“Air suspension and its problems” — American Automobile press note, Sept. 1957

In this document

The document is an American press note, very partially legible on page 40 (text printed upside down, fragments only identifiable with uncertainty), followed by a page 41 which is much more legible and constitutes the end of it.

Information from Detroit

Page 40 suggests a title, “Air suspension and its problems”, and mentions that air equipment could be fitted to several 1958 models, with a reference to Detroit as the source. The names Cadillac and Eldorado Brougham appear, but in a state too fragmentary to be cited with certainty p. 40.

The body of the article (p. 41)

The legible part explains that these new suspensions resemble existing independent front suspensions with coil springs, the latter being replaced by “rubber chambers having roughly the same dimensions”, themselves probably enclosed in a steel chamber limiting their expansion p. 41.

The article indicates that tests on coaches (“cars”) have shown that these rubber springs withstand nearly a million kilometres without wear, the only possible failure being an accidental puncture, comparable to the breakage of a metal spring. The text anticipates that maintenance problems will come rather from the “leveling systems” p. 41.

The note is explicitly attributed to the magazine American Automobile, dated September 1957 p. 41, and addressed internally to “Mr. Henry-Biochard”, with a copy to “Mr. Cadiou” p. 40.

Context

At the end of the 1950s, the American automotive industry was exploring various air or pneumatic suspension solutions, notably at General Motors: the Cadillac Eldorado Brougham is indeed known, in automotive history, for having offered an air suspension as an option from 1957.

At Citroën, the DS, launched in 1955, uses for its part a hydropneumatic suspension developed by Paul Magès — a technology different in its principle (air/oil linkage) from the purely pneumatic systems mentioned by the American press. This monitoring of competing solutions is part of a context of international technical comparison of suspension systems.

Archivist's perspective

This document seems to be a simple press clipping translated or summarized, forming part of an internal documentary watch at Citroën on competing air suspensions. Its main interest lies less in its technical content — which is quite general — than in its insertion within a larger file devoted to the comparison between air and hydropneumatic suspensions, as evidenced by other documents in the same collection, for example the B.E.A. meeting sheet of 17 January 1961 comparing air and hydropneumatic suspension or the Magès note of 19 June 1961 on the Bongrand affair.

The poor quality of the digitization of page 40 (text upside down, very degraded) strongly limits what can be stated about its precise content; caution is therefore required regarding the model names cited.