My driveway is very slanted and my ’20 718 GT4 scrapes at the bottom, so I was interested to read the ‘nose lift’ posts in Rennlist. One person mentioned TechArt so I contacted them. Their product cost more than $10,000, which I was absolutely not willing to spend. A bit later somebody mentioned DesignsByJacob, which I had never heard of, but I looked at their website and learned that their product was only $1290, which seemed much more reasonable. (see https://designsbyjacob.com/products/...-axle-lift-kit). The same kit works on 981 GT4, btw.

I went ahead with the purchase. A few days later a small 15 lb cardboard box arrived at my house with all the parts needed for the project. Last week I drove the GT4 and the box to my raceshop and they did the install (cost about $1000). I got the car back yesterday. There is no question about it – it sure does lift the nose. A neat feature is that its remote control device can be used via the Porsche ‘HomeLink’ to program one of the garage door buttons, making use of the product very very easy. The owner of the raceshop went out of his way to tell me that the parts were all high-quality and that the box contained everything needed for the installation – in contrast to various aftermarket products he has installed over the years. So far in my one day of use, I am delighted with the product.

As an aside, I knew that I would be getting an alignment as part of the install since the product becomes part of the suspension. I recalled some Rennlist posts saying that the factory alignment is often spoiled by the rigors of the TransAtlantic crossing, and indeed mine was way out of spec. So in one sense I got a nice discount since I would otherwise have had to pay for an alignment anyway.

Usual disclaimer: I have no relationship with DesignsByJacob except as a customer, and hadn't even heard of them.

 

Good info to know in case I have the same issue with my Spyder that is due late January. Cheers! Stoked it worked out for you

 

Possible to get a video of it working and some measurements of the lift?

 

Website says 60mm lift.

 

What does it add in weight?
Does it automatically drop the nose over a certain speed (for ex: 25 mph)?
How does it lift? (Hydraulic? Pneumatic? Mechanical?)
How do you actuate the lift from inside the cockpit? Dash or console button?

Thanks for sharing and congrats on the car! Enjoy for many miles in the best of health!

 

WEIGHT: 15 lbs
HOW: Pneumatic
ACTUATE: It comes with a remote control fob AND you can integrate it with the car's automatic garage door buttons.

Does it lower over a certain speed? DUNNO.

 

Did you lower the fronts by 20mm to compensate for the air cup stack as they suggested? If so, do you notice your fronts bottoming out more often on rougher roads with the lost 20mm strut travel?

 

In case it works with no issues then it is great news

 

That's pretty cool!

 

Thanks for the info. Waiting to see how bad I scrape mine. Front spoiler lips are less than $300 (I think I saw for $200 something) so that would be 7 new spoilers for the cost of the lift and install. So I dunno. Also depends on how bad it looks after each hit and if anything more expensive under the car is getting damaged. Great to have options though!

 

thanks for telling us as i was thinking of buying a set as well.
the thing is all of the problems i faced from previous cars using air lift compressors are harsher ride + easy bottoming meaning you always need to adjust height by your perception after clearing the bump and there wasn't a way of telling how much without using a remote that is linked with your suspension, this method lifts only front not back i would've need both sides which will need a bigger compressor and other components as well.
i would suggest that he completes this kit for both areas with adding the monitoring capability as this method imho is way outdated. from his IG i see he goes racing a lot but needs to tell us about the setup especially for those who will use his product (i'm a potential one if the owner could reply to us in the this section of the forum)

 

I measured the difference in height just now when the nose lifter is engaged. It is 1 5/8". I can now easily exit my driveway without scraping; I couldn't do so before.

As for any additional bumpiness when driving, I don't know -- I haven't had the product long enough or driven enough to know.

And whether it will auto-drop at a certain speed, I don't know. I'll ask the manufacturer and post the answer.

 

I heard back from DesignsByJacob: their product does NOT have any automatic lowering of the nose based upon reaching a certain speed.

ALSO -- I did take a video of the system in action but the file was too large for Rennlist to accept it. (19 seconds was 37 meg.)

sorry !!

 

Very cool, thanks for the review! I'm also looking at this kit. The hardware is ots and my buddy had a similar setup in his NSX so it seems good to go. He recommended adding a reservoir tank so the lift would activate faster vs having to wait for the compressor everytime but of course that adds weight and is another thing to deal with.

Did you have to add lowering springs?

 

Just to answer a few of the questions:

1. Do we lose travel? Does the system make it more prone to bottoming out?
A: This does not affect the travel limitations of the suspension assuming you have the car set to the same height as before with the same spring rate. The piston will be in the same position and thus will have the same travel before hitting bump stops ect.

2. How is the ride quality affected? Does it stiffen up the ride like bagged systems ect?
A: We chose to use this technology for our lift kit with one specific goal in mind. We absolutely did not want to compromise handling! It is a GT4 afterall. The ride quality is not affected at all when the system is not engaged. It will feel identical to how it was without the kit. This is because the aircups without air becomes a spacer stack and does not move. When pressurized however, you will be riding on about 150psi of air. This is when you can notice that the ride quality should be stiffer but in reality, it is very hard to notice. The lift kit has been designed for speeds under 40mph, so you shouldnt be driving for long distances when activated anyways. The main goal was to allow maneuvering around obstacles, then deactivation.

3. How much weight is added?
A: Most of the weight added is in the compressor. The compressor weights about 9lbs. The aircups which sit on top of the springs weigh 2lbs each. In our setup we also remove the OEM spring hat which saves a little bit of weight but this should give you a good idea of the added weight! The good news is, all of this weight is sprung mass and so will not affect your car handling. You could argue that it does add about 15lbs but I dont know many people who would notice an additional 15lb weight sitting in their car while they drive especially on street.

4. Automatic speed lowering?
A: We do not have this incorporated into our system although it would not be too difficult. We would just need to incorporate a GPS unit, and can even add memory to it at some point in the future. However, our main focus as a company has been on aerodynamic products so we wanted a bare bones system to allow customers to run low setups and splitters while being able to get onto a trailer or drive around street without the added stress!

5. External tank option?
A: We could add a tank easily but weight was our focus and it honestly gets up high enough after 4-5s for the worst obstacles.

Short, poorly taken lift video:
Measuring tape: Demo:
We obviously could add more to this kit if interest develops but we aimed for a cost effective, practical solution with the least amount of compromise!