Dr Alex Moulton, Inventor of Hydrolastic Suspension. Made in 1995.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ก.ย. 2024
- This was on a old VHS tape I had recorded in 1995 from the Discovery Channel. I have cleaned up the audio & cropped the video.
Moulton started up a new company, Moulton Developments Limited, to design the suspension system for British Motor Corporation's new small car, the Mini, being designed by his friend Sir Alec Issigonis. The combination of conical rubber springs and small wheels was one of the many innovative developments which allowed Issigonis to achieve the Mini's small overall size. This was later refined into the hydrolastic and hydragas suspension systems used on later British Leyland cars such as the Austin Maxi and Rover Metro.
Moulton also designed the Moulton Bicycle, again using rubber suspension and small wheels. Alex Moulton Bicycles is based in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England.
I owned a '64 Morris Cooper S when I was a young man and was greatly impressed by the hydrolastic suspension, The ride and handling of this amazing little car greatly exceeded other cars of its day. I lived on Hardscrabble road which was aptly named and my mini glided over the pot holes like it was on rails! I remember another road that had a sudden hump that was marred by cars bottoming out. The mini would go over over this hump at speed with hardly any notice. Hydrolastic did have its downsides. One amusing one would occur when accelerating. The rear suspension would compress causing the fluid to raise the front suspension greatly exaggerating the effects of normal acceleration weight transfer making the car seem as though it wanted to do a wheelie! Another disadvantage of Hydrolastic was it tended to leak. Mine had definitely leaked causing the suspension to be lowered. While that improved the handling it did lead to the downfall of the car because the integrated sump/transmission was so low to the ground.
Look like Toby knew to head for the bushes as Alex came up the drive.
I have a 1967 riley elf auto with hydrolastic suspension, must say it's a very good suspension system r.i.p alex moulten.
The advantage of hydragas is the small amount of room it takes up allowing more room for the passengers.
Completing my comment on my 64 Cooper S, I have always considered that car to be, by far, the most exciting car I have ever owned. It is most unfortunate that BMW did not use the suspension design in its mini recreation, I have to believe that modern computer controlled valves could have compensated for the acceleration weight shift and modern materials could have made the system leak proof. In addtion to a far better ride, the BMW mini could have been at the same time both smaller and far roomier and I would have surely traded in my M3 for a new Cooper S!
I had hydragas in my Austin Metro MK. 1. In the three years I had it, the suspension collapsed twice due to hydragas leaks, but the ride was excellent. Really miss it.
The Mark1 Metro misused Hydragas suspension, much to the annoyance and dismay of Dr Moulton, the car lacked the highly desirable front to rear interconnection which would have given the car great pitch control and great ant-roll control during cornering. Spen King of BL was the cause deciding against the interconnection therefore compromising the car, Dr Moulton bought a Metro (known as the "Brown Car") and installed the F to R connection and the car was many years later on driven by Michael Edwards CEO, duly impressed the correct F-R interconnection Edwards ordered F-R interconnection for the Rover 100 (Mk 2 Metro), a car which rode as softly as a limousine yet cornered without roll like a low C of G sportscar
I remember my dad's Wolsey Hornet's suspension was broken and used to drive like a 2cv haha