Lotus 99T F1 active suspension

[MrTautologist]

i may b wrong but...to say senna would have lived with such active suspension surely isnt true. the "activeness" was metered in relation to speed and suspension compression, not chassis' height. the faster the more aero compresses suspension so the suspension sets higher. settings would b calibrated from assumption of correct tire pressures. 4senna's crash these were2low. so surely the arse would still have dragged on the floor, tires being gripper than skid blocks, he would still have crashed?

[nickflame9]

FIA officials should be in jail, for the deliberate murder of Ayrton Senna. The ban on active suspension was silly, something clearly seen to be a safety enhancement.

[tpd10001]

Chris Economaki rocks.

[loowww1]

why they don't continue with it? in 1992 williams will be world champion with the same suspension..... tthis lotus is from 1987

[freewill51]

Senna would have said, "get that crap out of my car! It is slowing me down!"

[ffrgtm]

@freewill51 FUNNY! He actually abandoned his team and jumped over to the williams team (which had active) because the active cars were so much faster. Simultaneously, the FIA banned active, resulting in Senna being forced to drive a car designed for active.. without active. The car was very unpredictable... and eventually resulted in his death.

[FlamerK6]

lol pedotubes

[MrFarty98]

That guy needs to find a girlfriend!!!

[gnark1ll1us]

and now my mums got it on her Honda Civic : D

[ffrgtm]

@gnark1ll1us nope

[JBqwertyDAWG]

its funny because its outdated

[bob333336]

@JBqwertyDAWG Not really, the 1993 Williams F1 car, that is pretty much the perfect execution of Active suspension, by todays standards, is still the most technologically advanced racing car ever. Therefor it may be old by age, but not by tech standards.

[theprof291166]

My Soarer Active UZZ32 does this too.

[dumbass45601]

Gotta love Chris Econimaki one of the greatest American Motorsports Journos ever!

[spiritcrusher923]

2004 was the fastest year overall for f1. All the newer rules are in place to help keep the corner speeds down because if the cars were built the way enginners want to the cars would be doing speeds which the drivers wouldnt be able to react..... that being said just this season one or two f1 lap records were broken this season

[McLarenMercedes]

Again Lotus were innovative and ahead of the rest. With better finances they might have remained competitive in the 90's...

At least they are back now in some form.

[Aspiesmannewzealand]

The active suspension was used in the early 80's by differnt teams but the big issue was the lack of technology but the 87 Lotus didnt do too badly. But the FW14B and the FW15C was proof of what F1 should and could be.

KERS is returning next year but instead of one system teams can choose which compay can build the system or even the teams can build it. Jean Tolt is alot better as a FIA Presdent than Max Mosley.

[cassioluizzancope]

Senna Lotus Car!!!

[111teamomori]

Very well presented, i'll let go the corvette reference :) On the debate on tech from F1 being used in the modern car market active suspension was not directly relevent to consumer transport. F1 is a sport about dynamic supremacy, not green issues, hence why kers bombed. I am interested in any tech the teams come up with to improve their racing and if it is never going to available in a showroom i'm not bothered. All i need in a fun road car is rwd, limited slip diff and a short ratio rack.

[darkoneforce2]

>

^ KERS bombed because Mosley was an moron obsessed with bunching the field together and restricted this technology to death.

Some of us want GP racing to become relevant again and are sick of these retarded semi-spec cars and the "improve quality of racing" PR B* measures.

And there are car with active or semi-active suspensions.

In fact the Corvette ZR1 uses a semi-active suspension system.

[schumisebas]

@darkoneforce2 The Citroen DS19 of 1955 used a Hidropneumatic suspension very similar to this technology of the Lotus 99T, but obviously without computers

[yakjedi]

Darkoneforce2 ..,never heard of KERS then!? f1 pushes the envelope just as much now but within realistic parameters that may actually filter down to your average road car... unlike active suspension.

[dombou70]

Why can't a road car feature active suspension? Some cars do already in fact.

[darkoneforce2]

True, even some Opel/Vauxhall models feature semi-active suspensions more advanced then the passive 1960s suspensions used in F1.

[timothy51886]

@dombou70 did you just answer your own question?

[darkoneforce2]

The KERS systems used in F1 are actually very inefficient ( ~20 efficiency vs. ~70 efficiency of the 4 wheel system KERS system Toyota used on one of their racecars the Supra HV-R hybrid) due to restrictions.

Because of these restrictions they are not like production car KERS (those 4 wheel system far more efficient) and they really a PR move from Max Mosley.

Active suspensions have filters to some production cars.

[darkoneforce2]

F1 GP non-racing isn't pushing the envelope anymore.

It's all about "cost cutting measures", "driving skill" and other PR BS.

What this once glorious and once most innovative of all auto racing series has become is shame, a disgrace and a lie.

To call the current racecars "Grand Prix Formula" cars is a blasphemy when you the consider racecars like the silver arrows, the innovative Coppers, Lotuses, the ground-effect cars, the turbo monsters, the active ride cars.

[ToroQ3000]

LOWRIDER LOTUS!!! I wanna see, just for fun, an f1 with hydrolics and a bumpin stereo with some choloes in the seat, just BUMPIN IT.

[JSPRFRDKS]

lol

[darkoneforce2]

>

^ When Grand Prix was still about pushing the envelope, about technological innovation.

Today it's nothing more then casual near-spec crap racertainment .

[BlueFox284]

I'm building a model of this car, and this video was pretty helpful as a refrence. And intresting to as well!!! Thanks!

[fyldths]

i dont know if i would trust my life on 80's computing technology. a piece of debris can wreck havoc if it blocks a pto tube. i recall a piece of duct tape over a pto tube

caused a airliner in chile to think it was at high altitude. but was really low and crashed.

