As I use a varied combination of alternative specification (softer) sphere's on my Hydractive HDi it absorbs the small corrugations in the road surface very well indeed and is even smoother than the DS in that respect, that is until it meets a much larger undulation which requires greater suspension travel than is available to a Xantia which is where the DS excels.aerodynamica wrote:I still feel that the most significant aspect of perceived suspension absorbtion is down to the high frequency absorbtion taken by the rubber mountings on Xantias etc. I compare my ex Xantia and present Mk 1 BX to my immensely soft riding 1977 CX. The CX takes big, low frequency bulmps such as speed bumps like they are not there but has a real hard time with sharp successive little bumps. The Xantia (a 1.9 D) felt like it was truly floating of liquid until the bumps got bigger where the long, slower movement got right through. The BX is the same but copes with high freq vibes better than the CX and has longer, slower suspension than the Xantia - dare I say it's actually a little better than the CX!?
For the ultimate suspension the answer has to be to fit Hydractive to a DS, this will keep the DS suspensions' larger travel/geometry combined with the greater control offered by Hydractive to counter excessive body roll/pitch, allowing softer sphere's to be fitted to the four struts giving a smoother ride over small corrugations whilst maintaining the ability to absorb very large undulations. That combination would be akin to driving a hovercraft seemingly attached to the road by means of elastic
