air rods or hydrolics?

[Vanilla Sky]

i'm researching the suspension possibilities of my car, and these two sound like they would be good, since i can easily adjust my ride height... i would like my car to be able to "bounce" mildly, cuz i just think it looks cool...

What would be the best for my car?

i can go about $3000 for the setup, not installed

Derick

[pearldrop]

Air is the only way to go. For about $1200 you can get front/back and side to side plus three wheel. It is reliable, it rides pretty good and it doesn't make a mess. It also takes up a quarter of the amount of space of hydraulics. If you want to be able to play with it a lot without waiting, you can always switch to nitrogen instead of air. You would be able to hop with nitrogen.

[YK86]

How does air rods handle compared to lowering springs or coilovers?

[pearldrop]

The ride is nice and soft but I would never say they handle good. It depends how high you are when you drive. If it is down low the ride is pretty stiff and it handles decent, in the middle it feels a lot like stock with a little bit of body roll and up really high it is really floaty.
You have to really want air ride to get it. There are always compromises.

[Vanilla Sky]

well, this is for my pure show car... the one i'm doin the interior in, painting green, bodykit, headlight bulb conversions with the true HID conversion... a huge sound system, and ultimatly, an h22... in a few months, i will be getting a black coupe and using my engine in it, so i can work on the bay in my current car

Derick

[MexicanRice]

if it's show, you should bag it(air), simply because of the space left to add audio/video components in the trunk. I think that with 3000 dollars you would have enough to pay for the system and installation...

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Thank you very much guys for your replies to derick so far. I'm really gratefull. His question is not something I know about, again thank you both.:super:

Jim C.

[pearldrop]

No problem, Jim.

For full size cars their are tradeoffs between which is better for the application. Mostly hydraulics win because of the quickness. But for imports there is no doubt that air is better. I know at least ten people who have switched from hydraulics to air and still love it. The most common complaint is having to wait for the air tanks to refill, but that is easily fixable by using nitrogen tanks instead.
Air is cleaner, takes up less room, is more reliable, is just as fast, and rides better. Air cylinders also just bolt in versus a lot of welding for hydraulics.