Nestled in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, SOWO brings in people from all over the U.S. to check out the latest trends on the Euro scene.  Air Lift Performance is excited to be on hand with our largest show booth ever!  This year we will be displaying our newest offerings for Audi, BMW, and VW.  Be sure to stop by our booth this weekend and say hi and see the latest from Air Lift Performance.

Recently our friends over at Stanceworks finally stared the pink elephant in the room right in the eyes and put out the subject of static vs air  on their public forum for discussion.  I know what you are thinking, ” I am reading about this from the Air Lift Performance website, so this discussion is going to be one sided.”  This is completely not the case, the guys at Stanceworks did an amazing job of pointing out pros and cons of each suspension, leaving it up to you to decide which is best for your ride.

So take a stand when it comes to your suspension, click on the link and voice your opinion Static versus Bagged

There is no shortage of high end vehicles at this show, everything from Lamborgini’s, GTR’s and Vipers make the trek to Texas for this amazing event.  If you are in the area this weekend, stop by and check out the Air Lift Performance Mustang and say hi!

To answer that, let’s step back 10 years or so to gain a little perspective:  Air suspension used to be commonly found in the world of mini-trucks and low riders.  The whole idea being to get their vehicles to scrape the ground, sparks flying down the road, ride quality and handling be damned!  And to quote Seinfeld: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”.   Bags were just not what anyone would want to use to go fast on a racetrack.

Fast forward to the present.  Things have changed in the world of air.  Big Time.  The problem is, a lot of people associate air suspension with those days and can’t possibly imagine running around a racetrack with a rubber bladder containing air supporting their car!  SO it is with the skepticism in mind that we get back to the story of the UTCC and the thought that “you can’t do that”.

The UTCC is as hardcore a performance event as you get: a run whatcha brung, no holds barred, fastest lap competition at one of the countries fastest road race tracks: Virginia International Raceway.  The event attracts both amateur and professional drivers and wicked fast track cars from around the country.  Not your typical playground for air suspension…until now.

You see, Air Lift Performance has been busy perfecting the art of air suspension.  Proper spring rates, excellent damping and maximized wheel travel are now standard equipment on our kits.  Just what you need to go fast on a racetrack or enjoy a long trip.  So why not take a long trip AND run for lap time on a racetrack to prove the versatility of the ALP suspension? Why not indeed.

July 23^rd started with a 5am alarm.  Time to get the car and support truck packed, fueled and on the road.  Plus an extra large coffee to help set sail on a 650 mile journey to the beautiful mountains of Virginia.  The trip down was spent enjoying the scenery and the comfortable ride in the Subaru.  With the damping of the struts set to our street values, it is downright pleasant to spend 11 hours behind the wheel soaking up bumps and carving mountain passes.

We arrived at VIR in time for technical inspection. This is where the car is looked over for any safety issues or mechanical problems.  With that quickly out of the way, we were handed a large pack of stickers required for the competition.  The next 2 hours were spent sticker bombing the car and getting set up for the next day.  This was also a chance to mingle with the other competitors and answer their questions about our air suspension.  Then off to the hotel for a quick nights rest.

The alarm clock jolted us awake.  Time to get with the program!  A quick check of the weather indicated a strong chance of rain.  Not what we needed while learning a new track.  Nevertheless, we were off to the driver’s briefing.  After a few announcements, we were ready to hit the track for Session 1.

Back at our pit, we set out tire pressures and stiffened our dampers to the track settings.  Session 1 was not going to be for competition times, but rather to set your run group.  With 50 cars on track at once, it was going to get busy! To add to the drama we were unable to locate our track tires so we were running on the street Toyos…and I needed to learn the track.

 20 minutes on track flew by quickly. Every lap was faster than the previous as we got up to speed.  With 18 turns there was a lot to learn!  The Subaru was making beautiful turbo noises out there and the suspension was working great.  Where were those race tires??

Session 2 would be the first timed outing for the UTCC.  Knowing this we franticly called around to find our tires.  After making the right call, we discovered that they were at the track office all along under somebody else’s name.  Rats!  No time to get them mounted before we went out, so putting that behind, we set out to lay down a lap or two.  When the times were posted, we were 30^th fast out of 50. Not a bad start given our tire/newbie situation.

With BFG R1’s found and mounted, Session 3 looked to be the best session for a fast time.  As the track temperature rises with the sun of the day, the track loses grip and your chance of going faster is greatly reduced. Weather was also starting to play a major role in track conditions as the mercury was starting to climb on the thermometer.  The temp was now near 95f and 90% humidity, with rain showers quickly closing in.  Time to put up or shut up!

