So would you say that coilovers give a better ride than regular springs would if they both had adjustable shocks?

 

progressive springs = smoother ride

straight springs = better handling

I think there's always confusion between coilovers and coilover sleeves.

Coilovers have little to do with ride quality since you can have adjustable perches with progressive springs.

Adjustable shocks change the compression and rebound damping rate. If you have light damping and rebound your ride will be bouncy. If you have high damping and rebound your ride will be rock hard. The trick to getting smooth ride quality is to get the right amount of compression and rebound damping so that when you hit a bump, there's adaquate compression damping so that not all the energy is transfered to the spring, and enough rebound damping so that the energy which does get transfered to the spring, doesn't get fully transfered back to your chassis and makes you fly upward.

Where the spring comes into play is when you have straight springs, the compression rate is constant. Now, you could make a straight spring which is really weak, but then your car would bottom out all the time and would roll in the corners. Pretty much all straight springs for racing are made stiff. Since the rate is constant even at the beginning of compression the stiffness will be high. This means that little pebbles in the road to large speed bumps will have to contend with a stiff spring. (The stiffest spring you could have would basically be a solid piece of metal, which would not compress at all). This is where progressive springs differ. Progressive springs are weak at the beginning and stiff at the end of compression. This means that even little pebbles in the road have the ability to displace your springs. As you apply more force, the force the spring exerts back increases, so as to prevent your car from rolling over in the corners.