But there has always been a limitation level inherent in the mechanical nature of traditional suspensions. There's just no way to make the familiar compenents work quickly enough to handle the range of road surfaces you encounter in an average day.
A technological breakthrough was therefore needed, and that's exactly what happened when Delphi Systems created Magne-Ride and General Motors bought it for its Cadillac Seville and Chevrolet Corvette models and turned it into Magnetic Ride Control (MRC).
Boiled down to the verge of simplicity, MRC works by sending an electical charge from a magent into a shock absorber full of goop and making the thickness of the goop exactly suit that exact driving situation.
In other words, MRC instantaneously provides the best possible shock settings for any road surface it encounters.
This became abundantly clear while driving two of the best riding cars in GM's stable, the Chevrolet Corvette and the Cadillac STS around the company's handling course at its huge proving grounds here northwest of Detroit.
GM has a long course with just about every kind of paved surface you're ever likely to encounter, which gives them a chance to see how various vehicles do at various speeds on various surfaces.
For the purposes of the demonstration, half of the cars I drove had the MRC suspension and half did not.