I know it effects the handling of a car, but will more or less weight effect how well a car rides? I know Lexus', Benz's, BMW's and the such are all heavy cars and ride well but I'm sure most of the weight is for the luxury ammenties, and sports cars are lightweight but again thats for handling and performace.

If someone was to take a car and add 400 lbs to it would the ride get more comfortable? or would you need to take weight away to make it a better ride? or does it even change the ride quality at all???

JimmyG

 

Nevermind I found out already
More weight = smoother ride.

 

if handling isnt a issue, then you can make pretty much anything ride smooth... from a go kart to a land barge caddy.

 

No handling is not an issue. This is not for my car, jsut been thinking about it lately.

So what are some other things that could be done to make a car ride smoother. Springs, shocks and bushings obviously, but what else?

 

Tall tires, rubber bushings, adjustable shocks, new ball joints and tie rod ends, weak swaybars, fix interior rattles that stimulate rough ride in your head. Sports cars ride rough -- smooth ride usually sacrafices handling. Buy a caddy and swap in TPI

 

why make it slower? leave the caddy motor in.

 

Weight really has nothing to do with ride quality. Ever ridden in a semi? Ride quality can be effected by unsprung weight. For example a Jeep will ride more roughly than your car largely because the Jeep has all the weight of the front and rear axles constantly moving and down. No matter how you tuned the springs and shocks, all that extra weight can kill the ride.

Those nice cars you mention ride nice because they have spent millions to test and develop the right suspension that gives a nice ride.

My personal example with my car: I completed replaced my every bit of my suspension with performance stuff and the car rides better than it did before on smooth roads. Ok on rough stuff the ride is jarring, but regular driving is much more comfortable. Why, the stiffer suspension and components do not flex as much. While adding firmness, it actually smooths things out because the parts all work together instead of being loose and fighting each other.

 

Quite a few things play into the ride quality of your car. Springs, dampeners (strut/shocks), bushings, and tires. The weight of the car will directly affect the feel of the dampeners (aka ride quality). Heavier cars require different valvings than lighter cars, but this is all relative to how you want the car to perform. You can compare two different extreme examples of ride quality, but the chances are they both have different valvings in the struts/shocks.

 

ride quality, amongst other things, depends on the ratio or sprung to unsprung weight. heavy cars tend to ride better ( i said TEND ) because the unsprung suspension components weigh less as a percentage of the total vehicle weight. Its asimple matter of inertia. If you were to damp a suspension assembly (wheel, tire control arm, anything not held up by the spring) the shock absorber and or spring push against the sprung weight of the car(anything held up by the springs). imagine a 50 lb suspension assy vs a 100 lb assy. if you were to hit a bump the energy of the 100lb assy would be 4x that of the 50lb (MV^2) this energy would have to be absorbed by the spring and the damper to stop the suspension from crashing into the bump stops. since the energy is transffered to the chassis and some dissapated by the damper as heat it acts on the sprung weight of the car. the lighter suspension would have less energy, there for require a softer spring and less dampening at any given speed (all else being equal). by increasing the weight of the car (sprung weight ) you acheive a similar outcome because the heavier car has more inertia it will be able to absorb more energy. Hope i didn't do too bad ajob of explaining that !

 

LOL. I gotta agree. I got wasted by an old man in one of those new 300 H.P. northstars a couple of months ago!