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My understanding is that the Macan Turbo was optimized for top speed, while the Macan GTS was optimized for handling. The GTS sits slight lower to lower the center of gravity (among other tweaks), which helps it provide the most sportcar-like driving experience across the Macan lineup.
I don't know if the Turbo's minimum ride height can be overridden via software alone. . . But if anyone is going to investigate this, I believe @Santirx will be the first to post a detailed description.
Thanks, this is good information... It would be interesting to know if "among other tweaks" is entirely cosmetic, or if there are other actual differences aside from the ride height settings. I'm not seeing any parts differences in the Air Suspension system between the two, so I suspect it is entirely programming (same goes for the detune of the 2.9L engine).
I was asking about ride height with air suspension. My '18 turbo with air suspension has three selectable levels independently of the drive mode (eg default/sport/sport+)
I also have an ‘18 Turbo with Chrono and AS. To my knowledge the height remains the same from Sport to Sport+. And obviously with AS, we can drop it 10mm by pressing the ‘down vehicle’ button. Now maybe because I always run mine in Sport and lowered the additional 10mm, I’m already where I would wind up with the Macan normaled up: default and normal height.
The ride height can be modified via PIWIS. I have developed a procedure to do that, introducing an offset to the ride height values that makes the PASM/Level module believes the car is higher than it actually is, with then the end result being car ride height is actually lowered by the offset amount. There is really no difference between the Turbo, GTS and even S or Base air suspension hardware. Everything is the same, is just how is configured at factory, with GTS being setup 10mm lower than the others.
I lowered my S by 30mm and is sitting at the perfect height. Lower than a factory GTS…
Procedure as follows (note that I made a video on this that I’m still editing, coming out soon);
The way you start the calibration process is:
STEP 1: Calibrate to Reset to Factory... Measure the distance between the wheel center and the fender edge for all wheels and enter each value in the respective field in PIWIS screen. The car will automatically go to stock height. Don’t assume it already is.
STEP 2: Calibrate to Lower Car.... Then, you repeat the process, measure, this time add the height you want to drop to each actual measurement you are taking, and then the car will adjust (lower) to whatever number you added.
Now, if you want to know how much lower a GTS is relative to a Turbo so that you can add that difference while calibrating using the procedure above, that’s then a fair question. The Macan GTS with A/S sits 10mm lower than the Macan S/Turbo with A/S...
I went with 30mm myself, and I think that’s the sweet spot in my opinion.
Note: I can’t stress enough the importance of the first step above. If you start with STEP 2, you may end up with slight differences in the height of your different wheels. If you add the values you want to lower your car to whatever numbers are showing in the screen without measuring, your car will behave in very strange ways. It could drop all the way to the floor. Bringing the car back up from the floor is very difficult and will take several iterations of calibration. Talking with experience here... all that happened to me, hence why I follow the above procedure religiously. You will have no problems if you follow the steps above.
Important Note: Say, you lowered initially 10mm and didn’t like it. Do not go to step 2 from there, you will screw things up. Go to step 1. Reset to factory, then step 2, add another quantity. ALWAYS RESET TO FACTORY before calibrating for a different height.
Just to clarify, you never enter any stock values you measured a year ago, or a day ago. You always have to measure. I think I explained this before, but again.... with the PIWIS calibration, as in many standard instrument calibration, you are introducing an offset - that’s all you are doing.
The ECU already have reference values stored (for the Macan S, if I remember correctly, is 450mm). When you enter actual measured values, the ECU will calculate the offset.
OFFSET = REF Value - ACT Value
If your measured values are 450mm across, then the calculation is Offset = 450-450=0. But if you measured wheels 1-3 at 450mm and wheel 4 is at 440mm, then offset = 450-440 = 10mm, that when will go now up 10mm to match the reference.
Now, say you have lowered your car to 430mm. Now you want to go to stock. And say last year (to use your example), you measured the stock height at 450mm. You enter 450mm, then nothing happens, because the offset will be calculated at 450 - 450 = 0.
Now, if you go back and measure actual values, and all your wheels are at 430, you enter that actual value and the offset now is 450 - 430 = 20mm. The level will adjust by 20mm bringing the car up to 450mm, which is your reference height.
04-30-2024, 03:48 PM
