Where I live, and probably where you live too, there are more than enough bumpy roads. And I’ve lately realised that in almost every new car I drive, I half-grit my teeth when I see a ridge, pothole, ripple or dip approaching its low profiles.
What I’m preparing for is a thumping, small-scale shockwave to earthquake through the car. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t but with most cars, you can reckon on a hard thudding at some point on every drive.
What made me notice the half-gritting bit is driving something pretty old, but with a mileage accumulation low enough that I’m confident it behaves pretty much as its makers intended. The car in question is one I own, and rather shamefully, I’ve been too busy to use it much over the past year.
But this week I’ve been enjoying it rather a lot, and the thing I’ve been enjoying most of all is its way with bumps. Which might seem a surprise for a machine that’s supposed to be a sports car, and even more of a surprise given its suspension layout, which appears to border on the crude.
But the McPherson strut, live axle chassis arrangement of the Triumph TR7 was masterminded by legendary Rover engineer Spen King, who reckoned that a properly controlled live axle and well-damped, long-travel springs was the way to go for America, where most TR7s were destined.
And these days, it’s a great solution for Britain’s turbulent roads, too. It works especially well in the coupé version that I have, whose unusually stiff body structure (challenging vehicle roll-over legislation was expected when the TR7 was being developed, which delayed the arrival of a drop-top) allows the suspension to work its long travel ways without causing shell flex.
In fact, the TR7 is far from the best-riding car of the past 40 years, but the fact that this simply engineered sports car so easily bests just about every new car I’ve driven over the past five years reminded me how much we’ve lost when it comes to ride comfort. Of course, we’ve gained massively in high-speed body control, flat cornering and outright grip.
You can see the advance compared to the TR7, whose body-roll, brake-dive and acceleration-triggered bottom-squat regularly disturb the calm of its advance unless you’re deft with wheel, throttle and brake.
But I don’t mind trading that for a car in which you can relish the onslaught of crests, dips and heaves and actually enjoy the accomplished way it absorbs them all. It’s a sensation you’ll struggle to experience in almost any new car made today.
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I have spent 8 years looking
I had a drive in the latest Cayman, which was thoroughly amusing, but my main dealer will not bring in a stock car with the standard 18" wheels and only stocks Caymans with 20" wheels. I could, of course, order one with standard wheels but was told that it might be difficult to sell later.
This tells me something about Porsche drivers - pride feels no pain and that they are mainly bought by people to impress other people. There can be no other reason as most that I see are just toodling along at the same speed as all the other traffic.
If anyone can tell me of a car with a decent performance that rides well, I would be extremely grateful. Lotus used to combine good ride with handling, why can't others?
If you think British roads are rough ...
I had to upgrade the front springs not so much to handle the increased engine weight (it's only about 40 lbs after I eliminated some of the unnecessary accessories such as air conditioning and the over engineered and ugly bumper structures) because of the suspension bottoming out at speed over the potholes and concrete joints.
But the ride is superb, even with 165/60 profile tires installed on some MG F 15" wheels. These were installed so I could fit larger front disc brakes that the added performance demands at some small increase in unsprung weight
What a pity that Triumph developed the 7 coupe first rather than the 8 convertible. I've owned a lot of sports cars over the years but the only ones I've kept are my '65 Elan and the TR7.5. Nothing can replace them for sportiness with a supple ride. Except for my old Renault 8 Gordini which I sold before I knew better, and that had a roof.
@toptidy