Active suspension: not new
Why compromise when your suspension can do precisely what you want, when you want?
1901 Mors the pity
The first cars– literally horseless carriages – borrow carriage suspension technology: steel leaf springs (and more forgiving leather straps for America’s rough roads). Something better is required. Parisian maker Mors proves it has it when its car – with shock absorbers as well as springs – wins the 1901 Paris-Berlin dash by a handy half-hour margin. Perhaps suspension matters?
1983 Lotus’s aero-optimised 92
Ground-e ect aero promises crazy corner speeds – if a way can be found to control a car’s attitude and ride height. Chasing success, Lotus goes active. After proving the concept with an adapted Esprit, the active 92 races in ’83 – but the drivers prefer the more powerful (the active car’s hydraulic pump robs power) and trustworthy passive car.
1992 Williams’ unfair advantage
Williams picks up the active gauntlet when Lotus throws it down/chucks it in the bin, and if – come 1992 – the sight of the Adrian Newey-sculpted/Patrick Head-engineered active FW14B spookily waggling its wishbones in the pit garage isn’t enough to terrify rivals, the car’s two-seconds-per-lap advantage certainly is.
2020 Audi’s magic-carpet S8
What to do as the pièce de résistance on your fast, e ortless and immaculately appointed S8 limo? Really compelling active suspension, of course. The S8 combines air suspension with actuators at each corner and S-Class-style road scanning. Tricks include lifting the body for easy access, tilting into corners and staying uncannily level and true at all times. Cracked it!
1955 Je suis un génie: Paul Magès
The world settles into using springs and dampers to control wheel movement, happy that every set-up must be a compromise. If you want body control, you can’t have a smooth ride, and viceversa. Magès refuses to accept the trade-o . The groundbreaking DS’s hydropneumatic suspension is the direct result.
1989 Toyota’s TACS break
The late ’80s, and Toyota has a dream: to stu some of its saucier output – the Soarer and the Celica – with so much tech Neil Armstrong would need a year in the simulator just to be able to drive the thing to the shops. Toyota Actively Controlled Suspension banishes unwanted body movement through active control of the car’s hydro-pneumatic suspension. You can only imagine the state all that complex ’80s engineering is in now.
2013 Class-y: the fully active S
Its status as Merc’s flagship means the S-Class has always broken new ground when it comes to production firsts. The 2013 W222 (with Road Surface Scan and Magic Body Control) actually scans that ground before breaking it (with stereo cameras), then tweaks the suspension’s damping to isolate the resulting wheel movement. So long, speed bumps/potholes/shell-ravaged tarmac…