AIR LIFT AROUND THE WORLD: Inside Air Ride Suspension Supplies, Australia

Air Lift Performance spans more than 40+ countries, with dealers and installers across the globe. We decided to pay some of these other countries a visit and bring you a look behind the scenes of the shops, cars, trucks, and dealers that make up our WorldWide Air Lift Performance family! For our first installment, we’re appropriately going ALL the way down – under to Australia. Home to beautiful beaches, the odd deadly animal and most importantly, Air Ride Suspension Supply.

Given the size and scale of Oz, it’s no surprise to learn that most households have access to a car. In fact, if you count up all the cars currently on the road (17.1-million) it equates to 92.5% of households owning 1.8 cars each… which does sound a bit like everyone owns one good car and one half-working car. So, it’s an easy possibility that at least a few households love their project cars and our friends down under certainly love a bit of custom car culture.

Much like in Europe and Asia, Air Lift has revolutionized the suspension game by giving petrolheads the perfect solution to achieving a killer stance with none of the drawbacks that “static” users experience with super lows. Air Ride Suspension Supplies has been one of the OG pioneers of Air Lift and the airride suspension revolution in Australia, so we caught up with Rhys Abernethy to find out what it is he loves most about air.

“Air Ride Suspension Supplies was established back in 1997 by Glenn Rulach. Sadly, Glenn passed away in 2014, but the business has grown year-on-year and is still run by the family today.” Rhys explains. “Our relationship with Air Lift has spanned more than two decades now, and we’re proud to be one of the biggest suppliers of air suspension in the whole of Australia. Ever since the late ’90s, we’ve pushed Air Lift’s control systems and ‘bags on a wide variety of vehicles. It quickly became one of the most trusted brands for air suspension here, and its demand has evolved along with the product line and offerings.”

If you’ve ever followed the Australian car scene, you’ll know that imports – and specifically engine tuning – remain two of the most integral parts of its culture. But riding low doesn’t come without its own challenges; both from road quality and also from the Australian Police and regulations.

That’s where Air Lift really comes into its own. Not only can ride height be adjusted to cater for any road surface, it also means you’re kept on the right side of the law… until you air out (shhhh don’t tell).

“We get such a wide variety of requests for air suspension, and we know that if Air Lift doesn’t provide an off-the-shelf kit currently, their universal ‘bags and management will provide the perfect solution with a little bit of fabrication know-how.” Rhys adds.

Recently, we’ve seen a massive demand for late-model kits such as the VW Mk7 and BMW F80 platforms, all controlled via  3P or 3H control systems. Given how quickly and easily these can be installed – and the performance gains too – it’s formed an even stronger bond with Air Lift Performance throughout the whole of Australia.

As you can see, Australia truly lives up to their namesake – DOWN under. We’ll be following closely so stay tuned for more from Oz, and be sure to check back on our next installment of Air Lift Around the World as next stop takes us to the city of Bandung (any guesses on which country this lands us, without looking it up?!).