RENNTECH, the Florida-based tuning house best known for high-horsepower Mercedes-Benz and McLaren tuning packages, recently announced a new 2nd generation digital lowering module for Mercedes and AMG automobiles with ABC and AirMatic suspensions.
"This lowering module is really all-new," says Hartmut Feyhl, RENNTECH's president and ex technical director at AMG North America. "Like our previous lowering modules, this one is 100% digital and fully adjustable, using microprocessors to constantly communicate with the car's electronics. That communication between the lowering module and the electronics makes module extremely accurate, so the end-user can fine-tune the car to get exactly the look they want easily, at any time."
Cutting-edge products like Feyhl's new lowering module blur the lines between the consumer electronics and auto parts industries. "In the last few years, cars have become rolling computers. Even beyond the ECU, the suspension, the transmission, the traction controls and braking systems are all software-driven, and it's essential for all these systems to communicate with one another and work together in harmony. In many cases, tuners must evolve from mechanics into programmers."
Hearing RENNTECH engineers explain their new products in terms of RAM and bit-transfer rates, one gets the feeling Feyhl's crew at RENNTECH became programmers long ago.
RENNTECH's digital lowering module can be installed without splicing into the factory wiring harness. The installer simply configures the port connector according to the provided instructions and plugs it into the system, making the new module a remote-ready, 'plug and play' device.
Faster processors and simplified installations are only part of story, however, as RENNTECH's new module allows for fully independent height adjustments at each wheel (previous units allowed individual adjustment of the front wheels and the adjustment of the rear axle). Each wheel, then, is controlled by a rotary knob with adjustability settings from 1 to 8 that, at their lowest settings, drop the Mercedes almost 2" (50 mm) from stock, and (unlike analog or resistor-based products) is not temperature or humidity sensitive.
Feyhl is confident that "once consumers see the benefits of digital v. analog in these modules, the accuracy and the consistency, it will be just like every other aspect of consumer electronics: the digital products will be the big winners."
RENNTECH's new 2nd. Gen digital lowering module is available now for 1395 USD. Contact RENNTECH for more.
