Progress of Suspension Systems

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

Progress of Suspension Systems

BY FOCUS

FOR many T years after motor vehicles had proved a practicable means of transport, suspension by means of leaf springs in conjunction, with rigid axles was taken very much for granted, states an English engineering publication. As the reliability of the car as a whole increased, however, attention was directed to the possibility of improving on the methods of suspension adopted by the pioneers in the industry, and in recent years, this aspect of car design has received close attention. The possible advantages resulting from independent wheel suspension have been recognised for some considerable time, and independent front-wheel suspension was adopted for the SizaireNaudin car as early as 1905. The position to-day is that while the conventional system associated with two rigid axles is still very widely used, independent front-wheel suspension is defin-itely-preferred by a number of manufacturers, particularly on the Continent, but that independent rear-wheel suspension can hardly claim to have passed beyond the early experimental" stages. The ideal suspension system may be defined asi one in which no motion due to road irregularities would be imparted to the persons seated in the car, but it is ' hardly likely that this ideal will ever be reached. It may certainly be stated, with some confidence, that pre-Ront-day springing, whether of the independent type or not, leaves something to be desired; many persons are still affected by the motion, the feeling rof discomfort culminating in car sickness i:n extrteme cases. If the adoption of independent wheel springing throughout could banish this unpleasant phenomenon, a point on which evidence is rather lacking, its em-

IMPROVEMENTS STILL NEEDED

ployment would certainly earn the gratitude of many sufferers. To eiiminate car sickness entirely, however, is, perhaps, an impracticable ideal, as it would involve a degree of perfection in the suspension superior to that attained with a railway coach running on smooth rails.

It by :no means follows logically that because independent front-wheel suspension has been found advantageous in many cases, the adoption of independent rear-wheel suspension is equally desirable. The two most important factors to be considered are the reduction of unsprung weight and the balancing out of the torque due to the driving effort, and it is on the extent to which independent rear-wheel springing can achieve these objects without introducing new and undesirable features that its ultimate wide adoption probably depends.