Installing an Airlift Performance suspension on a BRZ

[Mach V Dan]

We recently installed an airbag system from Airlift Performance on a customer BRZ. I thought I'd share some of the details and the results.

I have shied away from airbag systems in the past because I have seen some scary-bad quality hardware, and was leery of installing something that wouldn't live up to our standards. The customer brought us this Airlift system to take a look at, and we decided to do it. This system was very straightforward and complete, and the components all were of high quality. The installation and operation instructions were also complete and thorough, and once installed, the system worked the way it said it would.

The system we installed was basically an Airlift Performance "Digital Combo Kit," plus a couple of additional options. The MSRP on the Digital Combo Kit is $4162, although the street price is around 25% lower.

We installed the air tank in the hatch area and the rest of the air management goodies in the spare tire well. We made a false floor from plywood to cover everything up and look presentable.







The air spring/strut units bolted directly in place of the stock ones. This is a front unit:



There's a wired control unit that fit really nicely up in the center console. Sorry, I don't have a photo of that, although I do have a video that I'll eventually get up here.

It took one of our techs about two days installing the various components, setting the ride heights, aligning the car, and programming the control unit.

We spent quite a bit of time getting the strut height correct, so the ride heights ended up where we wanted. With the car aired down there was plenty of clearance for the narrow stock tires, so we added 25mm spacers all the way around. (The customer will have bigger wheels eventually, although I don't think the tires are going to be any wider.)

Here's the end result:





The highest height is "speed bump mode," which gives you the most ground clearance. Next down is low height, which is still driveable. All the way aired out gets you dumped on the ground for show -- you cannot drive at that height. (But of course the car looks good at that height!)







Initial ride feedback from our technician's test drive were that it was stiff, but no stiffer than most of the coilover setups we've installed. The shocks are adjustable, so you can adjust the dampening at each corner to your liking.

I'd be the first to tell you that I'm not into the "stance" scene or anything except for performance, but we'd be happy to install more of these systems. They do work and the quality is better than anything I've looked at before.

--Dan
Mach V

[Hmongfrs]

This is clean!!!!!

[Dezoris]

At what setting do you do your alignment on? Or is an alignment not in the vocabulary of this clientele?

[Mach V Dan]

Originally Posted by Dezoris

At what setting do you do your alignment on? Or is an alignment not in the vocabulary of this clientele?

We did indeed perform an alignment on this car after installation. At the "drive" setting, we got about two degrees of camber front and rear. At fully aired-out low setting, it has huge rear camber -- six degrees maybe? -- but you can't drive it like that anyway, so it doesn't matter.

The idea of this system is to have a car that functions normally, and can be driven normally, but can then be dumped on the ground for shows or hard parking . With that in mind we dialed in a normal street alignment for the street ride height.

--Dan
Mach V

[White64Goat]

Will it do THIS?

[Flat Black VW]

Spencer's car looks good.

[Captain Snooze]

Originally Posted by White64Goat

Will it do THIS?

While drifting?

[Justin91M]

In for the video !!

[satinwhitebrz14]

any other suspension modifications? endlinks, control arms, etc?