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...

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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).