2024 vs 2025 Taycan. Spring vs Air Suspension

[prj]

Again, I do believe the above is true for the Audi RS6, but for the Taycan I trust prj to be correct in his assessment that the air suspension is superior even for spirited driving.

Of course it is true for the RS6, because on the RS6 the air suspension is from the A6 parts bin.
When you option the DRC, you lose the air suspension and go to steel springs.

To have at least some comfort still available, they use DRC to cross couple the dampers and prevent body lean. The hydraulic fluid is at a high pressure and more dense than the air springs (you would have to run very high air pressures to get something similar), and thus it can provide extra support for the steel springs, which don't have to be super stiff, as now the DRC is assisting them.
If ride comfort was irrelevant, like on a small sports car (RS6 is a big heavy sedan, weighing 2 tons), you could just drop the DRC system entirely and fit even stiffer springs at the expense of a more jarring ride.

(On a side note, the steel springs on the RS6 are *very* stiff when set in Sport mode, so much so that I practically always drive with the chassis set in Comfort mode... :–)

I will have to correct you here - you can not adjust the springs. You can only adjust the dampers. The job of the dampers is to absorb bumps, the job of the air/springs/drc is to level the car.

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[W1NGE]

Cost saving. The Taycan uses dual valve dampers for compression and rebound and self leveling air suspension on top of that.

The air suspension is like having springs where you can vary the spring stiffness in each corner in real time. I am sure you can see how this is superior.

Doesn't PASM (air optional) provide user controlled damping?

 

[prj]

Doesn't PASM (air optional) provide user controlled damping?

Damping is done through the dampers. The springs are there to level the car and set the overall firmness.

With a self leveling suspension you can make the springs (in this case air springs) very soft without having the car lean everywhere.

With a fixed steel suspension the spring stiffness is a compromise between handling and comfort. In case of the Taycan it leans more than the air suspension while being stiffer - objectively worse.

If you want the car to lean less without "tricks" you need to make the springs so hard that the car will be horrible to drive outside a racetrack regardless of the damper setting.

Think of the dampers as taking out the initial jolts of bumps and imperfections in the road and the springs being responsible for dampening the motion of the entire car moving around and leaning/squatting. If you have ever driven a lowered car with shorter springs and stock shocks you should recognize the feeling of the "bouncy ride", where the car is bouncing around all the time when the road is uneven.

The stiffer the spring the more of the shock gets transmitted into the chassis. The damper takes the "edge" off and helps the car settle faster, but the overall body movement is based on the mechanical properties of whatever is used as the spring mechanism. When you vary the damper rate, you just vary how quickly the damper gets compressed and decompressed, but not the overall travel of the compression/decompression which is set by the spring.

The whole idea of air suspension for ride quality is to be able to use a very soft spring and yet provide handling comparable to a fairly stiff steel string, which would be unacceptable in a luxury car.

P.S.
As for PDCC, this an adjustable anti-roll bar. Same tradeoff here, a bit different mechanism. Also helps with lean in corners by connecting the two sides together. The ARB is a torsion spring, and if you make it too stiff, then a single wheel hitting a bump will upset the whole car. If you make it too soft, it does not help counteract the roll. The PDCC system sets the firmness dynamically. Soft in normal conditions to make it more comfortable and hard during cornering to help with rolling.

 

[ObiWanSotti]

It's as if dampers, dampen a jolt.

In all seriousness, dampers/shocks can be used to stiffen a suspension and change it's dynamics, but there is typically a something close to optimal for a given spring rate. Over stiffening shocks doesn't let the springs work, under dampening results in bouceyness where the shock can't control the spring.

Race cars NEED adjustable shocks because they are constantly playing with spring rates and ride heights on a per track basis and so they need different profiles based on those things.

In a road car, you get some range of adjustment. I totally feel it in my taycan, but the reality is the sport plus mode is closer to optimal, and the normal setting they back it off a little and let it be a little floaty (comparitively) so you have a little more isolation.

Shocks are suspension magic when done well, because they really control how planted the chasis feels on it's springs, moving once with the road and staying put. But if you want to control the actual body roll, then you need stiffer springs and dampers tuned to the spring rates.

The air suspension is the wild card, as you CAN adjust spring rate but that typically means adding or removing pressure, which would mean the stiffest setting would be at the highest setting. BUT... the three chamber design means they can do a little of both, if you only had 1 chamber, lower is softer and taller is stiffer, instead the 3 chamber will make one really stiff and one soft to go low an stiff or all a bit more inflated but softer to get more travel and soft. From the factory you don't get full low or full stiff as those are low and soft and tall and stiff which is the opposite of what you want as a driver.

 

[9J1_JJ]

What an interesting post and the fact that the RS6 got involved. I just had an interesting experience. I am on my fourth Taycan since 2020. They have been incredible cars for me, I really wanted a change - so I tried out the RS6 Avant in DRC and it didn't work for me. Gladly, dumped it after 5 weeks and way to my next Taycan.... Here is a post that I wrote on the suspension on Audizine to compare my 1000 miles experience with an RS6 on Air vs. DRC.

https://www.audizine.com/forum/show...uspension-vs-DRC-(1-000-miles-real-world-use)

I did wind-up with a stunning Oak Green on Pepita .2 CT 4S. For context, I've owned for daily driving:
2020, Taycan 4S in Frozen Blue
2022, Taycan 4S CT in Neptune Blue
2024, Taycan Turbo S CT in Carmine Red
2026, Taycan 4S CT in Oak Green

As a chief digital officer and a car enthusiast. The face-life is truly incredible. I can see how all computer processing in the car is significantly better than the .1 along with the battery performance.

As someone with a back-problem, this is my second time trying an Audi in 2 years / failed and returned to the Taycan. The first time was going to an Audi RS E-tron GT. That was more brutal on my back ( seats and bounce) - than the RS6 on DRC.

Hope this helps someone.

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