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In Reply to: What?......Why? (more) posted by gercar on September 25, 1999 at 18:53:02:
: : Can anyone recommend springs for my 2000 328Ci? I'm getting 18x8.5 rims so I want to drop it a little bit but ride quality is the most important thing for me---I don't want springs that ride harsh.
: : TireRack had a comparison of H&Rs and Eibachs and although the Eibachs lowered the car more, they rode nicer than the H&Rs. The article is at:
: : http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/eibach_hr_rd.htm
: : What about Dinan, Hartge, etc.? Like I said, the rides got to be good. I don't want my car falling apart in a few years...
: : Thanks!
: : Frank
: The reason for dropping a car is to increase handling ability, making the springs softer just defeats the purpose. Actually, to get the same ride quality with shorter springs you have to get springs that are very soft, because two springs being equal in everything except length the short spring will be stiffer than the longer one.
I agree that it is difficult to keep ride quality while lowering a car for to gain in performance. However what you said about stiffness of spring just ain't correct. Two springs all else being equal of different length(uncompressed) will have the exact same stiffness. They have to other wise they would be some kinda new spring. Force in aspring is F=kx where k is a spring constant...the key word being constant, regaurdless of length.
-V