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Four inches
clearance, that is the average distance from the bottom of the
front bumper lip and the road beneath. Five inches, this the size of
your average everyday speed bump. What does this tell
you? Well aside from a cracked bumper, you have between $500
to $5000 in damage. If you have heard this scenario before, it
is likely that you know we are talking about the Lamborghini Diablo
and Countach's both original and replica's. There have been
some crafty folks who have attempted to solve this problem in the
past including Lamborghini themselves who have since moved to a air
lift system in the late 90's. We have seen Kirban's "Devil"
with the modified skateboard trucks and others who are using lawn
mower parts, and we have seen some people's attempts to add
air bags to existing coilovers. Although these are
"work-arounds", we felt that there must be a better solution to this
problem. At a "Tuner & Power Jam" event some staff members
attended last year, we were introduced to a product call
Shockwaves from the Indiana based company AirRide
Technologies. The car was a truck that appeared to have no
springs but rather something that resembled a Coil over or
shock. With the press of a button and 2 seconds later, the
truck went from "laying" on the ground to about 5 or 6 inches
above. Talking to ourselves, we thought this would be a nice
setup for the Lambo cars and lifting up the front high enough to
clear obstacles. The fact that it took just a second or two added to
the excitement. The ones we saw at this show were immediately
dismissed, because we could not see how they would fit in the
popular wide track A-Arms. They were almost 9 inches in
diameter but the idea was, "what if we could get smaller ones, would
they work?" The next week we contacted a few "Tuner"
customizing shops who install these air systems. We contacted
Trendsetter Customs in Dayton, Ohio and they gave us more
information on AirRide and showed us their smaller 6 inch
Shockwaves. We came to the conclusion that this system may
work. Although we had what seemed to be the solution, we were
hoping to provide builders and owners an even better option.
We contacted AirRide Technologies and explained the problem and how
their 6 inch Shockwave may work but we would need to check clearance
with a model or a product version. They were willing to work
with us to help find a solution and to our surprise AirRide was in
the final stages of releasing a new four inch version. After a check
with our application and weight requirements it was agreed AirRide's
4" shockwave may do the trick. Shortly after we received the new
versions and indeed they were almost perfect but required cutting
some of the top A-Arm mounting plate off to clear the bag at full
extension. AirRide also did not like the fact the there would be
modifications in order to get their product to work, since most of
their "kits" are made for a novice, bolt in application. We
decided to make the modifications and then decided to called on our
friends at Held Motorsport and told them about our project.
Held Motorsport is one of the leading manufactures of Fiero and
after market suspension in the US so we valued their opinion and it
was their A-Arms we had to hack up. Since the A-Arms that most
KitCar builders are using, are Held Motorsport brand, we were hoping
that we could develop an A-Arm together that would accommodate the
larger area surrounding the shock. A few weeks later Lee
(president of Held Motorsport) sent us out a set of modified A-Arms
that were beefed up around the top plate to accommodate the missing
material removed to clear the Shockwaves.
Testing and
installation:
Our friends at Trendsetter Customs
installed all of the basic components of the AirRide system.
Their work was impeccable and in a few days the installation was
completed. With the push of a button the car lifted instantly almost
5 inches higher than at full deflation. We did have a slight
problem. At full deflation (no air = no cushion) the car sat
about 3 inches too high. A quick call to AirRide corrected the
problem and we sent the Shockwaves back for a custom length. 3
inches were removed from the piston and a week later we re-installed
them. At the correct ride height and 80lbs of pressure the car
looked at it's stock height. At the touch of the button the
car raised about 3 to 4 inches plenty of room to clear the most
difficult road obstacle. We finally had it, a completely bolt on
AirRide system.
Air Ride provided us with their SKW7001
(ShockWaves) with a compressed height of 10.50" and an extended
height of 14.25". The compressor kit we installed was the
ARC2000. which included two remote controlled Air vales, 2
Gallon air tank, air compressor and control system. This
kit will provide a 2-way solenoid control to control left and right
lift independently. AirRide says "This type of system
also effectively eliminates air transfer from side to side."
They continued to explain that air transfer is a phenomenon that
happens when one side of the vehicle is heavier than the other side
and the air is forced from one air spring to the one on the other
side. Air transfer can also happen during cornering when the G force
of a vehicle that is turning at speed. The SKW7001 Shockwaves also
have a 12 way adjustable dampening knob so you can set it as firm or
as soft as you desire. The huge benefit to running air springs is
that the spring rate can be manipulated by simply increasing or
decreasing the air pressure. This means that by getting yourself
familiar with the air system and the adjustable dampening of the
Shockwaves, you can literally make the car ride and handle exactly
how you want it to.
Our next step was to find a way to make
the system "user friendly." So now we have this great system that
when you see an obstacle we hold down the left and right buttons to
lift the front but now we have to readjust the ride height back to
what it was before and make it appear balanced and not lopsided by
an onlooker. We began to research methods to controlling this
automatically and found two similar but distinctly different
systems. Air Ride offers a auto balance system that maintains
the ride height no matter how much weight is added to the
vehicle. The concept is great if you are driving a truck or a
Cadillac however completely opposite of what we wanted. We
then cam across Dakota Digital's ARC-1000 system. Using a
computer controlled display, the driver can preset pressures for up
to 4 separate air bags and the tank pressure. With a
touch of a button the driver can raise the front of the car to a
preset height and then back down again to the original location with
another press. This system sounded perfect for what we were
looking for and called up Dakota Digital out of Sioux Falls, SD
and talked
to Scott Johnson. We were confident that this system would
allow for the extended automatic control we were looking for.
A week later the system arrived. All the parts were top notch
and included very detailed instructions for installation. A
few weeks later the ARC-1000 was installed and working. True
to their claims, the Air bag Control system delivered
perfectly. The control panel can be ordered in different color
displays and can be inconspicuously hidden. A true electrical
guru could also rig the system up to the Diablo's OEM air lift
system and completely hide the main unit! All in all this last
item made this long project and research worth it.
Key Points:
1. Completely Bolt together "kit"
2.
Degree of lift: Approximately 3 to 4 inches
3. Ride
adjustment/lift time approx 2 seconds
4. Kits start at $1800 The
exact kit that we installed will run you about $2,150
5.
Performance equal to a Cadillac
6. Customers who have already
purchased Held's wide arm kits can purchase the new modified
A-Arms
7. Optional control components can be added to make the
system more user friendly (ARC-1000)
So almost 6 months later we
successfully pair AirRide Technologies and Held Motorsport to bring
Lambo builders the first REAL solution to the extremely low front
bumper.
Cost & Purchase
information:
This "Kit" is now available through
Held Motorsport http://www.heldmotorsport.com/.
For builders who already have Held's Wide track you can order a new
modified pair for $275.00 USD
Held says the whole basic "kit" that
includes the Wide track suspension and Airbag setup will cost you
$1800 with a more advanced kit for $2150. If you want to get
your Air Ride components from another place Held will sell you the
Wide Track front suspension without the Shocks and springs for
$650
If you want to add Dakota Digital's
ARC-1000 control system it retails for $675 however if you are only
using 2 of the 4 bag control you may be able to get a discount for
the other two control solenoids.
We would like to thank Lee Waldmiller
(owner of Held Motorsports) and Bret Voelkel (Owner of AirRide),
Tony Bicknell (AirRide); Trendsetters of Dayton who did the initial
install and Scott Johnson (Dakota Digital), for all their
cooperation and help.
Resources:
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