> But how does the weight of the car, the force the suspension
> puts out, and the grip of the road affect the acceleration
> rate?

There''s no simple answer to this. The weight of the car is the simplest because it is constant, but it affects the acceleratio in a number of ways: the weight is distributed over the wheels, and it is this distributed force that dictates the maximum force the wheels can exert, but the distribution varies continuously as the weight shifts due to accleation, braking, cornering, the gradient and camber of the road, etc.

The suspension and grip forces are even more complex, as they are non-constant and different for each of the wheels. They too are effected by a number of things, including the supsension properties, road surface properties, tyre properties, etc.

John

The weight and the grip go hand in hand and with the acceleration is simple to calculate.

The hard part is suspension.

Even when using a spring without ends on it, the location of the four wheels varies with the force of acceleartion and the cog of the car. You need to solve these simultaneously.
When the length of the spring has a minimum and a maximum, then you have to recalculate the values again for the extension.

If you also have a damper, this effects it again (both in static and dynamics) and more annoyingly as they are not linear.


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