Project Petrolhead

There’s an epidemic in the automotive world right now. No, it’s not ADAS, or EVs, or even SUVs, it’s ride. To put it bluntly, modern cars don’t ride anywhere near as well as they should. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, As cars get progressively bigger, their wheels also enlarge, so as to not make them look like a wardrobe on castor wheels, and with bigger rims comes smaller tyres, specifically lower-profile tyres with a sidewall like a rubber band virtually painted onto the rim (see our comparison below with the balloon tyres on Ferrari’s 1989 F40 with their more modern offering). The second reason is weight. As cars get heavier, manufacturers are forced to try and control that weight, lest their latest car handle like a cruise ship on a choppy stretch of ocean, and the easiest way to do this is to firm up the suspension.

In the upper echelons of the model range there is another issue creeping in. In the olden days, your suspension was either fixed-rate (i.e. the manufacturer set it up and that was that) or adjustable, so with a set of spanners and some know-how you could manually tune your ride to get it just how you like it. Now though, manufacturers have begun to lean on the dark art of “adaptive” suspension, meaning that – with the press of a button – you can make your suspension firmer or softer on a whim, sometimes even giving you an “individual” setting to set up your suspension alongside things like throttle response and gearbox aggression. What manufacturers seem to miss though is that the first thing anyone does in “individual” mode is make the ride as soft as possible because – guess what – the ride in Sport mode is ruddy awful.

How to go about tackling this issue then? Well, firstly, people need to learn not to fear the smaller wheel. Not every saloon and hatchback needs to be riding on 20” alloys, especially when a 17” with a meatier tyre might just make your car ten times more comfortable to drive day-to-day. In fact, while we’re on the subject of tyres, rubber becomes harder as it gets older, so getting a set of relatively new tyres could also aid your aching back. If you’re handy with a spanner and up for some modding, then a set of coilovers could be a winner. I’m not talking about a set of “This video is sponsored by BC Racing® Coilovers™ so user offer code PEN15 at checkout”, I’m talking about a set of properly set up springs and dampers, ideally manually adjustable, that can soak up the bigger bumps and knock while still keeping you in touch with the road.

Of course the best people to speak on the topic of ride are Rolls-Royce; The self-confessed purveyors of the best riding cars on the planet. While other companies spend millions in development for a new sat-nav system or a slightly redesigned front bumper, Rolls’ engineers are working tirelessly to perfect the art of the magic carpet ride. Firstly, for the second generation of Ghost in 2014, they devised the “Flagbearer” system – named after the original flagbearers of the 1900s, who would walk ahead of drivers to warn pedestrians of their arrival – which links the suspension, gearbox, forward-facing radar and satellite navigation together to create the ultimate adaptive damper. By scanning the road ahead with the radar and sat-nav, the car is able to pre-prepare its suspension for any upcoming bumps and potholes and, if it sees that it’s approaching a corner, it’ll pre-emptively select a lower gear and pump up the suspension on the off-hand side to prevent body roll, keeping the ride smooth and flat at all times.

For the latest model of Ghost in 2021, Rolls-Royce outdid themselves again with their groundbreaking “Planar” suspension, with an additional damper added to the upper wishbone of the front suspension absorbing all the little bumps and vibrations of everyday driving by adding additional un-sprung mass and extra rubber bump-stops between the wheel and the cabin. Did I mention they also decided to fill their tyres with acoustic foam instead of air to reduce road noise? Because of course they did, they’re Rolls-Royce.

As roads become noticeably worse (especially here in ole Blighty), I think that people could do worse than to consider the ride of their car as a bigger factor than they currently do. Maybe sacrificing aesthetics and keeping up with maintenance in aid of comfort isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but trust me, once you end up with a bad back, the last thing you want is a sporty ride.