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On 26 Feb 99, at 15:48, John Clift wrote: > I had always been told that shocks held the wheels down, not hold up the > car. But i agree that they probably do dampen the ride so all is smooooth. If we did not have shocks, our tires would spend about half of their time in the air, on the rebound from some road impact. Damping converts this rebound (kinetic) energy into heat and stops the tire's vertical motion, thus allowing it to fall back onto the road sooner. Their REAL purpose is to dampen the motion of the tire, but a side effect is to somewhat smooth out the ride. However, you should note that high performance shocks will be designed to maximize the time the tire spends on the road, and this will also give you a rough ride, not a smooth one. My euphamism for this is "good road feel" which is not what my parents want in a car. They want minimal road feel, so most cars are not set up for best performance. Jim - ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org