A buddy and I had a chance to take the SLK 350 out for a good run from Tucson to Palm Springs a few days ago. The car has hardly been driven hard in its life, and I have been noticing a clattering/rattling noise on acceleration around town. My hope was that some new spark plugs, a bottle of Techron, and a fast 800-mile roadtrip would clear up any deposits in the engine.
We took I-8 across southern Arizona to the Imperial Valley in California, which is a lightly traveled and wide-open road most of the time. Somewhere along the way, with no traffic in sight, the pedal, uh, stuck to the floor and we watched in amazement as the SLK quickly and smoothly accelerated through 100 ... 110 ... 120 ... 130 ... 140 ... all the while displaying absolutely perfect manners without the slightest shaking or handling quirks. It felt as safe and comfortable at 140 MPH as it did at 75. (The car wanted to go faster but we had to unglue the pedal from the floor at that point, since we were coming up on traffic ahead very quickly.)
The SLK is really a fine highway cruiser. With the sun setting and outside temps running about 73 degrees F, we were comfortable and able to carry on a conversation with the top down even at speeds up to 100 MPH. Six hours of drive time later, neither of us felt fatigued or sore, and we were both kind of sorry that we had to get out of the car.
On the way back, via I-10 between Quartzsite and Phoenix, I let my leadfooted buddy drive. The end result was very pleasing:
1. We got home in record time.
2. The acceleration noise is gone.
I already want to go on another roadtrip.
We took I-8 across southern Arizona to the Imperial Valley in California, which is a lightly traveled and wide-open road most of the time. Somewhere along the way, with no traffic in sight, the pedal, uh, stuck to the floor and we watched in amazement as the SLK quickly and smoothly accelerated through 100 ... 110 ... 120 ... 130 ... 140 ... all the while displaying absolutely perfect manners without the slightest shaking or handling quirks. It felt as safe and comfortable at 140 MPH as it did at 75. (The car wanted to go faster but we had to unglue the pedal from the floor at that point, since we were coming up on traffic ahead very quickly.)
The SLK is really a fine highway cruiser. With the sun setting and outside temps running about 73 degrees F, we were comfortable and able to carry on a conversation with the top down even at speeds up to 100 MPH. Six hours of drive time later, neither of us felt fatigued or sore, and we were both kind of sorry that we had to get out of the car.
On the way back, via I-10 between Quartzsite and Phoenix, I let my leadfooted buddy drive. The end result was very pleasing:
1. We got home in record time.
2. The acceleration noise is gone.
I already want to go on another roadtrip.