Quote:
Originally Posted by minus9
Adaptive does not "smooth" the ride. Yes, there are three settings you can choose for the damping, but that's not the real thing happening here.
Adaptive suspension, as you should guess from the name, adapts constantly. Each axle is evaluated many times per second to determine settings based upon your choice of the three modes as well as what each tire is encountering on the road.
With the great chassis on this car the cornering is so flat it's amazing to find this side of a track-specific car. Whether on the road or on the track the performance was fantastic. I got off the Nurburgring with a big smile amazed at just how planted it was.
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I had adaptive suspension on my F10 and passive on my E60. Both had ARS. The F10 was very smooth ( which I strongly disliked ) in all modes compared to the E60. With ARS disabled the F10 rolled like a ship on open seas. So in my experience BMW adaptive does smooth the ride while doing little for roll stabilization ( except the added stiffness from the mode ). The beefy roll bars on the F8X and the springs are mainly to be attributed to the flat cornering not the dampers ( again the mode adds stiffness but not so much the adaptive part ). Adaptive's biggest advantage is likely that it does make the car more planted and contributes to more grip and higher speeds on the track by smoothing out irregularities better than the passive dampers and their job is not so much increased roll stabilization. I.e they are not really a substitution for roll bars.
Maybe it's different for the F8X I don't know but what I do know is that I don't like the feel of adaptive dampers and I mourn the day it will be our only choice. That day will come