[V6NSX]

Active never had a serious future or contribution to make in F1 and was never fully followed up due to most tracks having badly uneven and some dangerously poor surfaces which could never be analysed by a computer in real time. Besides unless its had eyeballs the system was never active but only reactive as others suggest here. I worked on Citreons for years and FWIW they are still a bag of sh*te today driven by bank middle management.

[Gchoob]

I have a Citroen CX and the suspension is incredible but it does roll too much. The BOSE suspension is the most impressive so far fitted to an old Lexus they even made it jump over an obstacle.

[azraaell]

citroen suspention goes back to the DS, cx self levels and stuff and runs smoother than anything, rolls royce have used or still use citroen suspention , but only at back for a smooth ride, citroen have made most of the important steps in motoring apart from volvo with the seat belt, citroen are to thank for this suspention realy

[DaveDrumstick]

You should all check out the active suspension system developed by BOSE

[superjan101079]

cool video. unfortunately the FIA banned active suspension at the end of season 1993. it was a great technology, but too dangerous, made the cars behave unnatural and unpredictable, as some heavy accidents proved.

[brianmollineau]

wow, amazing vid, we need more like this, GREAT VIDEO!!

[Ben4810]

Lotus Engineering did build an Esprit-bodied 'test-mule' fully spec'd up with active suspension & the computer sat on the passenger seat.....

I think this was built both to further explore the systems for their road car clients & additionally the F1 cars (they were separate companies by then) & I think there are some pictures somewhere of Senna driving this Esprit at Hethel.

[russ13b]

SID, the Structures, Isolations, and Dynamics test car. Was fully composite construction, and had engine and driveline from a metro 6r4. In the 90's autocar magazine had a couple of features on it.

Active suspension and steering, amongst other things. Was said to have so much feel it made a caterham seem mute.

[russ13b]

There have been no fully active road cars. Citroen hydropneumatic is passive, hydractive 1, 2 & activa are passive-reactive.

[azraaell]

there is a xantia with the racing suspention

[russ13b]

The xantia activa is not active, the name is misleading. nor was it designed for racing. They are all passive-reactive, all they use a computer for is so that the car can decide if it needs to be "normal" or "sport", the system always works in the same way, just with some parts of the system being isolated for "sport"

[azraaell]

there is aspecial edition, it was on top gear, they wondered why they dont build it into a better base

[ricardolangone]

I guess it was Piquet (1988) that drove this car, but unfortunately Mclaren had a better equipment on that stage.

I guess this was the last inovation of Lotus in formula one.

Lotus was incredilbe ... I miss them in F1.

[bighimey]

No, Senna drove this car car in 1987 before moving to McLaren. Piquet had the 1988 Lotus 100T.

[ricardolangone]

Yes, you are right. It was in 1987!

Senna and Nakagima drove it.

... last victory of Lotus in Formula One ...

[bighimey]

After losing key people and engine developers, staying afloat in formula one became increasingly difficult. Lotus merged with Pacific GP in 1995. A year later, following another bad season, Pacific GP left F1.

[penalozaur]

Xantia Activa is still adaptive, the actuators aren;t fast enough. Is has adjustable sway bar that takes care of the roll. Anyway, a great car with something really special.

[russ13b]

It's not nothing to do with how fast a system works, the name comes from how it works.

[barnabyheal]

Great video, always interested me this.

Google Citroen Xantia Activa, that has active suspension.

[IcemanForbes]

looked absolutely brilliant when the engineer was blowing into the pitot tube.

[gofastandwynn]

Is was with CBS.

So, did the 90 Corvette have active suspension?

[sennahj]

I don't think so. No roadcar has had active suspension.

[KeTtLe1208]

um yes they have, cirteon XM (1989) was the first. U americans still havent used it if thats wat u mean, unless u call honda or toyota american. Only good cars use active suspension so i guess that explains why no american car has used it!

[sennahj]

Citroen XM has a suspension system that has been used since 1955 on the DS. Citroen does not have a active suspension system, but a half oil half compressed gas system.

[Gchoob]

Sorry dude, in 1988 Citroen did have a concept car called the ACTIVA and Activa 2 with fully active systems.

In 1996, they had a full production car called the Xantia Activa available using this system . I still see these from time to time here in the UK.

[sennahj]

That system doesn't work like the one on the Lotus. Citroen doesn't have PTO tubes.

[Gchoob]

No one said it did! No citroen's type uses accelerometers etc to measure speed. Anyway, it's a real shame the Lotus vanished from F1, they were legends.

[sennahj]

Ok. I know that Audi uses a system with magnets.

[russ13b]

These cars weren't fully active, they were passive-reactive. Activa was a development of hydractive 2, which was also passive-reactive. Don't let the names mislead you. The use of accelerometers etc is only so that the computer can decide if the car needs to be "normal" or "sport", it does nothing else. A fully active system is very different to the citroen system.

[Gchoob]

I realise the Citroen hydractive system is reactive as it requires an input to react to - I think I see the same with the activa system but I would say the Lotus system is also reactive if it uses PTO tubes like a plane - it uses these to react to. What is a 'Fully Active' system then? I recall in the 80s Lotus did have a set up that 'read' the surface ahead with some type of sensory.

[russ13b]

A passive system reacts to something happening to it, think of citroens ride height correctors. A reactive system can adapt itself to changing parameters, like a hydractive citroen changing normal to sport, which it does by opening/closing electrovalves to isolate parts of it's system. Put those together and you get passive-reactive, works by levers and valves, but can adapt itself. Fully active is controlled entirely by computer, no levers, lots&lots of sensors, does the right thing accordingly

[jonnyspa27]

OK That was great footage. Was that from CBS coverage of the USGP or was it when Chris was still with ESPN? I'm surprised that Lotus gave all access to the car like that! Thanks!