What does it mean that Citroen can perform Qinggong?
4 Answers
Citroen can perform Qinggong refers to the severe shaking of Citroen cars when driving on bumpy roads and their tendency to feel unstable at high speeds. Vehicle Introduction: Citroen has a century-long history of car manufacturing (since 1915) and is considered on par with Mercedes-Benz and BMW in Europe. The world's first front-wheel-drive car was the Citroen 7A, featuring front-wheel drive, a monocoque body structure without a chassis, and innovative suspension systems like torsion bar suspension for single-wheel damping. Additionally, after Saab developed the turbocharger, Citroen became the first car in the world to be equipped with a turbocharger. These are all milestone achievements in automotive history. Funny Rhyme: Buick is thick, Lexus is slow, Ford loves broken axles, Mercedes parts bring sorrow, Volkswagen burns oil. Maintenance fees, Audi is pricey, Nissan shells are brittle, Peugeot gets bashed by many, Suzuki has retreated. Big Jaguar, high fuel consumption, Hyundai feels light as a feather, Chevrolet like a sanitary pad, BMW loves to burn. The nouveau riche love Land Rover, Honda has lost speed, where there's a road there's a Toyota, but it can't stop. Mazda, noisy as can be, the underdogs love Kia, Volkswagen plays dead with Skoda, and now there's Jetta. Citroen, can perform Qinggong, the chassis is most authentic, Cadillac is in price cuts, and Hongqi is all the rage.
Yesterday while scrolling through short videos, I saw someone describing the C5X as ‘Citroën knows kung fu’. I looked into it and found out it’s actually praising Citroën’s chassis tuning technology, especially the PHC adaptive hydraulic suspension. When driving over bumpy roads, the wheels quickly rebound while the body remains stable, giving a feeling like a kung fu master ‘skimming the surface’ in martial arts films. I’ve driven my friend’s C5 X, and when going over speed bumps, it doesn’t have that ‘clunking’ jolt typical of other SUVs. The chassis absorbs the shock, and the body gently lifts over them. This unique shock absorption style has been humorously dubbed ‘kung fu’ by car enthusiasts.
Our veteran mechanics often say Citroën chassis possess 'magic carpet genes'. The so-called 'light-footwork' meme refers to its unique hydraulic suspension trick—when encountering bumps, the springs compress to a critical point where the hydraulic system suddenly stiffens to absorb impacts, making the body 'float' over without shaking or wobbling. Anyone who's driven an old C5 knows: while other cars go 'thud' over manhole covers, Citroën's wheels sink down while the body stays level—isn't this exactly like the 'treading on snow without leaving traces' from martial arts? Though with newer models switching to non-independent suspensions, this sensation has diminished significantly.
This story starts with Citroën's legendary chassis. Back in the last century, their racing cars already featured hydro-pneumatic suspension. Although it's now simplified into PHC technology, the essence remains: there are two sets of hydraulic valves inside the shock absorbers. Small bumps are filtered out in soft mode, while large impacts automatically switch to hard mode to stabilize the body. The result is wheels bouncing around while the car body remains rock-solid, making passengers feel like they're walking on cotton. The automotive community jokingly calls this 'wheels doing parkour below while the body practices qinggong (lightness skill) above'—especially noticeable when driving on National Highway 318.
