Magnetic ride question
 

If possible for consideration, could they have put magnetic ride on the 86? Would it have been worth it?

No it cost too much. People forget the point of this car was to keep the cost down low. And I am sure it is heavier then traditional coil spring over shock design they went with from the factory. I rather add penske shocks before I go with magnetic ride on a car like this. Magnetic ride is great for a blend of comfort and performance but from my experience with it, it does lack a little when you really push the car.

Could they? Absolutely.
Could you? Sure!
There are aftermarket companies that build magnetic ride suspensions for cars that came with them, if you had the money you could certainly commission a set for your car.

Would it be worth it? This will all be opinion based but my thoughts are no. As go away posted it would add at least a few thousand dollars to the car, you'd probably end up with a near $30k 86 with all the R&D costs associated with implementing it effectively with OE like reliability and at the end of the day I doubt it would net you very much performance benefit, you'd end up with a 'soft when commuting stiff when going down backroads' and the uncertainty of the longevity of magnetic ride, the expense of maintenance, and of course the initial cost.

I've heard, I think it was on this forum at least once and a few other places that magnetic ride control really isn't all that it's cracked up to be. The fluid used in the damper with magnetic fragments in it basically tears up the inside of the damper, wearing it out extremely fast compared to traditional fluids, this means that in order to maintain any sort of consistency the damper has to be built with loose tolerances and even then over time it will wear out quicker than a traditional damper. Maybe some advances will be made but right now it's a bit of a marketing gimmick, you can get more performance and comfort out of a well tuned traditional damper for less money than the magnetic ride, if you're smart you can get both.

If it were all magic we'd be seeing it in racecars all day long with raceteams talking about how well they can dial it in, but like I said, the Penske guy on the forum claims they will go out for a session, come back and dyno differently than before, they're not consistent and of no real advantage over traditional dampers at this time.

defeats the purpose of making the car sellable to the general public. it'll bump up the price significantly if they added that suspension. then people would complain EVEN MORE about the lack of power at that price point. and if toyota/subaru added more power to the engine, it would drive up the price again even higher... then people would complain that there are lots of other cars to buy at that price point. again.

damn it. guitar-man beat me too it. I remember when I asked RBitme about the magnetic suspension, theres always latency as well, regular damper fluid will react faster then a computer controlling valves and magnetic fluid.

Magnetic is garbage for performance. Marketing is so important even Ferrari's will use it but Ferrari is still designing a street car no matter how much "F1" technology they say it has. Their F1 car does not have magnetic shocks though...

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

You may get better and more repeatable results for a lot less money with some monosports and EDFC. Definitely a more primitive solution but.... it works?

Which car did you experience it in?

Going to assume a Cadillac, since he works at a Chevy dealership, I think.

Race cars don't have a need to adjust between comfort and sport...

Are you trying to justify the magnetic shocks, or are you saying that it would be possible to use them because of this^?

Yeah, they don't even have an option for iron brake discs. Porsche has the option, Mclaren has the option, Ferrari does not.

They would want to adjust through their "clicks" on track without having to pull the car in the pits. Testing is very limited. This doesn't apply to just F1 either. I couldn't fathom a mag shock on an Indycar testing at Daytona and those guys will try anything.

I have experience with it too, I daily drive a Volvo S60R. The range between the 3 settings is too big for one spring rate. Comfort leads to excessive wheel hop on any mid-corner bump even when I'm not pushing it. Sport mode cuts down your teeth.

I'm pretty sure the S60R doesn't use magnetic dampers. They use Ohlins fluid dampers with electronic valve control, which doesn't behave the same as MR dampers. sounds like the damping range is too wide for the spring rates, which is a common issue with early attempts at such systems (Porsche's first gen PASM had the same issues).

Damnit. I made that mistake before. You're right its a valve, no MR fluid for my car.

Point still stands for race cars.

I was really impressed with MRC in a Z51 package C7 at the track. It felt really well damped over small bumps and even gator strips. If they offered it as, say, a $3k option on the FR-S, I would have strongly considered it.

Shenanigans.

If there's a rough slow portion of the track they would absolutely soften the damping to keep the tires in contact and maximize mechanical grip, probably in a rough straightaway as well, then crank up the stiffness on the smooth high speed stuff to maintain flatness for aerodynamics and to keep all four tires evenly loaded. And like mentioned by RB being able to go a click soft or stiff on one end would be fantastic for managing balance, really take a load off the driver if they missed something in the rest of the setup for long sprints. Like he said if it was useful it'd be on Indycars already and you'd see testing and advertising for it everywhere.

There was a push by @DougW and some wacky dutchmen to build a better Damptronic system. I don't believe the project ever finished for the BRZ, but aftermarket options exist for Porsche's PASM system.

LINK to one of his threads

My understanding of PASM is that it has ride height (for adaptive air systems) and damper bleed valve control. It uses driver inputs (cockpit buttons), a host of sensors (linear position sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes), and parameters accessed from the CAN bus (vehicle speed, steering angle, estimated engine torque, brake pressure, etc). I don't know how detailed their system goes... but it's probably pretty fancy, given the $2-4k price bump for those options.

I believe the main reason MR isn't used on race cars is that it is not allowed by the rules. I'm not aware of any road race series that allows active or semi active suspensions.

Also, as I believe you mentioned, there were some heat issues early on; not sure if they fixed that in the latest generations.

MagneShocks sell a setup for racing, but its like $15K!

Anyway, the tests I've read say MR works well on production performance cars on and off the track. I'd order it if I were buying a new car like the Camaro, Corvette or Mustang...

Race rules didn't stop F1 team we worked with back in the day when they could run whatever they wanted during testing. They still decided to toss it in the trash.

If there was a benefit the teams would push for it but no one even talks about it so the rules stay the same. Although F1 is potentially on the brink of reintroducing an active system for 2017 or '18, MR is not what they'll be using.

Yeah it was a CTS or ATS I cant remember it was a while ago. Its also in the yukon's and I think its an option on some ZL1 camaros.