I would like for someone to fill me in on a question about shocks and springs. It has to do with a discussion I was having on the advantages and disadvantages of the automatic (electronic) stabilisation systems found on many new cars today.
AFAIK, the springs are there to keep the wheels planted on the road. They will allow the wheels to follow the ups and downs of the road-surface without the body of the car jumping at the same rate and/or as much.
The function of the shocks is to dampen out the oscillations that occurs when you let go of a compressed spring. The shocks achieve that by slowing down the speed at which the spring will compress and then de-compress.
My statement was that all a ESP or similar electronic system can do is vary the rate of compression/damping of the shocks by opening or closing a valve in the shock itself. It can do nothing for your spring-rates. Many luxury cars (my opinion of course) tend to have spring-rates that are too soft for real sportive driving and when driving faster than normally the need the electronic system to harden the shocks to make up for the lack of spring-capacity (for lack of a better term).
My opinion is therefore that a car which is setup from the start for high-performance (street)driving with properly tuned and adjusted springs & shocks is prefereable (for mentioned HP-driving) than a car setup for normal and relaxed driving with a built-in electronic option to stiffen the suspension for those times you want to drive a bit more aggressive.
AFAIK, the springs are there to keep the wheels planted on the road. They will allow the wheels to follow the ups and downs of the road-surface without the body of the car jumping at the same rate and/or as much.
The function of the shocks is to dampen out the oscillations that occurs when you let go of a compressed spring. The shocks achieve that by slowing down the speed at which the spring will compress and then de-compress.
My statement was that all a ESP or similar electronic system can do is vary the rate of compression/damping of the shocks by opening or closing a valve in the shock itself. It can do nothing for your spring-rates. Many luxury cars (my opinion of course) tend to have spring-rates that are too soft for real sportive driving and when driving faster than normally the need the electronic system to harden the shocks to make up for the lack of spring-capacity (for lack of a better term).
My opinion is therefore that a car which is setup from the start for high-performance (street)driving with properly tuned and adjusted springs & shocks is prefereable (for mentioned HP-driving) than a car setup for normal and relaxed driving with a built-in electronic option to stiffen the suspension for those times you want to drive a bit more aggressive.
