18/09/2007. Toyota has announced today that its completely redesigned LandCruiser wagon will have its global motorshow debut in Sydney next month before going on sale in November.



The new LandCruiser, to be known as the 200 series, will offer new technologies that enhance its performance including the Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System (KDSS) invented and developed by Kinetic Pty Ltd, a small R&D company based in Dunsborough, South Western Australia.

Unlike most other roll control systems, the KDSS does not physically “disconnect” or “switch off” the anti sway bars during off road driving. This unique patented technology ensures that the roll control provided by the sway bars continues to work at all times…. but the bars do not inhibit wheel travel during off road manoeuvres. This feature is the very essence of Kinetic’s famous ‘break the compromise’ philosophy…. retain sports like handling and safety and simultaneously provide awesome off road mobility. (KDSS is based on the Kinetic RFS System)

Kinetic's Director Andy van Kann says

“After the thrill of our international victories with WRC and Dakar and the launch of the Lexus GX470 in the United States, it was always going to be a big call for something to top those achievements.  Having the worlds finest 4 x 4 vehicle launched right here on our home ground with Kinetic suspension as original fit has done just that.  Today is just reward for near on 20 years of hard work for our tiny Dunsborough company.  Oh, what a feeling.”

Loeb Wins 2005 WRC Drivers Championship With Kinetic™ RFS Technology

Citroën's Sébastien Loeb has taken an unassailable lead in the 2005 World Rally Championship for drivers with a second place finish in the Rally of Japan at the weekend providing the talented French Driver with his second World title, while a strong fourth place for his team mate, François Duval, has moved Citroën closer to its third consecutive World title.

Securing his second world title is the culmination of a remarkable season in which Loeb and Citroën set two new world records for the largest number of consecutive wins – six – and with three rounds still to go, the largest number of wins in a season – eight, so far. It seems barely credible now that just four years ago Loeb was written off as a tarmac specialist who had little chance of winning the world championship, which requires all-round skills. But with remarkable ease, Loeb has proven that he can win on snow, ice, gravel and loose surfaces. His car, the Kinetic™ equipped Citroën Xsara WRC, has proven as tough and reliable as it is fast. The Kinetic™ RFS Suspension decouples roll and articulation modes enabling the vehicle to have high levels of roll stiffness while simultaneously reducing articulation or cross axle stiffness. These modes are independently tunable, giving engineers previously impossible tuning flexibility.

Kinetic's Passive RFS Suspension System banned for WRC and Dakar Rally use from 2006 onwards.

The World Rally Championship's (WRC) governing body F.I.A (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) and the A.S.O the organisers of the Dakar rally have effectively put an end to the use of the Kinetic™ RFS suspension system in both events by banning all forms of interconnected roll bar or damper systems.

1. The anti-roll bar systems must be exclusively mechanical with the exception of an actuator allowing only the activation or deactivation of the anti-roll bar.

2. Any connections between front and rear anti-roll bars are forbidden.

3. Any connection between dampers is forbidden. 

Citroën Motorsport and Mitsubishi Motorsport have had exclusive rights to use the RFS system in their respective events and both achieved an unprecedented success rate.

Citroën, who have used the Kinetic™ system on their Xsaras in all 3 WRC rallies since 2003, have to date clocked up 19 stage victories, 2 manufacturers titles, 2 drivers titles and are currently leading the 2005 Manufactures title with only 3 rounds to go.

Mitsubishi, who have used Kinetic™ RFS systems on their Pajeros in the 2004 and 2005 Dakar rallies, have comfortably won 1st and 2nd place in both events in the worlds longest and most unforgiving motorsport event.

Young Engineers on a roll with Kinetic™

in international Automotive awards.

