The front suspension was closely derived from that on the Morris Minor, using longitudinal torsion bars for springing. The rest of the front suspension consisted of lower arms pivoting on trunnions with upper ball joints supporting the wheel and acting on hydraulic lever arm dampers. These provided superior ride comfort over rough roads when compared to early telescopic dampers, but at the expense of sloppy handling and body control at high speeds. Improvements in road surfaces, the development of the motorway network, the huge increase in the performance of even standard family cars and advances in the design of telescopic dampers since the Minor was launched in 1948 made this type of damper obsolete by 1971. Nonetheless it was adopted to keep development and tooling costs to a minimum.