Details of Today's Suspension Technology for Better Ride Quality
From the January/February 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
Here is the key ride-quality tech found on our five test vehicles. Each of these adapts wheel control to the road surface based on input from various onboard sensors. Even tech that has been around a while, such as MR dampers, continues to get smarter with better compensation for temperature and other factors, because wheels keep getting larger, but ride can't suffer.
read the full suspension testLike other adaptive dampers, these also vary damping—up to 1000 times per second—based on input from various sensors, but the adjustments are controlled in a different way. With MR dampers, the fluid has metallic particles in it, and applying a magnetic field causes them to clump together, which resists movement and increases damping. This method tends to create more damping bandwidth than the valve-based adaptive units and also allows the adjustments to happen before there's appreciable suspension movement.These provide continuously variable damping that's adjusted based on sensors and controlled by a valve that can open or restrict the passage the fluid flows through. The Spectre, the Taycan, and the Raptor R each have two such valves to control compression and rebound damping separately. This split capability is new for the 2024 Raptor's Fox Dual Live Valve dampers (pictured), which also have external reservoirs on the rear units and the ability to allow the flow of huge amounts of fluid to absorb the impacts of airborne adventures.These multitalented dampers are, at their core, two-valve adaptive units, which handle the highest-speed impacts such as sharp bumps and seams. But the active part is the ability for an electric motor and pump for each corner to force fluid above or below the damper's piston to raise or lower it at will to control body movements. They work in conjunction with air springs, which support the vehicle's weight while parked. But at speed, the air springs deflate, and the dampers take over almost all the spring and damping duties.The Spectre's bars are effectively two halves of a conventional anti-roll bar joined in the middle by an electric motor. When you're driving straight, the bars disconnect for maximum comfort— minimizing head toss that hitting a bump with one wheel can induce—and the electric motor adds torque to the anti-roll-bar ends in proportion to the cornering rate to resist roll.
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