According to an item shown on last night's Fifth Gear, the best car to be in when going over speed bumps is a Citroen Xantia.
Specifically they tested the amount of movement experienced by the driver when going over a Bedfordshire standard speed bump at various speeds in a Mark 5 Golf, a Porsche Cayenne and a N reg Xantia they'd bought off Ebay for £650.
So, expect the used values of reasonable condition Xantias to rocket over the next few weeks.
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Soupytwist !
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No surprise there!
HIgher profile tyres and soft suspension wil always win on this sort of test. Our old Subaru Forester on 65 section tyres is also extremely good at this. Try a Suzuki Wagon R+ on low profile tyres and you will know the meaning of a hard ride!
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I reckon it should be something with soft, long-travel suspension that's NOT interconnected.
I.e. a Renault 4.
Anyone tried it in one?
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Doesn't HJ reckon the current Micra is one of the best for speed bump surfing? And thats with a dinky wheelbase. Mind you, I reckon a Range Rover would go over them pretty well. From personal experience Citroen Berlingos do, and current model SEAT Ibizas definitely don't. Brings a new meaning to the word crashy.
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We had a 306 we used to go to and from custody units when on call. This was the best car bar none in the collective fleet on the speed bumps, pillow soft ride.
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I agree with PU. My old 306 would ride some ramps at 30mph quite comfortable, but no other car can take them at more than 15mph.
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Citroen C4 seemed good, lolloped over them without threatening to bang its sump on the road, quite comfortably and quietly. My Escort goes over them much quicker than my daughter's Golf although the Golf feels softer. The Escort has a longer wheelbase and firmer springing. Something about the rhythm of speed bumps catches the Golf suspension out, some sort of resonance effect. What is needed though is suspension tuned specifically to deal with these things at a reasonable speed. May not be compatible with agreeable high-speed handling out on the road though, short of expensive hydro-pneumatic arrangements with Town and Country settings....
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"I reckon a Range Rover would go over them pretty well"
But not the RR Sport, which has less ground clearance than our Mazda!
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I reckon it should be something with soft, long-travel suspension that's NOT interconnected. I.e. a Renault 4. Anyone tried it in one?
Not over a speed bump but I've been driven over raised manhole covers (can I say that these days, are they now called inspection chambers or something?) and deep pot holes in a R4 and barely noticed them.
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still wouldn't want a Xantia though.........you often see them bouncing around like anything, they must have something wrong with thier suspensions when they get a bit older..........It would make you'd feel sick.
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still wouldn't want a Xantia though.........you often see them bouncing around like anything, they must have something wrong with thier suspensions when they get a bit older..........It would make you'd feel sick.
It just needs new spheres, an easy enough job. The trouble with old hydropneumatic cits is they get into the hands of people who treat them like ordinary cars.
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Surely a Xantia with working Hydro-neumatic suspension is bound to win. But how many will have fully working suspension.
But more importantly... I'd rather have an accident in a Golf MK V or a Cayenne any day. Or a new Fiesta come to that.
Take speed humps at the right speed and not such an issue - only a big problem when speeding?
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The problem for most people rtj is to pass the damn things without being slowed down. Obviously if you prat about trying to select the 'correct speed' you will have different results depending on the car. What we really need and really want is a car that just makes the things unnoticeable at any speed at all. Chance would be a fine thing though, I agree.
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2CV
659.
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2CV
I agree.
Wasn't it designed to carry cartons of eggs across farmers fields without breaking them? Or is that an urban myth.
Cheers
DP
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That's what they always say was a design *requirement*, but not a specific task the car was designed *for* !
Thing is, the 2CV's suspension is interconnected front to rear, which means when the front wheels hit the bump, the rears are forced downwards, giving rise to a sharpish vertical displacement of the whole bodyshell (the same effect was much more sharp, I remember, in an Austin Maxi).
This is why I suggested a Renault 4 - the front, and then the rear, wheels should be able to just absorb the speedbump while the body remains relatively undisturbed.
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Renault 4's all dead now. Rusted away to dust.
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2CV would probably pitch quite violently over speed bumps if I remember correctly. Could also easily bottom the front cross-member (but not the sump fortunately) on the road. They are fine for a wave a foot or two from crest to crest, dodgy for anything longer.
The answer for speed bumps is some sort of desert racer suspension. Too expensive unfortunately.
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"Renault 4's all dead now. Rusted away to dust"
Not in France - saw loads this summer especially in rural areas of Limousin
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Phil
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What we really need and really want is a car that just makes the things unnoticeable at any speed at all.
They're there to try to get people to moderate their speed in the interest of the safety of others. Why would anyone want to defeat the object of them?
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L\'escargot.
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All drivers do, or most. Cars are sold to drivers. QED.
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So Lud, what you're saying for example is on my street with speed humps and a 20mph speed limit people with the right car should be able to drive at say 40mph? Or maybe just 30mph without feeling the bumps....
I always thought speed humps were there to control speed, i.e. you will have to slow down to the limit. If people obeyed speed limits we wouldn't need the speed humps would we.
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Most people do, more or less, and the damn things are still there. They are an ill-considered small-time politician's fashion, not an aid to safety at all.
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Speedbumps don't seem to be a problem on Hyundais either -- the suspension is set up soft to cater for American tastes (hence the slighly flollopy leany handling you get on these cars) and as a result, with high-profile tyres again (175/70R13 in the case of the Accent) they mop up most of the bumps on the road.
Older Nissans on the other hand, rock 'ard. Bang over the humps they go.
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I have to say though that the humps around these parts aren't so bad -- from the county of no speed cameras comes the speed hump you can go over with no bump whatsoever if you position it correctly (they're a little less than a car width across so you can position the car so that the wheels go around the hump on either side, and they're also low enough so that they don't scrape the bottom of the car as you go over them).
