Maximum lowering guaranteed
Streetec: The aviation pioneer from Odenwald
When driving along Aschaffenburger Strasse between Höchst in the Odenwald and the village of Sandbach, you will hardly be able to escape the panorama to the left and right of the asphalt road. The lush green forests and the picturesque mountains – some might call them hills – are pleasantly calming and provide a bit of a holiday feeling. You can’t even begin to imagine that this is supposed to be the source of tuning dreams for automobile fans all over the world. It was exactly here, about 30 miles south-east of Frankfurt, where Streetec established their company in 2007 and since then have caused a stir in the tuning scene.
The company is regarded as a pioneer in the field of air suspension systems which allow for spectacular lowering. Its extreme success is due to the fact that there’s only one constant in the tuning world: cars can never be deep enough.
Streetec’s history began in 2002 on a small farm in the little village of Hembach with just 174 inhabitants, a stone’s throw away from today’s company headquarters. Early on, Streetec made a name for itself in the scene and attracted attention with sensational vehicle conversions. Right from the start, Streetec relied on air suspension systems, which the company still purchased at the time. Michael Stutz, managing director of Streetec GmbH together with his brother Sven, remembers: “We founded the company back then for the fun of it and worked a lot on our own cars and those of friends. We mainly did conversion work back then: body, wheels, tyres and suspensions.”
The brothers have preserved their passion for tuning to this day. It is this passion that led to a momentous decision in 2016. “In 2016, we decided to take matters into our own hands and develop our own air suspension systems”, says Michael. “We closed down the workshop to be able to completely focus on the development, production and marketing of our air suspension systems. An online shop and an international dealer network were created under the umbrella brand “null-bar”, with more and more tuning companies and dealers joining.
The potential of the tuning specialists from Odenwald was also seen 165 miles further north in Ennepetal. “BILSTEIN approached us early. Together we developed the Performance Airride with BILSTEIN shock absorbers, which celebrated its world premiere at the Essen Motor Show 2016,” reveals Michael. The BILSTEIN Performance Airride air suspension is available for a large part of the VW/Audi range as well as for numerous Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, Kia and Porsche models. For the legendary BILSTEIN driving experience, every product is tested in a road trial.
The “BILSTEIN ultralow” was soon the first in-house development in the threaded suspension sector. Depending on vehicle and equipment, up to 140 (!) mm lowering is possible. By using the highest quality components and meticulously fine-tuning, this extreme suspension achieves a unique compromise between improved handling and everyday comfort.
In collaboration with BILSTEIN, we do not just produce suspensions with the greatest possible lowering. “Together with BILSTEIN, we have also carried out various commercial vehicle and off-road projects, which mainly involved increasing the payload or vehicle height,” says Michael.
Michael has only good things to say about the close cooperation with BILSTEIN: “We have very good contacts at BILSTEIN and maintain very close contact. However, it’s not only BILSTEIN’s expertise that helps the suspension experts at Streetec. “The BILSTEIN brand name is also very important to us. It’s not for nothing that we always emphasise that BILSTEIN is in our products”, Michael smiles.
Three years after the world premiere of the BILSTEIN Performance Airride at the Essen Motor Show, the successful air suspension is once again one of the stars of the Ruhr metropolis this year. In Essen, the Odenwalders will present four cars with BILSTEIN Performance Airride: the new Mercedes-AMG A45, the new VW T-Cross, the current VW Polo GTI and the 7 Series Golf GTI.
