especially now the Mad Mile at Welly is closed for 6 months whilst they build yes more warehouses for Chinese tat nearly stretching to Mears Ashby.

Well, well - this is my neck of the woods! I have just lodged a formal complaint with the County Council for an explanation why they allowed Kier group to close this busy road for so long. Nothing much seems to have happened to it apart from the creation of a tiny roundabout at the entrance to some fields miles away from a decent road in which vast warehouses are soon to appear generating a constant flow of polluting HGVs onto already choked single carriageway roads. The adjacent sports field is downwind.

I do sometimes wonder at the ineptitude of, or the power of large developers to influence, council planners. These developments should be beside dual carriageways with at least three lanes. Two for lorries overtaking each other at 1mph speed difference and one for the long suffering motorist.

You wouldn't even think about the state of the roads with some of the old cars like Ford Granada, Jag XJ6, Rover P6, Triumph 2500 PI. Soft suspenson coupled with 70 profiles, motorised sofa's. I miss that comfort. We'll forget about all the other problems though!

I have no idea what mainstream cars are best at absorbing the roads. My Forester is good at speed, it can get crashy at low speed over drains e.t.c. I suspect that the non turbo would be better.

It would be nice to have a list of these good riding cars.

Modern stiff bodyshells were supposed to allow the suspension to work properly and give a better ride but then all the work is undone with rock hard suspension and unsuitable wheel/tyre combination.

The roads weren't as bad in those days!

I've found that cars have an optimum speed on rough roads - found by accident on a Subaru Outback, with soft long-travel suspension, on a regularly-used potholed track that 40 was smoother than 30 and 20 was diabolical - but that optimum speed must vary considerably by model.

Kia Sorento 1, 2.5 engined, was really softly sprung, so i suspect Hyundai Terracan would be the same.

Big old Lexus 400/430 are wafters, probably the closest comfy sofa ride to compare with a Jag XJ6, and probably likely to stand the roads without falling apart or landing you with massice bills to fix regularly.

Interesting the more basic models of Dacia gaive a good ride, and i can well remember a holiday in Malta on roads that make those in Kettering look billird smooth, we'd hired a curvy Hyundai Accent on something like 80 aspect tyres, that car just rode all the bumps out, amazing really.

I agree with the tyre specs mentioned, don't go lower than 55 aspect and preferably keep it betwen 60 and 80 and you're half way there.

Had a hired Focus in Ireland on elastic bands and that was the most horrid car, in so many ways quite aprt from ride, that i've driven in years, the company pool Focus/Mondeos don't impress me either, so many modern cars have gone down the hard sprung route.

What is the idea that rock hard suspenions makes a car more sporty, i defy anyone in a rock hard sprung car to keep up with a softly sprung Scooby Legacy or similar on normal pock marked slippery roads, the concrete sprung jobbies can't keep contact with the road and hop from bump to lump shaking their passengers fillings loose, what pleasure in that.

Edited by gordonbennet on 16/12/2016 at 12:58