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Here is some additional info, feel free to contact RSS if you have any questions. Product is IN STOCK for Porsche. Coming soon for Audi R8.

• The Cargraphic Airlift Kit is sold as a retrofit kit for existing Bilstein PSS9/10, B16 Damptronic & Porsche OEM GT2/GT3 Coilover Systems.

• The Retrofit Kit is currently priced at: $3499 and existing Bilstein coilovers can be sent to RSS for retrofit (1 day turnaround) or at a number of certified Airlift installation centers around the country.

• Brand new Bilstein Coilovers are also available with the Airlift pre-installed, please contact RSS for a quote on your make and model.

The tuning industry is often accused of peddling ‘motorsport technology’ like modern day snake oil with style and no substance. Make a pit-stop at Cargraphic’s stand in Hall B5 at Tuning World Bodensee, from April 30th – May 3rd , though, and you’ll find it takes a different line.

There Cargraphic will present a pneumatic ride-height control named Airlift Suspension, personally approved by living legend Walter Rohrl. Considered one of the best rally drivers of all time and the consummate professional, Rohrl would never make this judgement from a desk. So he put the system to the acid test at Hockenheim on April 15th in front of the World’s press.

After a series of scorching laps of the GP course in Cargraphic’s Porsche 997 Turbo GT RSC 3.6 (459kW/624PS) on Dunlop Sport Maxx GT tyres, setting a best time of 1m54.4s, Rohrl gave his approval.

But let’s start at the beginning.

“The Airlift Suspension adds a pneumatic ride-height system so the front axle can raise 55mm (2.2") at the push of a button to sneak over kerbs, pavements and parking ramps with ease, and drop back to a race ready stance in seconds,” explained Cargraphic’s Michael Schnarr.

But pumping the suspension full of air has to hurt the driving dynamics. That’s the conventional wisdom.

Now, thanks to Cargraphic, it is wrong.

Because in normal conditions the Airlift relies on a Bilstein B16 DampTronic with gas pressure damper and spring, there is no extra rubber between the spring and mounts, it’s metal on metal and track-ready dynamics all the way.

It is only when presented with a previously insurmountable barrier that the driver blows up additional bellows courtesy of a remote control.

That’s the theory, but would the Airlift Suspension pass the practical part of the exam?

Emphatically yes.

The 1m54.4s Mr Rohrl achieved early in the day with perfect conditions and fresh tyres suggested he was on form, but then this was true motorsport – and anything could happen. Policed by an onboard video and data-logging system from Leitspeed in Munich, there would be no hiding the result if things went wrong.

“There was a big turn out of press and everyone was welcome,” said Cargraphic co-founder, Michael’s brother Thomas Schnarr. “We wanted the test to be as transparent as possible, this was an acid test, under glass.”

Everyone knew Rohrl could not match the time he set in the crisp morning air on crisp new tyres, but his pre-lunch time of 1m55.5 was the perfect benchmark, the real target for the day.

Then the mechanics stormed into a race of their own, fitting the Airlift Suspension in just two hours to put the car back on track in time for the last stint of the day. This was the big one, and as Rohrl pulled back into the pits after a flat to the floor blast round Hockenheim, nervous faces greeted his return.

“No different at all,” was the swift conclusion, and the 1mm55.7s lap, an almost exact repeat, backed up his expert analysis. A second lap just one-tenth of a second off proved his own metronomic consistency and the system’s skills and the Airlift Suspension gained the ultimate seal of approval. This is motorsport technology as it was meant to be.