I can usually go over the humps at full 30mph in the Hyundai as if they aren't there.
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Speed bumps? No such thing in a hire car ;-)
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Ha! Reminds me of Keith Floyd on his cooking tour of andaluscia; he takes a ford escort off the road and onto a very steep scrubby track with plants scraping off the exhaust all the way and the wheels spinning in places to get up onto the flat ledge at the top and set up his cooking equipment. After he gets up there he says (as best as I remember ) 'Theres all this nonsense about off road vehicles and 4x4s but of course the only car that really will go anywhere is a hire car'
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"not an aid to safety at all."
Especially for the emergency services, for whom lack of speed is sometimes deadly. Perhaps there's scope for an ambulance based on a C6...
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Surely, as speed bumps are there to slow down everyone rather than just the people who break the speed limit, then doesn't that constitute collective punishment which is illegal under the Geneva convention?
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Aim low, expect nothing & dont be disappointed
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When I said "right speed" I of course I meant the "speed limit" a concept missed in this thread . Hope I'm not crossing a speed controlled road when any of you speeding cars are approaching ...
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If it's me rtj, I will see you staggering into the carriageway in front of the traffic and slow down in good time withoiut even a chirp of tyres. I save the lives of careless or suicidal pedestrians in this way every week. Let us hope none of them manage to cause an accident in which I am involved.
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It made the point well enough (old Xantia better than Porsche Cayenne shock!) but it would have been nice to compare with a new C6. Citroen seem to make little of their wonderful suspension, presumably because people are still afraid of it.
I'd like to have seen a Subaru Impreza on the same track, too - aren't they the getaway car of choice these days?
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(old Xantia better than PorscheCayenne shock!)
Must say I wd doubt that... Cayenne is sure to shrug bumps off being so big and having all that oh-so-sorted suspension kit... still it's a bit on the huge side for convenient traffic use I wd think. Too small is no good but with too big you are often going to get held up for ages by prats including yourself... I am assuming here that most speed bumps are metropolitan or at least urban.
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The purpose of the test on 5th Gear was to disperse any urban myths that going over speed humps faster was more comfortable for both the car and passengers than going slower over them.
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The purpose of the test on 5th Gear was to disperse any urban myths that going over speed humps faster was more comfortable for both the car and passengers than going slower over them.
And somewhat ironically came a day after Discovery broadcast a Mythbusters edition in which they confirmed the self-same "myth". They found that driving fast over corrugated panels is smoother at higher speeds -- common in Australia where this urban legend started.
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they confirmed the self-same "myth". They found thatdriving fast over corrugated panels is smoother at higher speeds -- common in Australia where this urban legend started.
And in Africa on desert dirt roads which build up corrugations from the resonant effect of vehicle suspension. The French call the surface 'tole ondulee' (sorry no accents) of corrugated iron. The corrugations are a bit bigger than that though. Obviously going slowly shakes the fillings out of your teeth, but over 50mph or so the whole thing smooths out. The downside of course is that since you are skipping across the tops of the waves, adhesion is greatly reduced. Easy if you now how though.
A frequent blood-pressure-raising experience for me is to follow some utter pfd through a nice cobbled dogleg, the sort of rat run I love and often use in London. You see these, don't know what the word is, onanists in softly suspended brand new motors driving onto the cobbles and slowing to the most bone-jarring speed they can find, undoubtedly uncomfortable in their new Mercs and such but actually noisy as well in my old Ford estate, which would much prefer to be going well over the limit on cobbles (except in the wet!).
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actually noisy as well in my old Ford estate, which would much prefer to be going well over the limit on cobbles (except in the wet!).
Yup, only problem is that if you happen to hit a pothole in the road at the faster speed you're liable to put your teeth through your tongue.
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And then you kill the child crossing and go to prison presumably. And this forum used as evidence of your desire to speed in built up areas regardless???
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And then you kill the child
Take it easy rtj. I assure you I am not dangerous. Believe it or not as you choose.
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And actually rtj, are you one of those infuriating people who mimse on cobbles instead of driving at a comfortable speed? I think we should be told.
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We have a local cobbled street round the corner from me and the local Ford garage. Proven excellent to trouble shoot and then fix the annoying bush problem on the Mondeo last year.
So I don't "mimse" on that road when I drive down it. Not always on route but go down it every so often to check the bushes on the car.
But that road is actually a 30mph road, albeit with closely parked cars on either side but you can do 30mph easily.
Now talk of cobbled streets, anyone remember the UK bike racing stage on Constitution Hill in Swansea. Cobbled street, up a very steep hill on a racing bike. And they had to do it twice in the circuit. Ouch.
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their once was i private road about 1200 yards long with speed humps [not council laid] where the recommened speed was 15 mph, and at that speed it was no problem , but also on the days when needs must you took them at 45mph that was also ok, im sure some techo knows why that was.
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I can't see the problem with speed humps for a normal motorist. The amount of time you lose by slowing down sufficiently to be able to go over them comfortably is insignificant. And if you don't see them soon enough in advance then you're not being as observant as you should be.
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L\'escargot.
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My 2CV is very good over speed humps, despite the suspension being inter-connected. It's all so soft, that the interconnection is neither here nor there.
BXs are also good, better than the stiffer Xantia.
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We have bad roads and loads of speed bumps here in Sheffield.
So I bought a Xantia with all the toys, which as it happens includes Hydractive 2 suspension.
Apparently speed bumps are uncomfortable ;-)
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Xantia HDi.
Buy a Citroen and get to know the local GSF staff better...
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