Spirited driving with full load.
 

Has anyone done any spirited driving with four adults in the 8? When I say spirited, I basically mean driving at the limits through some twisties (pushing the limits some).

Aside from slightly different handling characteristics with a full load and greater liklihood of loosing control, is there a risk of wearing or damaging suspension components doing this in such a light car like the 8?

Anyone experience any problems or wear issues after spirited driving with a full load?

*This was the first time I even had 4 people in the 8, but was in the mood to push it in the corners (maybe showing off a bit :).
*If it makes any difference, I've got RacingBeat F/R sway bars, springs and endlinks.

I might be a little paranoid, but...it's my baby and I won't be doing this again, and just thought I'd get some other opinions.

Spirited driving with a full load often ends badly. Why do you think you see so many cars full of kids dieing on the news. Cars behave very differently with all that extra weight and people don't normally drive with a full load.

:)

I doubt you'll be driving at or near the limits of the car.

I absolutely understand the dangers of driving hard with a full load, that why I don't plan on doing it again (although the 8 still performed very well). But, admitedly I was driving pretty hard through some corners (i.e. my toyo t1-s's were about to break loose a couple of times), and after the fact I'm now regreting it, and just wondering if it was really stupid in terms of suspension wear.

Opinions on suspension or wheel bearing wear, etc.?

One time, I was doing some spirited driving on my way home because I had a "full load" in my colon. I took a turn too fast and I sharted. That's the real consequence of driving hard with a full load.

Thats shity man!

I would like to make a motion to make "sharted" the next word of the week. Will anyone second this...

I never drive at/near limits with passengers on-board. Dont want to put them to any unnecessary risk.

Oh, wait... have had instructors in the car at the track...

Nice, Nice...Any serious advice? ;)

:rofl: I agree with this man :)

YOu can drive with 4 people in the car, you can drive at "the limit" just realized that "the limit" is a lot lower with the extra weight.

So, it's clear that it's dumb to drive really hard into corners with four people in the car. And I regret doing it. But, is there any real risk of excess wear or damage to suspension components compared with only having a couple of people in the car?

Well it's my opinion that it's not dumb as long as you understand the car will behave differently then if it were just you, and as long as you understand that now you are responsible for 3 other people and tone it down a bit. I'd have no hesitation of taking 3 other people in my car if they wanted to go for a cruise.

As far as wear on the suspension, i'm sure it wears a bit faster with 4 people in the car, of course, but it wont break anything, the car was designed for 4 people, instead of getting 40k out of your shocks now, maybe after this you'll get 39,999.

If you are pushing the car, or your personal abilities, that much on public streets than you shouldn't be driving like this anyway.

BTW- my opinion above was assuming you were driving like this on a deserted empty backroad or something, not in the middle of the city.

Thanks cleoent. You've made me sleep easier tonight. Since I got my 8 I am beyond obessive about little things, especially when I do something less than smart with it. After only one thousand miles with it I'm still learning.

I recently took my three sons (10, 10, and 13 - about 300 lbs between them), and a full trunk load of crap on a 300 mile drive in my car - the first thing I noticed is that the weight of the car compressed the rear suspension enough that the rear wheels were noticably "cambered" in at the top - Porsche style.

Second thing I noticed is that over hard bumps, the rear suspension would hit the bottom of the damper stops - hard.

That ended any thoughts of spirited driving other than carving throug some on-ramps at slightly higher speeds than I would do with my minivan.

I agree, "at the limit" driving with four folks in the car is a recipe for disaster - with just you and a half-tank of gas, you might be able to pull .91 or so G's at the limit in a turn before losing traction - but that extra 500 lbs of weight in the car (assuming your friends weigh an average of 165 lbs each) might lower the handling limits (due to both weight and changes in suspension geometry) to under 0.8 G's that's a major reduction in "stick".

Stew

This thread is going nowhere. No one is going to be able to give you a qualified "yes" or "no" to your question. It's just too generic. Clearly, you're stressing everything in your car a little more with more people in it. Is it going to cause you to need to get an alignment or something? Doubtful. If it still feels ok, just go with it. If it doesn't, have someone look at it.

Wear? I don't think 4 people would increase the rate of wear substantially enough to make a difference.

Damage? Only in extreme cases if they were all *really* big and you hit some bad dips or potholes and bottomed out really hard.

Cornering has so many other variables - road surface, tread quality, slope of road (in two dimensions), speed, radius, consistency of radius, etc - weight and weight distribution in the car is just one more factor. Like the others, it's nothing you should ignore, but an alert driver should be compensating for all of that.

Luckily the road was condusive to spirited driving: smooth pavement, nicely arranged turns, wide lanes, minimal traffic, very few blind turns. I didn't ever hit any potholes or bottom out. Only two notable things would be going over a sudden dip at approx. 55mph., and hitting a 90 deg. turn at decent speed (almost inducing tail spin). Aside from that it was a blast, ha. If I was in a better state of mind, it probably wouldn't have happened.

Hindsight 20/20

your gas mileage would go down too. underpowered engine hauling lots of weight isn't every efficient.

Suspension wear - No.
Increased chance for injury/death of "friends" - Yes.

Second.

Resolution passed - by a comittee of me. :rock:

Oh, and if you drive really fast backward you can reverse time and unsoil your underoos.