the tune and feedback is always welcome.
 
Thanks for that guys, a tune for a "drive it like you stole it" type feel sounds dynamite! I'll give that a go after work tomorrow:tup: I'll let you know how I get on
 
Love the BMW tune... But what about the LSD and brake controller?

We are delighted you enjoy the tune,the breaks are 5/6 and the LSD 34/38/23


And to our friend requesting RUF tunes, we currently only have a yellow bird at the garage. There were no plans to tune her as we love her just the way she is, completley stock. But I gues we could dust her off and tart her up if you'd like??
 
Hi Guys

Great thread!

How about a real challenge. The taming of a fully modded TVR Cerbera 12. Loads of power that is hard to put on the ground and does not like to turn. Great sounding monster with handsome looks that I really want to enjoy but tests my patience.

I will friend it to you for tuning on if you like.

Thanks Larry
 
aahh bless your soul for wanting a tune for the carlton, i do hope all your dreams come true. this is a car that i have so many fond memories of . as i worked on this originally whilst working for lotus in the 90's you would not believe the trouble we had the getting the power from that engine to the wheels we just kept melting entire drive trains, in the end we had to use a gear box from a corvette ZR1!!.

Back in the day, as a lad working on the carlton i imagine i felt somewhat similar about this car as George Lucas felt about the first starwars films. that is; as amazing as they were, they were limited by the technology available at the time.

not only was the technology primitve in comparison to today we were leaned on pretty heavily by the exec's at lotus to make the carlton apeal to the American automotive industry as they wanted to expand their brand over there (this never actually happened in the end due to the recession at that time) incidentally you will notice that the stock carlton is a little soft around the edges and can wollow round the corners if your really pushing it.

ok apologies for the trip down nostalgia avenue i do get carried away from time to time.

as with all fully modded cars these days they are pretty light and super firm, in fact if you put this carlton into a barrier you will hardly notice even so much as a dent or scratch!!

Lotus Carlton Tune

Ride hight -20/-18
spring rate 8.7/9.2
Dampers ext 4/5
dampers com 4/5
Anti roll 5/6

Camber 3.5/1.6
Toe -0.30/-0.15

p.s. we assumed you wanted a general tune for a"drive it like you stole it" type feel, she's pretty good for drifting too as this seems to be rather popular these days!

do let us know what you think. we hope you like the tune and feedback is always welcome.
Hey there guys, I'm a 18 year old aussie and I love the lotus as it reminds me of the 90's commodores.
In regards to the tune for the lotus, it powerslides like a dream when maxxed on sport hards. Thanks for that.

Also, I've just recreated your M5 and its a beast, one of the best cars I've ever spent that much cash on. Even my '03 M3 GTR doesn't stand a chance.

CHEERS FELLAS.

p.s. i know youse haven't been on in two years but i had to get my 2 cents worth :D
 
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