Photo: stkone via Flicker
For most of their history, cars have been floaty boats, with soft suspension, as an extremely small percentage of car buyers really wanted a firm ride, which is useful 3% of the time, with the comfortable ride being much more useful, 97% of the time. It was only from the 1970s and 1980s onward (when cars had aleady matured as a concept) that manufacturers decided that people actually needed to take corners fast - We wonder why?
Ever since manufacturers started to testing their cars on the Nurburgring (and other similar test facilities), concentrating on getting that 0.05 extra cornering ‘g’ and adding basalt and granite in new cars suspension, not realizing that, aside from a few people, not many of us live or will ever get to see the ‘Ring - which has gone bankrupt, anyway!
Citroen understood this and gave their very underpowered 2CV the softest suspension they could make, in order to make it comfortable for the broken and bombed up roads which were the norm in post-war France, when it was first revealed, way back, in 1948.
Its suspension, while not being particularly complicated, made French farmers (main customers) feel comfortable as the pottered along farm lanes at no more than 30 km/h - why go faster? Rushing only leads to bad things and this applies to more than just driving. Why not drive slowly, have the top down (stereotype alert!), smoke a refreshing cigarette and take in the country side - which is probably what most of its first French owners did.
We can’t really remember the last time we were in a car which was properly comfortable, not even the expensive and luxurious stuff we tested impressed us in this respect. The Citroen DS of the 1960s was one of the last properly-riding cars to be mass-produced, as even Citroen's recent cars, bearing the DS badge, have rock-solid suspension which deems them unworthy to bear the DS badge, regardless of what Citroen tells you the badge now means - it is a piece of their history which should not have been tampered with in this way - at least they can still make a visually striking car.
Citroen understood this and gave their very underpowered 2CV the softest suspension they could make, in order to make it comfortable for the broken and bombed up roads which were the norm in post-war France, when it was first revealed, way back, in 1948.
Its suspension, while not being particularly complicated, made French farmers (main customers) feel comfortable as the pottered along farm lanes at no more than 30 km/h - why go faster? Rushing only leads to bad things and this applies to more than just driving. Why not drive slowly, have the top down (stereotype alert!), smoke a refreshing cigarette and take in the country side - which is probably what most of its first French owners did.
We can’t really remember the last time we were in a car which was properly comfortable, not even the expensive and luxurious stuff we tested impressed us in this respect. The Citroen DS of the 1960s was one of the last properly-riding cars to be mass-produced, as even Citroen's recent cars, bearing the DS badge, have rock-solid suspension which deems them unworthy to bear the DS badge, regardless of what Citroen tells you the badge now means - it is a piece of their history which should not have been tampered with in this way - at least they can still make a visually striking car.
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