 The first two laps were spent getting the mold release off of the sticker tires and get them up to temperature.  Lap number 3 was the money shot: 2:10.904. Good thing, as the track was quickly losing time and our Subaru was running warm.  We took it easy and tried again, but no extra speed was found.  With one session remaining, we still had a chance to move up the leader board.

Unfortunately for Team Air Lift, Session 4 only brought disappointment. The heat was winning, killing overall grip and forcing water temps to climb quickly after the start.  So we had to settle for our time and walk away with 26^th place overall.

While not as high a finish as we would have liked, we were thrilled with the car’s balance all day and further review of our data showed our minimum corner speeds on par with those of the 3^rd place Nissan GTR of TopSpeed! Nothing to sneeze at and certainly the fastest lap ever run at VIR with air suspension.

And after all of this track fun, here is the kicker: we packed up and drove the car home, A/C and stereo blasting, with the suspension providing a wonderful ride along the way!  Not sure that would be a good idea with any of the cars that finished in front of us…

Thanks again Grassroots Motorsports Magazine for a fantastic and fun event.  We plan on returning in 2013 to move the bar higher and continue to prove that racetracks and air suspension can be used in the same sentence.

Photo courtesy of Stanceworks

A common problem in winter is that the condensation you have in your system can actually freeze, which will cause a block in your lines or valves.  When this happens your system basically becomes useless and you could become stranded.  However there are a few things you can do to prevent this from happening.

Of course the most obvious fix is to park inside as much as possible to keep your car out of the cold temperatures.  If that is not a possibility, you can use a simple trick that semi-truck drivers use to keep their air systems from freezing, air brake anti-freeze.

Air brake antifreeze is an anhydrous based anti-freeze and conditioner that removes moisture from air your air system.  When you remove the moisture from the system, you have much less chance of anything freezing up and leaving you stranded.

One of the best things about using air brake antifreeze is how easy it is to add to your control system.  Start of by draining all the air from your tank then simply remove one of the fittings and pour in a couple cap fulls of the air brake anti-freeze.  Put your fitting back in the tank and fire up your compressor to pressurize the tank and you are ready for winter driving!

Another option is using a water trap in your set up.  The water trap has a filter that will help remove moisture from the air and will help cut down on the chance of a freeze up.  You just want to make sure your trap does not freeze because of the all the moisture it is collecting, so it is a good idea to add some air brake antifreeze to the water trap as well.

Of course what happens if your system freezes up before you can install the air brake anti-freeze?  You can simply use a hair dryer or a heat gun to help thaw out your valves.

ALP suspension can also be found in the Ford corportate booth on a 2013 Ford Fusion built by the Michigan based crew over at MRT Direct

California based Trufiber is also sporting ALP suspension on their 2013 Mustang GT which can be seen at booth #20153

John Farr and Gauge Magazine went all out with a wild custom pick-up equipped with Air Lift Performance Dominator bags and V2 air management named Project 6 Shooter that will be displayed on the Meguiars Car Crazy Main Stage

Sadistic Iron Works put together quite possibly the world’s lowest 2012 Cadillac CTS on ALP Universal struts

These are just a few examples of some of the vehicles that will be laying on the Earth in Las Vegas during the week of SEMA.  Be sure to stop by booth and see what Air Lift Performance has for your ride.

After years of producing air bags for load support and towing purposes, in 1999 Air Lift expanded it’s focus to custom vehicles.  The Easy Street division of Air Lift was created and thrived on the huge mini-trucker trend that was sweeping across the U.S.  A little over ten years later Easy Street was given a name change and a complete revamp.  Air Lift Performance was born with a focus on not only going low, but also much improved ride quality and race car like handling.

We are very excited to partner with our friends at AWOL.TV to produce some behind the scenes video giving you a look at the inner workings of Air Lift Company and Air Lift Performance.

A look inside Air Lift from Air Lift Performance on Vimeo.

So what are you waiting for???  Crank up the speakers, hit play and get ready to change your perception of air with Air Lift Performance air suspension!

On a balmy Michigan morning we headed southwest from ALP headquarters to Gingerman Raceway in South Haven complete with the crew from AWOL.TV to capture the madness.  Gingerman is a fast 11 turn, 2.14 mile long road course, which can make filming a little difficult.  Our solution was to strap the AWOL guys and their video gear into a helicopter to get the best possible angles and some breath taking views of all the action.

With 14 vehicles in attendance, we were not lacking for a wide variety of bagged car goodness.  When you have everything from a luxurious Lexus LS430 to a heavily modded Camaro, things can get pretty crazy on the track.  With the fearless guys from AWOL hanging out the side of the chopper, we put these bagged rides through their paces to come up with some killer video footage.

