Air ride on a driftable daily???

H

hug - lo

Active Member
Please forgive my probably rediculous ramblings But...

Has it been known for anyone to drift on anykind of air ride suspension?

Mainly as i went out with my buddy in his golf :o that he has been running some cheap and cheerful coillies on and he decided to get some universal bags which utilise the coilover strut, platform and body yet replace the springs!

Now obviously i know it can be done to any car running coilies and if done a-la-credit crunch can be done for about £500 so would it be viable for a daily that'll be drift once a month, maybe twice???

Any views are welcome.... Yes even the GTFO Fail responses :worthy:
 
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dont see why not. wouldnt be ideal but for a bit of fun once a month itd be ok. people show up to practice days in far less suitable stuff
 
^^^ What's less suitable than air ride??? HaHa

yeah i mean my mates golf handles pretty bloody well to be honest and the install is that simple even i could DIY it!!!

What i really want is to achieve the stance of the baby pink s14 in THAT arch rolling clip but still be able to drive it on our (read shitty UK) roads as my last car had it's arbs literally an cm from the ground and although it provided me with many many blowjob points it was costing me £££'s in terms of exhausts,wishbones and sumps!!!
 
Does it come with a valve which links the two sides together AKA BL stylee?

The buses i work on have that and it stops them leaning to fuck and stops the bags popping off too. When the body leans left, it opens a valve and forces more air into the left side airbags levelling it out.
 
No i don't think they are quite that sophisticated!
You preset (or adjust them yourself) each corner to inflate to a certain PSI and have a controller be it for all four corners (front, back, side, side) or just for front and back! I'm sure you can get kits that do all the self levelling and stuff But they are big bucks!
You can get the bags from pretty much any air suspension company in the UK or better still, befriend an american - Send them moneys via paypal and get them to UPS the bags as a gift or present so you don't get stung with import duty ;)

Brand new 'Over bags' start around $80 a set and you can get all the compressors and tanks and stuff over here!

God damn this is sounding better and better by the minute!!!!!
 
If you increase the pressure does it raise the suspension?

As the airbags effectively replace the springs, and for drifting you want reasonable stiff suspension, to get stiff enough spring wouldnt you need to be at 4x4 ride height creating more roll? Or can you set the bags up so at full pressure they are at a reasonable ride height and lower right down when you drop pressure?

I think it would take a lot of hassle to set it all up?
 
General rule with bags is higher is firmer yes. Not ideal.

There was a s15 drift car in Japan that had airbag suspension on it. Possibly a twin charged thing, black with chrome wheels.
 
^^^^ Supprisingly i hadn't thought of that! FAIL... I'll have to reference some air ride guys and report back!

My only thoughts at the moment are that as you are still using the coilover adjuster plate you could always adjust that all the way down and then fully inflate the bags so your still slammed with bags fully inflated but then again that kind of defeats the point i guess!!!
 
Well..
I have been looking into this in some detail since last years LeMans trip. More for practical reasons rather than anything else. Because the R34 is just sooooo bloody low, i ended up having to remove the bumper every time i got on and off the boat and/or went over a large speed bump/bridge in France. This was a REAL problem.

My idea (which im still trying to develop) would be to take a standard coilover shock, shorten the spring and insert a dougnut shaped airbag between the spring and the spring seat at the top of the shock. The shock tube would travel through the doughnut bag. You would set the coilover to regular "low" ride height using the adjusters, then once the bag was inflated it should create a "Xinch" rise to the maximum height of the shock tube giving you clearance.

Many logistic issues to look at though.
 
Mr Bizzle said:
Well..
I have been looking into this in some detail since last years LeMans trip. More for practical reasons rather than anything else. Because the R34 is just sooooo bloody low, i ended up having to remove the bumper every time i got on and off the boat and/or went over a large speed bump/bridge in France. This was a REAL problem.

My idea (which im still trying to develop) would be to take a standard coilover shock, shorten the spring and insert a dougnut shaped airbag between the spring and the spring seat at the top of the shock. The shock tube would travel through the doughnut bag. You would set the coilover to regular "low" ride height using the adjusters, then once the bag was inflated it should create a "Xinch" rise to the maximum height of the shock tube giving you clearance.

Many logistic issues to look at though.
Click to expand...

I thought one of the big japanese companies had already made something like this? Cant remember who now though? Maybe apex-i :confused:

anyway, more info on with air-sus/coilovers here if you haven't seen it already:

AIR SETUPS now with distructions
 
ksport has airride? just like bizzle says?

6_IMGP3618_1.jpg
 
Dex said:
ksport has airride? just like bizzle says?

6_IMGP3618_1.jpg
Click to expand...

That looks like a standard over bag set-up! Identical to my buddys golf and many universal setups i've seen!!!

I think what Bizzle is wanting to create is like a hybrid Coilover with both air and spring which thinking about it would have it's benefits however i was referring to just pure air!!!!!
 
Dex said:
ksport has airride? just like bizzle says?

6_IMGP3618_1.jpg
Click to expand...

I am presuming you run normally with no air pressure in the bag and just use the spring/damper for the car to ride on.

When you need a little extra height - you put some air pressure in the bag just to lift the car up - but the spring and damper will still be working.

edit: I just looked up - on the air one there is no physical spring - surely when its low the car is going to be under sprung and will just bottom out.... unless you over damp it - which is gonig to be unbalanced then....
 
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Dex said:
ksport has airride? just like bizzle says?

6_IMGP3618_1.jpg
Click to expand...

I need a hybrid of those too (as said) if we could find a bag that was about 1/3rd the size of that one - then we could cut down the spring and combine the too... we would be in a very win win situation for most drift car/low car drivers.
 
EDIT: Yeah, What Mr Bizzle said!!! WIN INDEED!!! - I'll get on it!


This is how running just bags would work:
The idea is to have the bag still inflated but a very small amount when it's at it's maximum lowering (this can be due to the car resting on tyres or the car reasting on the floor ect) so you can then have different settings (psi's) in you bags to determine the ride height, or this is how i understand it anyway. So essentially if max lowering is at 15 psi and max height is at 60 psi for example you could ( i hope ) have say 30 psi for drifting and general smooth road cruising and then up it to 60 psi 4 x 4 stylee for speedbumps and knarly roads. I'm not sure on the whole bottoming out issue though so again this will be one of those trial and error moments me thinks.
 
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I was more thinking of having it set to it's lowest setting when it's compleatly deflated. That way, the car is riding on the spring rather than the bag = good handling. Then when you need the height, inflate the bags = good height/not so good handling
 
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