Delphi magnetic dampers: Delphi demos ultimate dampers
The end of ride/handling compromise in sight as Delphi demonstrates retuned active dampers
As tyres become ever lower in profile and roads get ever worse, ride comfort is hit with a double-whammy if a car is to have the taut responses we like.
Various active damping systems have promised an answer here, and none has been more impressive than Delphi’s MagneRide, the magnetorheological damper system used by both Audi and Ferrari.
To recap on its workings, MagneRide dampers contain oil and magnetisable particles that cling together in strings when a magnetic field is applied around the damper body. This field can be altered in strength to adjust the damping force in just 100 nanoseconds. The magnetised fluid isn’t, technically, more viscous, but it is more resistant to passage through the restrictions in the damper because the concentration of magnetised fluid forms a kind of deformable plug.
The settings for production dampers are worked out by the car maker and Delphi together. So the Audi TT, for example, is set up to feel the way Audi thinks a TT should feel - innately firm and with steering that demands significant initial effort to turn it off-centre.
Delphi, though, thinks MagneRide can go much further, so much so that the whole notion of a ride/handling compromise could disappear. To make the point, Delphi let evo try both a standard TT and one fitted with the same hardware but recalibrated software.
The Delphi TT felt radically different. For UK roads – and this writer’s taste – it was better; it ‘breathed’ on undulations that made the standard car lift and check, and its steering felt lighter, more fluid and more natural. That’s because there was less initial resistance to suspension compression and therefore less instant loading of the steering as the weight transfer was absorbed. Yet at no point did the Delphi TT feel floaty or detached. Instead, car and driver communicated better and more calmly, and it was easier to drive quickly on a difficult road surface.
We can expect the new-generation MagneRide on the A8 at facelift time, and Delphi is talking with other car makers. As for the future, maybe we’ll be able to dial in exactly our chosen handling and ride characteristics and the software will do the rest. Control the dampers perfectly and anything’s possible.