All of us at Air Lift Performance would like to thank everyone involved with making this video shoot possible! Gingerman Raceway, Baer Brakes, Vortech Superchargers, Rotiform Wheels, MRT Direct, AWOL.TV, Easy Rotor Helicopter Tours, everyone that brought out their rides to the track, and most importantly all of our Air Lift Performance customers.

The day started off with taking a ride in our black pony with our resident hot shoe and ALP Engineering Ringleader Brian Vinson. Half way through lap one I was starting to rethink the decision I made to have a sausage McMuffin earlier that day. As I clung on for dear life to anything within my grasp, it made me realize that this car carves corners like Grandpa carves turkey on Thanksgiving.  Again not the best time to think of a food reference…. Brian was putting the car so hard into corners that most mortal men on traditional lowering springs or even coil-overs would cringe in fear.

After a little recovery time and a few bottles of water it was my turn at the wheel. I could not believe how fast I could enter a turn and feel confident of what the car was going to do! The car was completely predictable in each corner and produced excellent feedback throughout the track. Every lap I gained a little more confidence in my driving and was able to stuff the car into the corners without issue.

Now I know what you are thinking, but contrary to your thoughts this car is not set up with all sorts of fancy chassis stiffening equipment. It simply has an Air Lift Performance air suspension and a rear Helwig sway bar, that’s it. Sure the Baer brakes, Vortech supercharger and MRT Direct exhaust help us to hustle around the track, but when it comes to corners it is all air baby!

As with most track days we were not the only ones tearing up the asphalt, which gave us the opportunity to give some rides to people who may have been a little skeptical about air suspension being able to perform.  After watching us for several laps on the track, the drivers for Capaldi Racing meandered our way to see what we were all about.  The usual jokes about air suspension being mushy and underperforming quickly ensued until they hit the track in our car. Take a look at what professional Grand-Am road course driver Craig Capaldi and fellow Capaldi club racers Charley Matus and Chris Capaldi had to say about their overall driving experiences in the Air Lift Performance Mustang.

“After getting the opportunity to drive the Air Lift equipped Mustang my overall perception of “air suspension” was greatly altered. The common persauna which most foresee, myself included, is that the overall performance and ride will suffer in comparison to an OEM, or conventional style aftermarket package. I fully expected to jump into the car and experience a lazy, bouncy, soft feel. To my surprise I was overly impressed with the Air Lift performance and feel. Coming from a road racing background where big spring rates and alot of damping often gives me the feel and performance I seek to be competitive, I also appreciate a performance feel on the street. The car took driver inputs very well and never gave me any sluggish feedback through steering inputs. The rate of weight being transferred side to side and front to rear felt very well balanced and predictable, and the ride quality gives you the sporty feel for the street while still being more than capable to take it on track.” -Craig Capaldi

“When the guys from Air Lift Performance asked me to take a couple laps in their 2005 Mustang GT equipped with their performance air suspension, I was expecting the car to be extremely soft and lifeless – almost like driving an ’88 Town Car.   I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I quickly forgot I was driving a car with an air suspension; it was extremely responsive, flat, and very balanced. 

 I’ve been around performance Mustangs for a very long time and have driven many different kinds of suspension setups, and the Air Lift Performance Mustang is without a doubt one of the top three most fun street Mustangs I’ve driven.  The kit became even more appealing to me when Brian and Jeremy told me about how versatile the suspension is and pointed out how all the adjustments are done from inside the car.  You don’t have to spend the time turning wrenches like you do with conventional adjustable suspensions.  It was a blast!” - Charley Matus 

Capaldi Racing’s S197 Mustang chasing down the ALP Mustang

“Like my teammates, Craig and Charley, I was very skeptical about using air suspension in a performance application; and like the two of them I was blown away as soon as we got on track.  It was nothing like I expected.  I originally expected the car to feel extremely soft and vague, but it wasn’t.  It was extremely balanced and a lot of fun  to drive – as much fun as my race car!  It was very easy to drive and to get comfortable with.  It was very predictable and had no unexpected feelings and it only took a couple of laps until I felt like I’ve  been driving the car for years.  The package is very balanced and allows the car to have excellent turn-in, great power down, and is extremely stable under threshold braking.  The adjustability is fantastic.  You can start the day with a smooth street setup, stiffen it up for some track driving and at the end of the day you can hit your local cruise spot and lay the car on the ground to show people what a lowered car really looks like – all with the push of a button. I wish I could race on this suspension.” -Chris Capaldi

So there you have it another proven track day under our belt and an excellent testimonial from a couple of real race drivers about how well you can handle on air. What are you waiting for? Order your Air Lift Performance suspension kit today!!