Air Springs Work

[Steve Chryssos]

I saw it with my own eyes At the RTH2 Auto-X from hell, the faster cars were running sub-70 second laps. Anything in the 60-second range was considered good for street tires. A 63 is killer. A 64 is excellent. 50's were only possible on stickies. air ride showed up with two A-bodies and one F-body. All of the cars were fast and the air ride guys, Britt and Brad, really know how to drive. Beyond the air springs, you must also consider the Air Ride hard parts such as their a-arms and tri-four links.
So it's official: The only thing that was full of hot air we're their springs. For what we are trying to accomplish here at Pro-Touring.com--which is to build capable street cars--AirRide parts are just as fast as metal springs and other suspension parts. Sound like an ad? Nope. I'm just a believer trying to share some first hand news. We caught it all on video, too, so you can see for yourself. Worst case scenario, the numbers indicate that their A-body stuff works better than their F-body stuff. Times are listed below.



66 Chevelle Britt Marolf-Britt was smooth. As the times show, he was fast on his first run and kept tweaking his laps. Note that all but one of his runs are clean (no cone penalties or DNF's)
TIMES: 69.176, 66.202+1, 64.577, 66.338+1 (68.338), 65.181, 64.318

71 Camaro: Brad Coomer-Brad has a, umm, propensity for throttle oversteer, so it looked like the car lacked bite. Brad was fun to watch and the car was fast anyway. His bets time was a 69 and change. DNF means that Brad lost his way a few times. But when we put Tony Bolton (the local gun) in the car for the Camaro Challenge, the car hooked and went with a lot less tire smoke. The "T" in the numbers below are with Tony Bolton driving.
TIMES: DNF, DNF, 63.797+3 (69.797), 64.186T, 63.936+1 (65.936T)

71 Buick GSX:At the last minute, Tony Bolton hopped in the big Buick and ripped off a 63. This car had more power, but also more heft. Air Ride owner, Brett Voelkel, showed that he is not afraid to put his driving skills or his high dollar rig to the test. He had a lot of trouble navigating the Auto-X from Hell, so we only have one official run--but--man--it was fast. Faster than any of the Camaro Challenge results. Brett would have really benefitted from riding with a navigator in the passenger seat. Then we would have more data. Regardless, we have one fast run. And fast is fast.
TIMES: DNF, DNF, DNF, 70.790DNF, DNF, 63.817T

I was just as skeptical as many you regarding the actual function of Air Ride suspension. No more. The right Air Ride parts, combined with the right wheels and tires (not 20" street rod wheels), an air Ride car can handle. Sorry if that bursts anyone's bubble (pun intended).

[formula]

Whaaaaaaaaaat air ride a legitimate performance suspension?!?!?!! Thats unpossible!!

Heh, glad they made a believer out of you, too. Those boys have that damn camaro set up juuuuust right. I'll never forget the time bret took me out, rip-roarin through downtown columbia in it.

[bret]

Steve...let me know where to send the check!
Seriously...thanks for the report. I was happy with the performance of the GSX and the Chevelle. We are taking the Camaro to the track again in a couple of weeks to see if correcting the exceptionally high rear tire pressure makes any difference. I suspect it will judging from prior experience with that particular car and tire pressure experience in general. That Camaro is usually nailed down.
I guess we'll just have to keep taking the car to the track until we get it just right . I'm thinking Coomer was sandbagging just so he could keep going to the tack to test! [j/k]
BTW...I just saw in Hotrod that the Power Tour is stopping in Evansville, In. next year which is 40 miles from our shop. We need to get them to do an autox at one of the Power Tour stops.

[F70t/a]

Badass!!! great info steveo

[Steve Chryssos]

BTW...I just saw in Hotrod that the Power Tour is stopping in Evansville, In. next year which is 40 miles from our shop. We need to get them to do an autox at one of the Power Tour stops.

Would we have enough time? Might need to set up a tour "bypass" so that we can get in the night before, race all day and then do a night run to the next stop. I was kinda hoping for some night driving on Power Tour 06 anyway. I really enjoyed driving down to Fla in the middle of the night. Something about the cloak of darness and all that....

[ScotI]

I checked out the 66 Chevelle @ GoodGuys (Columbus). What is the suspension set-up exactly... front & rear? Arms, muscle-bar, & shockwaves & what else??

It's a damn nice looking car.

[Steve1968LS2]

The right air ride parts, combined with the right wheels and tires (not 20" street rod wheels), an air ride car can handle. Sorry if that bursts anyone's bubble (pun intended).

Actually the AIR RIDE TECHNOLOGIE'S Air Ride parts work.. specifically thier Shockwave stuff. I'm sure stuff from the other show-bag companies are better suited to fairgrounds than race tracks ;)

Congrats Bret.. you should be pretty damn proud.

[Gordz32]

Hey guys, I ordered the whole kit for our 72 chevelle, I must say AirRide does it right. Great customer service, Great product, quality was awsome and minimum modifacations to make it work. The only thing I'm changing is running stainless hardlines to braided throughout the chassis. I just got the whole car rolling again and its on its way back to San Diego. I can't wait till the cars drivable so I can feel the difference. Airide is great for Looks, comfort, quality and increased performance!!

[ilovefirstgens]

So my question is when did you sneak penskes inside those air bags?!


Congrats, you sure as hell proved everyone wrong on this one!

[jb@ridetech]

I checked out the 66 Chevelle @ GoodGuys (Columbus). What is the suspension set-up exactly... front & rear? Arms, muscle-bar, & shockwaves & what else??

It's a damn nice looking car.

On the front of the chevelle it has tubular upper and lower Strong arms with dual Adjustable Shockwaves, out back it has our tubular upper and lower Strong arm , and coolride kit. It does has the dual adjustable shocks also on the rear. We also fitted the chevelle with our Muscle Bar sway bars (front & Rear). The Ridepro E2 Control system finishes the suspension off. If you are looking for this system check out our Street Challenge Suspension Systems.

[jb@ridetech]

• 1.112 G cornering force (recorded on the blue 1966 air suspension Chevelle via RacePak G2X on Sept. 6, 2006 at Putnam Park Road Course on BF Goodrich G-force tires with Boris Said Driving)

• The blue 1966 Chevelle with air ride Technologies air suspension components (Front – ShockWaves® with upper and lower StrongArm® control arms, Rear – AirBar® system) turned an open track lap of 1:29.05. The red 1967 Chevelle SS with stock suspension ran a 1:43.27 lap. Scott Pruett ran both runs picking up 14.22 seconds with the air suspension Chevelle. At that pace the stock suspension Chevelle would be lapped by the air suspension Chevelle every 7.3 laps!