W213 E63 Front Grills

[daveenty]

I know that a few on here now have possession of these cars and I was wondering if anyone was concerned about the lack of protection on the front end of them?

The inter-coolers and the oil cooling radiators seem particularly vulnerable, so a couple of us owners decided to have a look round to see if there was anything after-market available. Unfortunately we hit a brick wall as no-one was doing anything, though there was a post on one of the US forums by a Brit who was in talks with Zunsport in Cannock. Apparently he'd arranged to take his car in for a test fit but that was as far as it went.

I decided to pick up on this so, after talking with the owner of said company, I made an appointment with my own car for a test fit a few weeks ago. They had the car for around 6 hours, measuring and making templates etc and, last week, I got a phone call telling me they were ready for a trial fit. I popped down this morning and they fitted them while I waited.

I'm very impresses so far, the fit is brilliant and the quality seems superb. They will be making them available soon as apparently there are lots of enquiries mainly from the States at the moment, though also a few UK ones.

I've not heard of any radiators being damaged over here yet on the E Class, though the AMG GT has already claimed a few victims. The US market has had a few damages though according to the forums, and costs running into a couple of thousand dollars have been reported.

Just to mention that I have no affiliation with Zunsport, in fact I'd never heard of them up until recently, though I'm a very happy customer.

A quick picture of grills. (I think the black goes well with the night package. )

[playalistic]

Were any checks done to ascertain any reductions in airflow over those rads? You'd be quite surprised how something so seemingly trivial can have quite a profound effect. I know this from the mesh used around the Noble intercooler.

[daveenty]

playalistic said:

Were any checks done to ascertain any reductions in airflow over those rads? You'd be quite surprised how something so seemingly trivial can have quite a profound effect. I know this from the mesh used around the Noble intercooler.

This was a concern to me but the company reckon they've had no problems with any of the stuff (mainly Porsche) which they do regularly.

I've not used the car for any flat out stuff yet as it's currently running a stock map so too early to tell. I was monitoring engine and transmission temps on the way home yesterday though and they didn't seem to vary above the usual. This was a mixture of motorway, fast bendy roads and the inevitable traffic jams, so I'd say that they should be fine for normal road use.

I will be keeping a close eye on them though, especially when it gets a couple of runway runs, just to make sure.

[The Terminator]

They turned out well m8 , look like factory items.
Thanks for the coffee on sunday :-)
Paul.

[daveenty]

The Terminator said:

They turned out well m8 , look like factory items.

I think so as well, really set the car off and will hopefully offer some protection.

The Terminator said:

Thanks for the coffee on sunday :-)
Paul.

You're more than welcome.