See the 2006 Audi A3 below? Looks pretty low, right? Well, maybe to you, but as far as our owner is concerned that car is indistinguishable from your average SUV. Yes, he wants to go lower - much lower.
Aftermarket suspension set-ups have come a long way in the last 20 or so years. In the old days, if you wanted to lower your vehicle you were pretty much relegated to whatever spring and shock combos were available for your particular vehicle. During the '90s threaded-body coil-overs, which were typically used in motorsports, became another option, albeit a pricey one. These components, commonly called simply "coil-overs," came with threads on the lower shock bodies and two locking nuts that allowed the lower spring perch to go up or down. This function allowed an owner to lower or raise his car over a wide range and offered the ability to go much lower than any fixed-height spring/shock combos. Another plus offered by coil-overs is that you can properly corner-weight your vehicle for optimum handling.
Since coil-overs made their way from being merely expensive race-only curiosities to a viable option for those enthusiasts looking to get that extra bit more from their suspension set-ups, we see them being used more and more. But there are always people who want to take things to extremes and our A3 customer fits that profile to a T.
To go lower than even the most extreme coil-over option provides requires either a hydraulic or air-ride set-up. No doubt reading the words "hydraulics" and "air-ride" conjures up images of sixty-fo ('64) Impalas or dancing Japanese mini-trucks. We don't blame you, but we're here to tell you that, at least when it comes to air-ride set-ups, things have progressed a long, long way. Proof for such a statement comes in the form of the Audi allroad and A8, the VW Touareg and even the Porsche Cayenne - all of these cars come with air-ride suspensions straight from the factory.
The truth is that using air-bags in the place of metal coil springs isn't such a crazy idea and offers quite a few advantages, such as on-the-fly spring rate and height changes (lowering a vehicle by even one inch at highway speeds can greatly improve fuel economy), but in this case we need to be honest and admit this project is all about getting slammed. Make some sparks. Laying frame.
In the upcoming installments we'll cover what's involved in putting together a workable kit for an Audi A3 and we'll show you what obstacles lay in the way. We intend to use a mix of off-the-shelf components, and some of these will need to be modified to achieve our goals.
Aftermarket suspension set-ups have come a long way in the last 20 or so years. In the old days, if you wanted to lower your vehicle you were pretty much relegated to whatever spring and shock combos were available for your particular vehicle. During the '90s threaded-body coil-overs, which were typically used in motorsports, became another option, albeit a pricey one. These components, commonly called simply "coil-overs," came with threads on the lower shock bodies and two locking nuts that allowed the lower spring perch to go up or down. This function allowed an owner to lower or raise his car over a wide range and offered the ability to go much lower than any fixed-height spring/shock combos. Another plus offered by coil-overs is that you can properly corner-weight your vehicle for optimum handling.
Since coil-overs made their way from being merely expensive race-only curiosities to a viable option for those enthusiasts looking to get that extra bit more from their suspension set-ups, we see them being used more and more. But there are always people who want to take things to extremes and our A3 customer fits that profile to a T.
To go lower than even the most extreme coil-over option provides requires either a hydraulic or air-ride set-up. No doubt reading the words "hydraulics" and "air-ride" conjures up images of sixty-fo ('64) Impalas or dancing Japanese mini-trucks. We don't blame you, but we're here to tell you that, at least when it comes to air-ride set-ups, things have progressed a long, long way. Proof for such a statement comes in the form of the Audi allroad and A8, the VW Touareg and even the Porsche Cayenne - all of these cars come with air-ride suspensions straight from the factory.
The truth is that using air-bags in the place of metal coil springs isn't such a crazy idea and offers quite a few advantages, such as on-the-fly spring rate and height changes (lowering a vehicle by even one inch at highway speeds can greatly improve fuel economy), but in this case we need to be honest and admit this project is all about getting slammed. Make some sparks. Laying frame.
In the upcoming installments we'll cover what's involved in putting together a workable kit for an Audi A3 and we'll show you what obstacles lay in the way. We intend to use a mix of off-the-shelf components, and some of these will need to be modified to achieve our goals.
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