At this year’s SEMA Show, we got a chance to speak with Derek Schaefer at AccuAir to get an idea of what the company’s initiatives were for the new year. He explained that the company recently launched vehicle signups in order to get a better understanding of which car applications where using their product.

Though performance applications where the talk of the day, AccuAir suspension’s booth vehicle this year was a ’39 Ford built by Hot Rod Service Company out of Campbell, California.

Schaefer went into further detail telling us, “The most recent niche that we’ve seen an increase in sales in has been with the late-model crowd–Mercedes, Audi, BMW, and more people expressing an interest in the performance possibilities offered by air suspension.”

Schaefer continued, “In terms of performance applications, it’s always been what we’ve wanted to produce. For the last 12 years we’ve focused just on the management side–meaning just the controller. We’re really trying to pursue that market of performance vehicles that want to utilize air suspension over traditional coilovers.”

We asked Schaefer to shed some light on the viability of air suspension as a variable option for performance applications, “An air spring has greater adaptability to changing conditions than a coil spring. Obviously, with coilovers you can get out of the car and adjust it, but with an air spring you can actually tune them to have a softer ride at a higher height, or a stiffer ride at a lower height. The ability to tune it quicker than static suspension is what performance-minded people will love about it.”

This ’39 features a fuel-injected supercharged flathead.

Incase you’re wondering whether there have been any efforts to back up AccuAir’s claims, the company actually subjected their setup to track tests to see how it performed. “The great thing about an air spring is that it has a variable spring rate. When you turn into a corner you’re changing the force applied to the spring which in turn increases the pressure and stiffens the spring. It is naturally going to act like a sway bar and push back against the force of a turn.”

Schaef continued, “We actually put one of our kits for the V8 Audi up against a traditional coilover setup in a track situation and the air spring showed less body roll, less jounce, it was more stable around corners, and even over bumps.”

If you’re still not convinced about air suspension as a contender in the realm of autocross or road coarse applications, or are interested in seeking more information, head over to AccuAir’s website and give one of their tech personnel a call.