rear springs softer, V8 rims

[Edward McCarthy]

Mike,

That's exactly the reason, along with the fact that during most handling
situations, the dynamic load is also heavier in the front of a car than in
the rear (braking and turning).  On rear engine cars, the rear springs will
be much stiffer, though the fronts are never completely "soft" due to the
dynamic load mentioned above...

-Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Arman [mailto:armanmik at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 8:55 AM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: rear springs softer, V8 rims




Here's a logical sounding guess (and it may be totally wrong) as to why the 
rear springs are softer. The back of the car is lighter, so if you had the 
soft springs on the front, the heavy end, and the hard springs on the back, 
the light end, it would make for some "interesting" handling, to say the 
least. The spring rates will also be different between front and rear - 
front will be stiffer (say 300 lbs per inch) and have a total capacity of 
"more" (say 1,000 lbs each), whereas the rears will be softer, 125 lbs per 
inch, and have a total capacity of "less" (say 700 lbs each).

I'm basing this on two things - one, it seems to make sense, and two, 
having had flat tires on each end of my 5K, the front goes right to the 
ground because that's the heavy end of the car, and the rear can actually 
be driven a short distance because there is somewhat less weight on it. 
(Unless you have a Phil Payne style tool box and complete spares kit in the 
trunk - then you might want to reverse the spring sets front to rear! I 
forget, is there a fiche reader in there, too? <smile>)

Now for something I DO know about. A4 five spoke sport 16" wheels DO fit 
onto a V8 if you use a set of +20mm wheel spacers and the required +20mm 
lug bolts. Looks great, too.

Best Regards,
Mike Arman