Hey, i'm a student studying mechanical engineering and i am very interested in cars. Does anyone know where i can the pros and cons of different designs of cars? like the pros/cons of different suspension systems, and the engineering behind different engines. I know the actual designs are classified by the companies, but is there any research published analysing different designes?

www.howstuffworks.com then search suspension. it'll give you alot of basic info about it.

it's a great sight to learn the basics of just about anything.

1)"Race Car Vehicle Dynamics" pub. by SAE PRESS.
2)"Fundementals of Vehicle Dynamics" pub. by SAE PRESS.
This one is used often as a classroom textbook.
These are both excellent, but don't have any comparisons between specific cars.
3)"New Directions in Suspension Design"pub. by ROBERT BENTLEY PRESS has suspension technical reports of a Citroen, a Porsche 928 and a Ford Fiesta, and why they went in that direction. Along with item 2, it is oriented more to passenger cars.
4)"Racing Chassis and Suspension Design" pub. by SAE PRESS is a collection of SAE papers and has some suspension comparisons. Specifically, the suspension of various years of production Corvettes comes to mind.
Items 1 and 4 are closing in on $100 US each.
Item 3 is probably not available anymore.