Decouple rid and handling

The promise of active is to decouple the link between grip-ride on one side and handling on the other. Hard suspension equals good responsive handling but poor grip and ride. And vice versa. Active achieves this by stiffening suspension when cornering to resist roll but generally softening it to give a compliant ride and good grip. The speed, flexibility and degree to which the switch between soft and hard is made, determines the success of the active suspension. There have been various intermediate stages below full active, where valves inside dampers would try to achieve this. And there was the Citroen Xantia Activa which used hydraulic rams to eliminate roll whilst keeping ride reasonably comfortable. These achieved varying levels of success in their goal but general indifference in the market place.

"hard suspension equals good responsive handling but poor grip and ride. And vice versa"

Japanese take up the mantle

Japanese manufactures knowing that their domestic market really likes advanced technology, took the plunge and produced some fully active systems. I owned a Toyota Soarer (aka Lexus Coupe) about 7 years ago. For such a massive and unwieldy car I was amazed how it cornered completely flat and was very light on its feet. Compared to the air-suspension normal Soarer (I ran the two side by side for a brief period), the grip was better and ride almost as good.

Promises

But doesn’t active promise flat cornering and fantastic ride? Yes it does but the friction in real-life systems gets in the way. The cornering is flat and rid is good rather than fantastic. Now I am driving an import (’91) Toyota Celica with active suspension (the car is owned by my father who imports cars, and is in the cars-for-sale section of this website). I really like the car. I love its flat cornering and the fantastic grip. The ride is good although not great. The ride is much better than the Honda Jazz, which is our other family car, (admittedly a poor ride is the Jazz’s weakest link).

For such a massive and unwieldy car I was amazed how it cornered completely flat and was very light on its feet.

Conventional Ford Focus

If the 15 year old Celica is so good on its active suspension, then why in the intervening years has active not migrated to many more cars? I can’t think of another recent mainstream car which has this type of suspension. The answer probably lies in the cost of manufacture, low customer acceptance –British public view some advanced developments with suspicion over potential reliability problems and costs. Also, the pump which keeps the car up in the absence of springs take power and so fuel consumption takes a hit (although I’m achieving almost 30mpg in mixed use in the active Celica). With developments in the geometry of conventional suspension systems, they have pushed at the boundaries thus reducing advantages which active achieved. A very obvious example of this is the Ford Focus, which has fantastic ride and handling on conventional suspension.

Enjoying active Celica

I’m sure active suspension systems are not dead. They just being worked on in R&D centres and may resurface again after improvements. In the meantime, I will carry on enjoying the 15yr old Celica on loan from my father.

If the 15 year old Celica is so good on its active suspension, then why in the intervening years has active not migrated to many more cars?

Update

My father sold the car whilst I was on holiday. I had decided to buy it form him but it was gone when I came back. This was 18 months ago and I really miss that car. I wonder how the new buyer fouhd it...

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This article is sponsored by Proqul Ozone store who supply the Ozonology Sanitisation service.

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