XYZ Racing Drag Racing Coilovers — Mercedes-Benz CLS C218 8 CYL (Cancellation Kit for Electronic Damping) 2011-2018

The C218-generation CLS63’s factory Airmatic air suspension and adaptive electronic damping were built for a two-tonne V8 grand tourer, not for holding the nose down against a hard launch. XYZ Racing’s Drag Racing coilover kit for the Mercedes Benz CLS C218 8 CYL replaces that system entirely, and this specific kit includes the cancellation module needed to run mechanical damping without the dash flagging suspension faults from the deleted ADS control unit.

Built around 0-400m runs, the kit lets you shift the CLS’s static weight bias toward the rear axle before you stage. On a car this heavy, getting more mass onto the driven wheels at launch is the difference between wheelspin and a clean 60-foot time.

What this coilover does for your 2011-2018 Mercedes Benz CLS C218 8 CYL

Independently adjustable front and rear ride height means you can load the rear tyres for launch without raising the car’s overall centre of gravity or upsetting the CLS’s balance at speed once you’re through the traps. Because the electronic damping cancellation kit removes the factory ADS control unit from the loop, the coilovers hold a fixed, mechanical damping rate through every run instead of the ECU hunting for a comfort setting mid-launch. That consistency matters on a car whose kerb weight sits well north of 1.8 tonnes; the factory air struts were never rated for repeated hard launches, and their travel and bump-stop behaviour degrade quickly under that kind of load. Lowering rear ride height also shortens the distance the springs need to compress before the CLS’s mass transfers onto the rear contact patch, so the tyre loads up sooner after the light goes green.

About the Drag Racing coilover

XYZ Racing’s Drag Racing line is built specifically around 0-400m competition, with separate front and rear height and damping adjustment so the setup can be tuned to whichever wheels are doing the driving – front-wheel, rear-wheel or all-wheel-drive platforms all share the same core architecture. The idea behind it is weight transfer: by dropping ride height at the driven axle relative to the rest of the car, the kit forces more of the CLS’s mass onto the rear tyres the instant the throttle opens, compressing the rubber harder into the tarmac. That extra compression cuts the time the tyre spends spinning free before it hooks up, which is where most amateur drag runs lose their 60-foot time. The same geometry keeps the car settled at the far end of the run too; less unwanted movement through the chassis at three-figure speeds means the CLS tracks straighter under load instead of wandering. For the C218 specifically, that includes the electronic damping cancellation hardware needed to disable the factory ADS electronics so the mechanical dampers run without interference.

Fitment for the Mercedes Benz CLS C218 (2011-2018)

This kit is built for the C218-chassis CLS 8-cylinder cars sold between 2011 and 2018, specifically for cars originally fitted with electronic adaptive damping. The included cancellation kit is required to run this coilover set without triggering suspension warnings from the factory ADS module. Confirm your CLS is the 8-cylinder variant before ordering, as 4 and 6-cylinder C218 cars use a different kit.

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Configure the front and rear settings for your CLS C218 below to match your car’s launch strategy.