Is Australian suspension tuning a serious thing?
QUESTION
G’day JC,
Love the tech talk and beer garden physics sessions, thanks.
We often read about overseas models receiving special suspension tuning for Australian conditions. Any chance you can explain this please. There are some pretty shit roads ‘over there’ just as for here. How much is it marketing spin versus reality?
Are outback road corrugations factored in? Few drive them. Our outback roads, water dips etc. maybe? The summer heat, the distances? But many metro cars drive low annual kilometres.
I accept heat soak tests and matters of airflow, cooling, updated air filters etc appear more obvious, but the suspension keeps me curious. Is this worth a session?
Keep up the ‘fight for right’ in Aussie automotive commentary please.
Regards,
Stu
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ANSWER
Hey Stuu,
It’s not a con mate - this is a real, specialist thing. It involves developing a model for our road conditions broadly and then assessing individual prototypes, and engaging in a detailed development program (after initial virtual modelling to ballpark it). It’s a highly technical mathematical process followed by iterative drive testing using expert drivers.
I’ve discussed it extensively with Graham Gambold, the brainiac who runs Kia’s local program - and I can almost keep up with what he tells me on this.
The actual models used for the road conditions probably depend on the car - corrugations probably factor in Sorento tuning, but not Picanto…
Part of it is also less about our ‘unique’ conditions and more about Australian buyer intolerance for poor ride and handling. (I’ve driven plenty of cars in South Korea, which we also get ehre, and the suspension tune is crap, often. Buyers there are more tolerant of this.)
Also, Holden and Ford did this quite well for years with Commodore and Falcon. Whenever I drove Chevys and Fords in the US, their ride was too soft and the handling was crap...
Heat’s probably not a factor in local testing - that’s more a powertrain and HVAC development thing.
It’s not marketing spin. It’s a real thing that makes the cars significantly better. Of course, the marketing departments talk it up.
Thanks for the kind words mate.
JC
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