Thursday Salute to Originals: Harmonious Driving With Bose
We always admire innovative engineering, and few companies can rival Bose when it comes to originality and iterative design. Whether designing astonishing sounds systems for homes and automobiles or making extremely effective noise-cancellation headphones, Bose delivers. Few realize that for the past several decades this company has been patiently developing a patented suspension system for automobiles. Since the early 1980s, Bose has toiled to design the science of the perfect system, all the while waiting for technology to catch up to the idea.
While some may question how a company specializing in audio products could make the jump to car suspension, this ignores the passion of company founder Dr. Bose. His fascination with the equipment began when he bought a brand-new Pontiac Bonneville in 1957. The air-ride suspension intrigued him and he later bought a Citröen ten years later that was similarly equipped. Though susceptible to break-downs, the unique system inspired Dr. Bose to find the solution to a common automotive problem. To make a ride that feels smooth to the passenger, one must make the coils and shock absorbers loose so that they soak up the bumps and dips that proliferate roadways. This comes with a sacrifice to handling, making the car feel like a ship sailing the seas. Alternately, when one tunes a tight suspension for quick maneuverability, every pebble and nick in the road travels through the car and up to the passenger.
The result could be called nothing more that extraordinary, one of the most important developments since independent suspension. The system allows for tight cornering with virtually zero sway. The body remains level during braking and accelerating, experiencing little to no diving or squatting. A bane for speed bumps, the car’s chassis barely feels the energy from driving over rough and uneven roads. Watch the whole video below all the way to the end and you’ll see the car literally hop over an obstruction, even performing a bow at the end of the demonstration. Throughout the video you’ll see side by side comparisons with an auto sporting the conventional suspension system. The results speak for themselves.
Image credits: Bose.com