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

The C218 CLS carries a lot of weight over the front axle for a car that owners want sliding sideways, and the factory electronic damping was never built with sustained yaw angle in mind. This Drift Spec kit strips that variable out entirely. The cancellation kit disables the AIRMATIC/electronic damping control so the car runs on a fixed, mechanically-set platform instead of a system constantly hunting for ride comfort mid-slide.

For a V8 CLS built for competitive drifting, that’s the whole point. You get a chassis that reacts the same way on entry, mid-corner and on the transition every single time, because there’s no active damping unit second-guessing your inputs while you’re on opposite lock.

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

Dropping the ride height with proper bump stroke changes how the CLS’s nose sets and how quickly the rear end will step out and hold an angle once you’ve committed. That’s the core of what XYZ Racing engineered this kit around: helping the car stabilise its body position through high-speed turn-in so you can hold a cleaner, more consistent drift angle instead of fighting body roll on a heavy German saloon platform. With the electronic damping cancelled, the ride height and damping response stay fixed regardless of what the car’s sensors think it should be doing, which matters when you’re deliberately putting the chassis into a state the factory system was never tuned for. The result is a CLS that transitions its weight predictably from the front axle to the rear under drift loads, rather than the factory setup pushing back against you mid-manoeuvre.

About the Drift Spec coilover

XYZ Racing built the Drift Spec line specifically around the demands of competitive drifting rather than adapting a road or circuit-day coilover for the discipline. The core aim is body control at high yaw angles: keeping the CLS’s body settled while cornering hard enough to break rear traction, so the car holds a clean, controllable angle instead of wallowing or snapping. Ride height reduction is paired with a bump stroke calibrated for drift use, which is what lets the chassis stay composed as weight shifts hard onto the outside-front and rear tyres through a slide. For this C218 application, that engineering comes bundled with the cancellation kit needed to fully disable the CLS’s electronic damping control, since a mechanical, driver-set platform is non-negotiable once you’re relying on consistent, repeatable chassis behaviour lap after run. Every adjustment on this kit is aimed at controlling body movement rather than chasing ride comfort, which is the fundamental difference between a Drift Spec setup and a road-biased coilover.

Fitment for the Mercedes Benz CLS C218 8 CYL (2011-2018)

This kit is built for the C218-generation Mercedes Benz CLS, 8-cylinder variants, covering the 2011 to 2018 model years. It’s specced with the cancellation kit required for cars fitted with electronic damping control from the factory, so the AIRMATIC/adaptive damping system is fully disabled and replaced by the coilover’s own mechanical adjustment.

What buyers also search for

• Mercedes Benz CLS C218 coilover kit for drift setups with electronic damping delete
• CLS C218 V8 suspension for competitive drifting and high-angle body control
• Mercedes CLS drift coilovers with AIRMATIC cancellation kit included
• C218 CLS ride height and bump stroke adjustment for sideways driving

Spec out the Drift Spec kit for your C218 CLS and configure yours below.