ASTON MARTIN VALKYRIE SUSPENSION

Now that keys to the Valkyrie has been handed over to their respective owners, some of its traits has been pleasantly surprising, traits that were not hyped up upon the Valkyries conception. From a technical perspective, much has been talked about on the Aston Martin Valkyrie's very ambitious performance, specification, aerodynamics, weight, material use, design and execution but not much on its suspension. Those who has driven or been in one says that one thing that stands out is how compliant it is when driving on public roads at publics speeds. Of course, Aston Martin has never made it a secret that due to its high downforce capability, it would need active suspension for these varying conditions, however, when numbers are out there, it has to be said that they certainly manage to apply a very large band of load variations to its mechanical and hydraulic system compared to the usual active suspension on production cars

See, the Valkyrie weighs 1,270 kilograms or 2,800ibs dry. On public surroundings and surface conditions, some people are surprised at how well it handles challenging surface bumps yet Aston Martin says that the Valkyrie is capable of up to 3.3 g-force of dynamic loads. The fact that it needs to bleed out its diffuser where the Valkyries total downforce is up to 1,100 kilograms or over 2,425ibs to prevent overloading its tyres goes to show how much load its chassis is subjected to. This would also mean how much its suspension is subjected to. Thats from say 1,400 kilograms wet with a passanger to way over 2,400 kilograms

So from handling say 1,400 kilograms wet with a driver onboard then, upon downforce, add another 1,000+ kilograms subjected to it suspension and then all of these conditions multiplied by its dynamic load capabilities especially during braking from top speed, all these attributes would certainly cause a lot of curiosity as to how much load variations its active suspension could handle and handle it well

To achieve this, it comes down to their execution. Its all round double wish-bone suspension design is held up by rather lengthy push-rod bell-cranks that is supported by torsion bars. This bell-crank is also directly linked to a damper, anti-roll bar linkage and a hydraulic strut for each corner. It is this hydraulic strut that dictates load variation on the suspension plus the variable damper. On low downforce, the hydraulic system does not intervene much and let the kinetics do its work as soft suspension. When more load support is need then the hydraulic system would start to add pressure into this network of accumulators, tubes, sensors and struts for an accurate amount of added stiffness depending on how much load the chassis needs. Its hydraulic system's peak pressure is 200 bar or 2,900ibs. Basically, this means that there is a form of variable spring within its active suspension hydraulic to piggy-back on its mechanical soft set up