XYZ Racing Tarmac Rally Coilovers — Mercedes-Benz S CLASS W222 4WD (NON MBC hydraulic) 2014-2020

The W222 S Class is a two-tonne luxury barge that hides its mass behind air springs and a serene ride – and for owners running the 4MATIC non-MBC hydraulic variant, the factory air setup is the single component most likely to leave you stranded with a leaking strut and a four-figure dealer bill. The XYZ Racing Tarmac Rally coilover is the conversion that turns a sagging W222 4WD back into a car you actually want to drive.

Tarmac Rally is the spec to pick when the brief is sealed-surface attack with road usability still on the table – sealed forest stages, hillclimbs, fast B-roads where a Pro Rally setup would be overkill. Fitted to a long-wheelbase 4MATIC saloon, that translates into a chassis that finally controls its own weight transfer instead of wallowing through it.

What this coilover does for your 2014-2020 Mercedes Benz S Class W222 4WD (NON MBC Hydraulic)

The W222’s biggest dynamic problem with age is body float – the air struts soften over years of cycling and the car starts to pitch under braking and lean through fast direction changes in a way the chassis was never designed to manage. The Tarmac Rally damping calms that down inside the first slip road. Turn-in sharpens because the front axle is no longer waiting half a second for the air to catch up, and the 4MATIC drivetrain finally puts power down cleanly out of slow corners instead of squatting and washing wide.

You also get adjustable ride height, which solves the second W222 reality: the standard air car sits where the ECU tells it to sit, and that is rarely where you want it. Drop the stance to close the arch gap, dial damping to suit the surface, and the car looks and behaves like a 700kg-lighter sports saloon.

About the Tarmac Rally coilover

Tarmac Rally sits in the rally side of the XYZ catalogue but is tuned specifically for sealed surfaces rather than gravel. The construction is a monotube damper with separate spring and damping adjustment, designed to handle sustained high-speed compression cycles – the kind of input a sealed stage or a fast back road generates repeatedly, not the single-hit impacts a gravel spec is built for.

Damping is independently adjustable so compression and rebound can be tuned to the car’s weight and the surface in front of you. Spring rates are selected for the platform rather than carried over from a generic chart – relevant on a vehicle as heavy as a W222 4MATIC, where an undersprung rally coilover would simply collapse on the bump stops. The whole assembly replaces the OE air strut directly, including the necessary linkage to defeat the air suspension warning without throwing a permanent fault.

Fitment for the Mercedes Benz S CLASS W222 4WD (NON MBC Hydraulic) (2014-2020)

This kit is built for the W222 chassis in 4MATIC (4WD) form, 2014 to 2020, specifically the NON-MBC hydraulic variant – the air-sprung car without Magic Body Control. If your car has the forward-facing camera reading the road and adjusting suspension in real time, that is MBC and this kit does not fit. Standard 4MATIC air without MBC is the correct application.

What buyers also search for

• Mercedes S Class W222 air suspension to coilover conversion for 4MATIC cars
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• W222 4WD coilovers tuned for sealed-surface use rather than gravel
• Mercedes S Class W222 suspension upgrade with independent compression and rebound damping

The W222 deserves better than another set of refurbished air struts on a six-month clock – configure your Tarmac Rally spec below.