The University of Western Australia Motorsport Team (U.W.A.M) has won 1st place awards for overall design, Innovation, suspension and taken second place overall at the International Formula SAE 2005 competition in Detroit with their Kinetic™ H2 equipped race car. Kinetic Pty Ltd has been involved with the UWA Motorsport team since 2002 providing advice on suspension arrangements and damping and the use of data acquisition and  damper dyno equipment. In 2004 Kinetic offered the use of the H2 suspension technology and engineering support to design system concepts for their vehicle culminating in this years outstanding results in Detroit. Three of Kinetics current engineers are recent graduates of U.W.A and were involved with previous Formula Sae projects.

Formula SAE is the brainchild of the Society of Automotive Engineers International and is run primarily on the basis of producing graduate students with real-life project experience. It has been successfully run in the United States for the past 21 years, in Great Britain for seven years and was held for the first time in Australasia 5 years ago. The long-term success of the competition in the US and UK has established Formula SAE-A as a plausible and challenging project experience.

The concept of the competition is for students to be involved in every aspect of creating a hypothetical company which has been commissioned to design, build and test a marketable and profitable formula style open-wheel race car. The target market is the non-professional weekend racer.

The competition is for students to conceive, design, fabricate and compete in a small formula-style racing car. The cars are judged in three different categories of: static inspection and engineering design; solo performance trials; and high-performance track endurance.

"Kinetic™ has had a long and successful relationship with U.W.A. They are one of the worlds leading tertiary institutions and their Formula SAE team typifies their excellence. We take great pride in our association with UWA and look forward to employing many more of their FSAE graduates." Kinetic MD Andy van Kann

Kinetic™ Suspension Technology helps Tenneco Automotive Win 'Premier Automotive suppliers' Contribution to Excellence' (P.A.C.E) award for Kinetic™ RFS Suspension Technology

The P.A.C.E awards are recognised as the holy grail of automotive accolades, recognising outstanding contributions to innovation in the auto industry. Judges selected 23 finalists and 10 honourable mention awardees based on extensive written responses to the 2005 PACE Award application.  Finalists hosted site visits by industry, academic and business leaders to select the winners, which were announced on April 12 during the Society of Automotive Engineers conference in Detroit. 

Judges Visited Kinetic's headquarters in Dunsborough Western Australia in December 2004 where they had the opportunity to drive a variety of on and off road vehicles fitted with Kinetic™ Suspenion Technology in a range of conditions from high speed asphalt slaloms to extreme off road rock crawling and rally like sand and gravel tracks.

In the Judges' Citation they remark that the Kinetic™ Suspension technology "...is the kind of breathtakingly simple solution that makes it a model of innovation: it decouples the two modes by the use of hydraulic circuitry and valving – thus allowing both the ride-enhancing benefits of compliant articulation, and increased roll stiffness, either-or choices until then. The system is totally passive, reacting in real time to whatever it encounters. The brilliant innovative insight was to decouple the two modes, and do it in a way that does more with less, a hallmark of innovation."

PACE judges evaluate Kinetic™ equipped vehicles. Kinetic MD Andy van Kann explains the principles of the RFS system

Monday 24th January 2005

Sébastien Loeb makes it a hat trick with his 3rd consecutive Monte Carlo WRC victory for Citroën and Mitsubishi take 1st and 2nd place in worlds most punishing motor race the 2005 Dakar Rally.

It has been an exciting 3 years in Motorsport for Kinetic™, both the Mitsubishi Rally Raid and the Citroën WRC teams have dominated their respective events using the Kinetic™ RFS technology. This simple system provides vehicles with high roll control and low articulation stiffness allowing Loeb in his Citroen to dominate on the winding tarmac of Monte Carlo and the Mitsubishi team to leave its competitors standing in the extremely rugged Dakar stages.

"perhaps it may have been tempting for people to think that our previous wins at Monte Carlo and Dakar have been beginners luck but this year the Mitsubishis won Dakar by an even greater margin despite the huge budgets that VW and Nissan invested and Sébastien won at Monte Carlo again by a very very comfortable margin. I don't think there is any more for me to say...the technology is doing all the talking" Kinetic MD Andy van Kann

for more details follow the links below

Citroen Motorsport site.

Mitsubishi Motorsport site.

Previous Kinetic™ news here