What's the news?
Citroen, along with its luxury sub-brand DS, has long been promising a new and revolutionary suspension system with which it promises to redefine in-car comfort. Now, it's giving us the first peep at this new system, which has been developed by an in-house comfort-oriented 'Skunk Works' known as The Advanced Comfort Programme.
The Advanced Comfort team was put together to look at all aspects of in-car comfort, from seats and suspension to cabin lighting and connectivity, but the first fruits of its labours is a new suspension system which uses hydraulic 'cushions' to radically improve ride comfort.
Citroen claims that in spite of it filing around 30 patents on the new system, it's been designed to be affordable and can be used on all the company's models, right down to the diminutive C1.
The new suspension setup is 'passive' meaning that just as with conventional suspension, it reacts to what's happening under the car without electronic intervention. In fact, it is a conventional suspension system, but one where the old 'bump stops', usually made of hard rubber, have been replaced by hydraulic pads. These have two benefits - they give the conventional spring and shock absorber units more travel and time to react and slow any movements coming up through the wheels and tyres to the suspension. Secondly, for bigger sharper movements, the spring and shock work as one unit, dramatically slowing the suspension's movement and damping the rebound forces, which are further helped by the fact that the hydraulic cushions can dissipate the force of the impact rather than sending further forces through the body of the car.
"With this innovative technical solution, the Citroën vehicles of the future will deliver an exceptional level of comfort specific to the brand, and always appreciated by its customers. This refinement will not be reserved solely for executive vehicles but will also be available on the city-car segment and in all markets" claims Citroen, which has already fitted a prototype version of the suspension to a C4 Cactus.
Key to the suspension's operation is a new method of bonding the car's body together for maximum stiffness, which involves Lotus-style adhesive bonding, with electric spot welds for extra strength. Citroen claims that this system allows it to increase body stiffness by up to 20 per cent, but without adding any extra weight.
Citroen has also revealed that it is working on new seats, with varying degrees of cushion stiffness and softness which are said to be able to provide support but with a soft-squishyness of old Citroen models.