Active suspension has long been a dream of vehicle dynamics engineers, and last year it finally became a reality for a production car with the Ferrari Purosangue. Porsche soon followed with an active suspension system for the Panamera and Taycan. But with Ferrari’s new hypercar, the world will finally see the full potential of this remarkable technology.
First, an introduction to active suspension. Essentially, it is any system that can apply force to a car’s suspension independently of external input. Please note that this is not an adaptive system, which may have features such as adjustable ride height or adjustable dampers. These systems are simply reactive and can only respond to input from the road surface or the driver; an active suspension can apply force to the suspension independently of these influences.
The Ferrari system is based on hardware developed by Canadian supplier Multimatic, True Active Spool Valve (TASV) dampers. These dampers have a 48-volt motor matched to a ball screw that controls the movement of the piston. Each motor can exert a force of 5 kilonewtons (1,120 pounds) into a damper almost instantaneously. This allows the use of relatively soft springs and eliminates the need for anti-roll bars, where the dampers are solely responsible for controlling body movements. Essentially you have a suspension system where each wheel is completely independent of the other, and a system where you can completely decouple the ride and handling characteristics from one side of the vehicle to the other.
(Porsche Active Ride is similar in application, but instead of using motors and ballscrews, it uses hydraulic pumps to vary the fluid level in each damper.)
An angle of the rear suspension of the Ferrari F80.
A system like this offers all kinds of incredible possibilities. For example, the system can optimize the load on each tire separately during all phases of a turn, managing the center of aerodynamic pressure throughout the trajectory. And that’s why it’s exciting to see it on the Ferrari F80. This is a car that can take full advantage of everything active suspension has to offer.
This isn’t meant to disparage the other three active suspension production cars we’ve seen so far. All three are hugely impressive, but each is a heavy-duty four-door that uses active suspension to allow for a wide spread between ride quality and performance. The Taycan Turbo GT is the most overtly track-oriented car to use active suspension, but even that’s a 4,925-pound sedan.
The F80 isn’t the lightest thing in the world; Ferrari quotes a dry weight of 3,362 pounds, and note that a “dry” weight is taken without the fluids required for driving. So realistically this is a £3,500 car. But it’s a true hypercar with 1,200 horsepower thanks to its all-wheel-drive, mid-engine hybrid V-6 powertrain, plus a huge amount of downforce. Two thousand and twenty-four pounds at 155 miles per hour. That’s as much downforce as any road car bar the Aston Martin Valkyrie, which produces 2,425 pounds at 130 mph. Or, I guess, a McMurtry Spéirling if you can consider that a real road car. The F80’s downforce is comparable to the figures of a GT3 racing car.
With this kind of heavy aerodynamics, it is crucial to keep the so-called “platform” of the car stable. The downforce, especially that generated by diffusers under the car, is very sensitive to the ride height. The lower the car gets, the more downforce you get, but there is a point at which the downforce you generate can reach the car’s suspension, creating a blockage in the airflow that bounces the car back up in a vicious circle. If you’re an F1 fan you might recognize this as the ‘porpoiseness’ we saw when the current ground effect aero rules were introduced in 2022.
A Multimatic True Active Spool Valve damper as used on the Ferrari Purosangue.
Essentially, you want to keep the car as flat and level as possible without it sagging. Normally you do this with ultra-stiff springs and anti-roll bars, which is largely fine in a race car, but it’s hardly ideal for a road car. With active suspension you can go so far as to keep the car perfectly level on track, but then use the dampers to really give in to the road.
However, I doubt Ferrari will cancel all body movements. When driving the Purosangue there is body roll, pitch and dive, so the driver has some idea of what the car is doing. A car whose bodywork doesn’t move at all feels very strange. I imagine that Ferrari in the F80 will allow some body movements on the street, while on the track they will severely tamp down, if not completely eliminate, them.
The biggest disadvantages of TASV dampers are cost and weight. The costs are basically irrelevant for a car like this, but the dampers require 48 volts of power and their own cooling circuit. A setup like this is heavier than conventional suspension, but Ferrari clearly thinks the trade-off is worth it. It’s hard not to agree. Active suspension provides unprecedented control over vehicle dynamics. And Ferrari is able to design the entire vehicle in such a way that there is no need for anti-roll bars connecting the left and right sides of the car. An apples-to-apples comparison between active and conventional suspension is therefore not possible here.
A Multimatic True Active Spool Valve damper as used on the Ferrari Purosangue.
In Formula 1 with the Williams FW14B, active suspension proved devastatingly effective. During the 1992 F1 season, Nigel Mansell finished first or second in all but four races. Those four? All pensions. The 1993 Williams FW15C was also dominant, and for 1994 F1 banned electronic driving aids. To this day, active suspension is still prohibited.
There’s nothing more effective at getting the most out of a car with massive power, massive downforce and massive mechanical grip. And it also ensures that the F80 will be comfortable as a road car.
I don’t expect this suspension system to make many more headlines than this in the coverage of the F80. Still, this seems to be a key ingredient for the car, the thing that should make the F80 incredibly fast yet usable on the road.