Career
This system replaced conventional steel springs with an adaptive system of hydraulic struts, resulting in a motoring experience that felt like no other automobile of the era. This advantage is still noted today, especially in applications where ride quality is important, like ambulance design. His formal schooling was modest – he earned his National diploma (Brevet d"Etudes du Premier Cycle), a preparatory course for the Académie des Arts et Métiers in Marseille.
At age 17, he sent his résumé to Citroën, one of the major automobile manufacturers in France, where he was hired to maintain equipment.
In 1936 he became a technical draftsman, and in January 1942, Chief Executive Officer Pierre-Jules Boulanger assigned him to the development department, to solve problems in the development of braking and suspension systems (including for the Citroën 2CV). Magès studied published material on automobile suspension.
He was puzzled by the conventional wisdom that a supple suspension system was incompatible with good handling. He had been assigned the task of producing a car with both qualities.
He realized that the solution must be located in a variable suspension, one that is very flexible at low speed, and stiff at high speed and load.
This questioning led to experimentation and the eventual development of hydro-pneumatic suspension system, which combines easily compressible gas in an enclosed chamber, combined with the non-compressible, force multiplication properties of hydraulic machinery. The heavier the load, the higher the gas pressure, so the suspension becomes more rigid. Magès may never have been able to solve this problem if he had better technical training.
Marcel Pagnol, the French playwright, famously said "Everyone thought it was impossible, except an idiot who did not know and who created lieutenant" Magès kept a copy of this statement on his desk.
Magès also developed DIRAVI speed sensitive power steering, first used on the 1970 Citroën Master of Science. The 1955 Citroën Doctor of Science, developed around Magès" engineering innovations, placed third in the 1999 Carolina of the Century competition, behind the Ford Model T and Business Service Management Mini.