Huh... Did that last post sound a bit grumpy? I didn't mean it to. Here's a second try.
So I work as an Electrical Engineer, which means I have no experience with designing cars. I do have good practical knowledge of engines and I have a theoretical understanding of how mechanical dynamic systems (aka suspension) work but no practical experience whatsoever...
That all being said, I have a good feel for what it's like to *engineer* things. Basically, factory automotive engineers are good. Cars just works. In all sorts of situations. For 10+ years. Pretty crazy. It's really a very hard thing to do. And I've found that anything I've ever changed from factory spec was never quite right (especially engine bits on a motorcycle).
For my only car, a car I drive every day, 15-20K miles a year, I want to keep all of that engineering and skill and experience that went into the suspension, and keep a compromise, but shift the goal a little bit. I'd like to take two things out of the equation: price and grandma.
As for adjustables, I will freely admit that I'm not qualified to tune suspensions. I want someone to work it all out for me... someone who really knows what they are doing.
My friend told me the other day they test the ECU on Fords for 3 years before they release it. They take the car all over the place and drive it around, and tweak and tune. They really put a lot of thought into cars. I just want all of that time and work and engineering put into anything I add onto my car....
After all of that, I'm still going to rebuild my '78 Kawasaki KZ1000 Z1-R this summer with 10.25:1 pistons (up from 8.7), cams so big I have to mill out the head, etc... It'll *never* run right, but I don't have to drive it every day... *sigh*... It's never going to run right... carburetors suck...
Jim
