Suspension tested on pot holes

Despite confirmation from the Government that extra funding will be made available to fix Britain's roads, Ford continue to ensure the toughness and durability of the suspension systems on all its cars and vans. The pothole testing and development processes for chassis and suspension systems are still carried out with Ford engineers at Dunton Technical Centre and Lommel Proving Ground, Belgium. After reading about this I can now relax knowing that my used Ford Focus in Scotland has been through many tests including running real-world road simulations, high-tech data acquisition and thousands of miles of surface testing. Ford use a high-tech equipment to record the load and strain placed upon suspension components, this equipment is fitted with 'Road Load Data Acquisition' vehicle which cost up to £250,000 per corner, and combines with the sophisticated data recording and processing equipment inside the car to make such vehicles worth more than £1.5 million. Ford vehicles have been subjected to highly demanding road surfaces for 40 years, with the Lommel Proving Ground having 50 miles of test tracks and it also includes Lower Dunton Road, a particularly testing section of road located near the Ford Dunton technical Centre in Essex. Simon Mooney, test engineer, Dunton Technical Centre, said: "The challenge for the suspension system comes when it exits the pothole - it can be like hitting a kerbstone. We test all the wheel and tyre sizes that are fitted to the production cars so we know they can cope. We use specially instrumented wheels on the car which measure the load in three directions. On some vehicles there are various sensors totalling some 200 extra channels through which to get the data."