When Rover Group unveiled its new MGF sports car in 1995, some onlookers were rather surprised about the choice of suspension set-up. The great British hope to battle the back-to-basics Mazda MX-5 had been fitted with the Hydragas system – not exactly an obvious choice, given that it first appeared on the Austin Allegro 22 years previously, and that was a car that seemingly everyone loved to hate.
And yet, Hydragas was perfect for the short-wheelbase MGF, having been honed over the years to give the car a saloon-like ride and sports car-like handling. Some critics reckoned it was too safe, but the proof was in the sales – and the MGF soon became Britain’s best-selling sports car. Sadly, issues over cost and a reluctance to produce displacers for just one model meant the MGF’s TF successor would have conventional coil springs and dampers, taking away its predecessor’s party piece and marking the end of the road for the Hydragas at the same time.
So, what is Hydragas? It’s an evolution of Hydrolastic, a system conceived in the late 1950s by genius engineer Dr Alex Moulton that was fitted to the hugely successful ADO16 1100/1300 range, plus the Mini, ADO17 ‘Landcrab’, 3-Litre and Maxi. Essentially, Hydrolastic replaced the separate springs and dampers of a conventional suspension set-up with fluid-filled displacers
