We know you're giving us a very weird look right now. Bags? Really? REALLY? Air bag suspensions were the joke of the beater Chevy truck world and haven't evolved past the sub-human morons dumping their GTIs onto 22 inch rims, right? Incorrect. More incorrect than you've probably ever been. While we've been toying around with boring old MacPherson shock, struts, and springs and maybe taking the occasional adventure into the coilover world, Air Lift has been working behind the scenes to virtually revolutionize air suspensions system and transform them from freakish sideshow objects of teenagers into full, race-ready, high-performing suspension kits that make even the basest of base, plain old stock Mustangs perform at their very best and brightest. Even though these kits are a bit on the pricey side, they offer more customization and better on-track performance than the best coilover kits on the performance aftermarket. Best of all, an air suspension allows you to adjust your suspension in your Mustang, without reaching into your fender wells or even turning a wrench or dial. Air Lift has taken air suspension systems into the 21st Century with their sophisticated designs and have made them available for your 2005 to 2013 Mustang.
Air suspensions aren't new to the world, but early designs had their fair share of teething problems. Many production vehicles were equipped with air suspensions since the late '50s, but the designs were fairly primitive and didn't offer much better ride quality than your standard shocks, struts, and springs setup and didn't have multiple settings for ride height. While the standard production car world was ready to embrace air suspension kits, the pickup truck community, especially anyone who tows on a regular basis, welcomed them with open arms. Towing puts a lot of strain on on a truck's rear suspension, especially in lifted applications. Truck air bags keep the rear suspension level when under towing loads and help increase the lifespan of the rear suspension system. While these kits were an excellent step in the right direction, they were of limited utility and early rear air bags needed huge hoses to be able fill up to capacity at a decent speed. These kits were also adjust manually, meaning you had to let air out or pump more in to each bag until the truck sat perfectly level.
Air kits then found their way onto show cars, though they still had some of the limitations of truck kits. Air bag suspensions allowed your average show-goer to absolutely dump their car onto huge wheels while at the show, before inflating the bags and driving home at sane, street-legal ride heights. Still, the bags on all four wheels had to be manually adjusted independently of each other and dialing in a level, smooth-riding suspension level was a pain. The other issue that cropped up was the poor ride quality when the suspension was lowered. Because the bags had little to no air in them on their lowest settings, they effectively had no spring rate, causing you to crash over ever little bump an crevice in the road, and even damaging your car in the process. These air suspensions also weren't built for track use, making them a very niche product for the die-hard show car crowd, and even they have problems getting over the industrial grade wire and cord covers at SEMA and other shows, which is why Air Lift puts stickers on each of them.
So now that we've trashed air suspensions for a while now, we have to convince you that Air Lift's 2005 to 2013 Mustang air suspension doesn't suck. Well, it doesn't. In fact, it's awesome, and we here at Stage 3 would go as far to say it's probably the best suspension upgrade out there for the S197 Mustang, and even surpasses coilover kits as the ''end-all, be-all" of performance suspension setups. The Air Lift Mustang kit uses air springs and specially-valved shocks and struts to create a fully customizable suspension system that can be tailored for regular street driving, down and dirty show use, or the toughest track applications imaginable. The real key to Air Lift's success is their fully digitized Auto Pilot V2 Air Management System that allows you to program up to eight different suspension settings and customize the amount of air pressure in all four dampers independently of each other. The controller also lets you change settings with a push of a button while on the move which lets you adjust for changing driving or track conditions at a moment's notice. Each shock and strut has about five inches of ride height adjustability, which means you can have a preset for getting over your neighborhood's speed bumps and driveway curbs, and a lower, tighter setting for highway driving and days at the track. The real hardcore road racing fans can program settings for different parts of the track, letting you take a corner then adjust your entire suspension for a straightaway on the go. Even if you plan on staying around stock ride height, the Air Lift system provides more comfort and better performance than stock or aftermarket suspension kits.
The controller is extremely easy to use and program. Suspension adjustments are measured in one psi increments, which are shown on its display screen. The screen itself has a 512 color backlight that can be set to match the glow of your instruments or gauge clusters. The Autopilot V2 is protected by a a tough rubberized coating and can be mounted just about anywhere you need it. The Autopilot actually has an adaptive memory that ''learns'' and recognizes your Mustang's particular weight and suspension setup to accurately and automatically adjust your suspension when you fire up your presets. Air Lift's Autopilot V2 also has an onboard diagnostic system that monitors the functionality of your air suspension and checks for leaks and other potential problems automatically.
If the Autopilot V2 controller is the heart and soul of Air Lift's 2005 to 2013 Mustang suspension kit, then the shocks and struts are the bones. Early air suspension kits had issues with their shocks and struts having enough valving to allow for at least some travel under load, and often fell short of giving you anything near a smooth ride. Air Lift's shocks and struts use unique and sophisticated conical valves that allow them to travel properly regardless of your ride height settings. Even better news is that these shocks and struts are very heavy-duty and can be used on purpose-built road racers and drag strips Mustangs just as easily as bone stock street Mustangs.
Each Air Lift 2005 to 2013 Mustang air suspension kit comes with a 2.5 gallon air tank and a 200 psi compressor that can inflate or deflate the air bags on your shocks and struts almost instantly and completely independent of each other. The tank and compressor are usually mounted in either the trunk or the back seats and don't take up any more room than your typical high-powered subwoofer or amplifier. The air suspension kit comes with all of its necessary fittings, adapters, lines, wiring harnesses, mounting hardware, and other components. The kit is surprisingly easy to install and directly replaces your factory shocks, struts, and springs. The controller comes with all of its wiring preassembled into convenient harnesses that allow for plug-and-play functionality. The Air Lift Mustang Suspension kit doesn't require any welding and will work with your stock sway bars, though your rear shock mounts and jounce bumpers will require modifications.
Air Lift is constantly working on improvements for their kits and are adding upgraded gear even as you read this. Air Lift is currently working on a special lock-nut mechanism that will be functionally similar to a spring rate adjustment on a set of coilovers. The lock nut will allow you to have a lower ride combined with a softer suspension setting or a high ride with a stiffer setting by letting you choose where the kit's five inches of suspension travel will take place. Air Lift is also working on a wireless controller adapter that will let you adjust ride height from your smart phone without actually being in your Mustang.
At the end of the day, the Air Lift 2005 to 2012 Mustang suspension kit easily outshines every other suspension kit on the performance market. While it is expensive, it allows for much wider ranges of ride height adjustability and more precise and much easier tuning of your Mustang's suspension than even the best coilover or adjustable shock and struts kits. Air Lift's suspension kit is the perfect solution for the multi-purpose Mustang that sees equal amounts of standard street driving, racing around the track, and awesome days at the local car shows. If your suspension can't meet all of your needs, get one that can.
