Besides Its Considerable Price, Active Ride Considerations.

[daveo4EV]

here is a demonstration Porsche gave of Active ride @ https://www.spa-francorchamps.be/en/ Porsche Track Experience Masters in Sept. of 2024



pretty impressive the range and speed of suspension changes.

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[KapDad]

Curious for everyone that has it…. I love road feel when taking corners (the inner ear feeling etc). I worry that not having it could be really dangerous.… How do you all feel? Still connected to the road? Any horror stories?

 

[Boss Hogg]

Curious for everyone that has it…. I love road feel when taking corners (the inner ear feeling etc). I worry that not having it could be really dangerous.… How do you all feel? Still connected to the road? Any horror stories?

After 10k miles PAR is the best part of my J1.2, I love it, the ride quality and stability, especially at higher speeds, is superb, best I've experienced in any car by some margin (and my previous J1.1 CT was a pretty good start point). When cornering you still know you are going round a corner and get the same sensation, the car just remains super stable/flat so you have confidence to go faster. The most noticeable benefit is smoothing out large lumps/dips/unevenness in the road, it reduces the impact of low speed obstacles like potholes and speed humps but you still feel them. For long journeys it makes for a very relaxing drive as your body and head move around a lot less.

No adverse issues, it just works seamlessly.

 

[f1eng]

Active suspension should, and IMO the Porsche implementation will, be better for handling and dynamics without giving a poor ride.
Personally for the roads I drive on and the way I drive a 4S with active suspension would be better value for money than a turbo without.

Of course it will use more power than the air suspension, it is doing more. The active anti roll bars (PDCC) I have do too obviously but even in the UK our roads aren't continuously bumpy for it to be a concern. I haven't seen anybody choosing the steel suspension over air because of its inevitably superior efficiency, though they could.

Overall you have to decide your priorities.

If you want a dragster to do long journeys more power and less energy consumption may be goals. If you want a good handling car active suspension gives next generation levels of chassis performance.

It would be the first option I ticked if I ordered a new one but I would never use the raised option to help getting in and out, a waste of energy and wear and tear IMO - I have switched off comfort entry in my car for the same reason.

 

[KapDad]

Really appreciate the feedback. I was getting worried that having it would be dangerous… that I wouldn’t feel the limits. But this sounds like a must have

 

[Mr.Smith]

Really appreciate the feedback. I was getting worried that having it would be dangerous… that I wouldn’t feel the limits. But this sounds like a must have

In Sport or Sport +, Active ride is disabled. You can have the best of both worlds, but for that additional cost

 

[f1eng]

In Sport or Sport +, Active ride is disabled. You can have the best of both worlds, but for that additional cost

Disabled???

It can't be, the only suspension elements are active so if it was disabled it would have no wheel movement.

I understand the rolling into the corner setting is disabled but it is still under active control, just with different settings.

The air suspension and PDCC get different settings in sport and sport+ as well but are still active (ie resisting roll and switching between the 3 spring rates)

 

[Mr.Smith]

Disabled???

It can't be, the only suspension elements are active so if it was disabled it would have no wheel movement.

I understand the rolling into the corner setting is disabled but it is still under active control, just with different settings.

The air suspension and PDCC get different settings in sport and sport+ as well but are still active (ie resisting roll and switching between the 3 spring rates)

I can say PAR is very evident when driving in Normal and at least not as evident when driving in Sport +.
I always thought PAR should have some involved in every mode as it would be such a benefit on track, even if not as exaggerated when in Normal mode.

From the owners manual

 

[f1eng]

I can say PAR is very evident when driving in Normal and at least not as evident when driving in Sport +.
I always thought PAR should have some involved in every mode as it would be such a benefit on track, even if not as exaggerated when in Normal mode.

From the owners manual

Indeed, I knew the active suspension enabled negative pitch and roll in normal mode.
That wouldn't be why I would buy it

 

[Boss Hogg]

PAR is on all the time if you spec it, it cannot be disabled, and it is active in all modes.

Only in normal mode you can update the setting to dial it up by enabling the 'active lean' and 'comfort braking + acceleration' functions as per Mr.Smith above. Having these settings turned on means you quickly notice the PAR system at work as you can detect/see the car's over-exaggerated tilting and leaning. So if you don't like the sensation, leave these features turned off.

 

[KapDad]

I’m still very unsure of whether I should spec it or not.
For those who have - Do you still have road feel in sport mode? Does it still feel sporty? I’m coming from an m850i.

My salesman is saying it’s really not necessary but it looks pretty amazing from a tech standpoint.
What I don’t want is to get it and the regret having lost the feel of tightish steering and driving a sports car.

 

[f1eng]

I’m still very unsure of whether I should spec it or not.
For those who have - Do you still have road feel in sport mode? Does it still feel sporty? I’m coming from an m850i.

My salesman is saying it’s really not necessary but it looks pretty amazing from a tech standpoint.
What I don’t want is to get it and the regret having lost the feel of tightish steering and driving a sports car.

I can't imagine Porsche losing the ability to produce a sporty feeling car using an expensive option which offers the chassis engineers more parameters to play around with and optimise for each setting.

I see it is not "necessary" but IMO improvements in chassis dynamics are felt every drive. Where I live I would rather have a 4S with active ride than a turbo without. I can't say for the roads you usually drive, of course.

The system I designed for Formula 1 was designed to optimise the aerodynamic platform and allowed me to do things conventional suspension and adjustable dampers couldn't do at all.

Having written that the improved chassis dynamics was worth about 0.3 secs a lap at Silverstone whereas the first guess aero platform optimisation gave 2.1 seconds.
It got banned.

My only concern would be the possible influence on reliability of the complexity but I would still choose it if I was ordering.

Porsche's chassis software and hardware has been reliable for me.

 

[Mr.Smith]

I can't imagine Porsche losing the ability to produce a sporty feeling car using an expensive option which offers the chassis engineers more parameters to play around with and optimise for each setting.

I see it is not "necessary" but IMO improvements in chassis dynamics are felt every drive. Where I live I would rather have a 4S with active ride than a turbo without. I can't say for the roads you usually drive, of course.

The system I designed for Formula 1 was designed to optimise the aerodynamic platform and allowed me to do things conventional suspension and adjustable dampers couldn't do at all.

Having written that the improved chassis dynamics was worth about 0.3 secs a lap at Silverstone whereas the first guess aero platform optimisation gave 2.1 seconds.
It got banned.

My only concern would be the possible influence on reliability of the complexity but I would still choose it if I was ordering.

Porsche's chassis software and hardware has been reliable for me.

From your experience, what manufacturer has the best chassis dynamics for a road car?

 

[f1eng]

From your experience, what manufacturer has the best chassis dynamics for a road car?

I have very little road car experience but Gordon Murray and Alpine have the sort of passive suspension I like.
My Taycan is a superb compromise in "Normal" IMO. My Ferrari 355 is pretty good.

Outside that I don't know enough to comment.

 

[Fun TC Driving]

I have very limited Taycan experience but in two good length test drives in a 4S CT on average to good road surfaces with 20” wheels but no active ride, its suspension was so compliant I chose to near immediately put both in Sports Plus. My wife and I were very happy with that one change though we thought on poor roads we would probably prefer taking it down to either Sport or Range mode.

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