Sound like an oxymoron? I may have thought so a couple days ago, but my opinion has since changed. Just got back from a little road course in Indy call Putnam. Not only got to drive Air Ride equipped cars (from a '56 F-100 to a '69 Camaro to a blown '06 Mustang) with no reserve other than "try not to wreck 'em", but got to ride along with Boris Said, Steve Grissom, and Mike McGlaughlin. Coming into a hairpin at a 100-plus in the Effie with Boris is insane, especially since it was his first lap behind the wheel of the truck ever. Of course he made that truck (and everything else he drove) do things it was never intended to do, but proved to me that an air-suspended car set up properly can go heads-up against a coil-sprung car and match, if not better, the performance. No shit. They took the Camaro with coils and leafs and ran it through a slalom, then put control arms, bags, and the Air Bar four link on and it killed the previous times. I rode with him in the car in both variations and can't believe the difference. Any previous myths I had about sloppy air suspension were quickly put to rest. Too bad they didn't have a bias-plied custom out there to test out!
I was with RF at this deal and I can only agree with him on all points...Airbags aren't just for profiling anymore! It's taken some time, but they can and do work in performance applications...and you can still drop it when ya park it. Great event, and I expect to see RFs purple-roofed Chebby out there next year...! Boris will show us what it's capable of.... Scotch~!
That sounds like a fun ride... Way mo-betta than Six Flags! I was just contemplating some of the possibilities of a cost-be-damned racing air bag system. Cars already ride on air bags, that double as tires, and racers are constantly changing tire pressures for track conditions, but it's only allowed during pit stops. If they have airbag suspension do you think rules let them adjust the pressures on the fly? Or will they make set it and forget it ecxept during pit stops rules like they did to Jim Hall when he introduced the adjustable downforce wing? Then I was contemplating how the upper and lower springs function on a motorcycle springer frontend or a Morgan car or three wheeler. One spring holds it up off the ground while the other dampens it on rebound, and lean, in the case of the Morgan anyway. Looking at that I can see where air ride like we have on street cars now could be supplimented by another bag maybe of smaller size but higher pressure(?) that can be used to fine tune rebounds on a track car, along with what the typical shock absorber does. My MGB has restrictor straps that keep the rear axle from rebounding or leaning too much, but the restriction is abrut and solid, (at least it was till they broke from old age) and causes harsh changes in handling. A rebound controling bag could do a similar function progressively and adjustably, maybe even electronically(?) That way the rebound of the car would be controlled by more than just gravity. What ya think?
there was an article on air ride kits for the wrx, apparently they worked extremely well. i think it was in sport compact car. tuning of sway bar diameter and shock dampening allowed road course and rally cross performance from one setup.
A properly set-up bagged car should ride really nice. 99% of the time a bagged car rides poorly its installation/design error. Wrong choice of bags, bad bag placement, wrong selection or mounting of shocks, etc. So many factors. Even a good bag set-up really only rides its best with the bags at their correct ride height. Too much air in the bags makes it stiff and jolty, not enough air is spongy or bottoming out all the time. I've had/done quite a few bagged vehicles, and each one got better as I learned. I'm most excited to get my sedan on the street. Its my first bagged fenderless rod, I'm real anxious to see how it rides
The Jalopy Journal
