PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DYNO

[Ryan @ GWR]

These results are of our own shocks straight off our GT.

Without getting too technical, the factory shocks display a good execution of a soft street setup that will be comfortable over many road surfaces, and suitable for low-grip tires and cruising. There is very little rebound valving though, particularly at low shock travel speeds (1 to 3 inches per second is the range in which driver inputs like braking and steering fall). That accounts for a lot of the feeling we're getting from the driver's seat of a delay that you have to wait for between giving the car inputs and letting it shift its weight and "find" grip. Mid-corner adjustments or quick transitions can unsettle the car because the shock can't keep up with the changes. We've heard basically just that in laymans term from more than one ND owner already - that the stock suspension was 'disconcerting'. These characteristics get exaggerated further as tire grip is improved.

You might expect that a good adjustable coilover would perhaps have a full-soft setting that looked quite a bit like that stock shock's graph for street comfort, but ideally with more low-speed valving for a more settled and confidence-inspiring response to steering and braking.

[morrisg]

Here's the NC Ohlins shock dynos from my files for comparison. Thanks for posting the ND stock shock dynos!

[apexlvr]

I was informed a couple days ago by some folks at the Mazda trailer at SCCA Nationals that the Club edition spring rates are 150 front, 100 rear. Hope that info helps somebody. Would love to see those Bilsteins dynoed. If I can find someone here in the Phoenix area that has a shock dyno and has a reasonable price, I'll see if I can get it done.

[Brian]

Matt Wilson of Orange Virus Tuning spent half a day on our Red ND....and the the results are much better than expected!

Conditions were brutal today with temps starting at 80 F in the dyno room and rising to 85 F and humidity over 50%. Thus, we started with a baseline dyno BEFORE ANY TUNE was added to the car just so we could see how much power is lost today to the weather conditions versus our prior test best results with this RoadsterSport muffler of 145 hp at the wheels. Baseline runs TODAY best of 140 hp in the HEAT and humidity, so figure we are down 5 hp today for the poor weather, figure in cooler conditions the peak numbers would be about 5 stronger.

With an hour of work we reached 15 HP over that base run and I was thrilled...

With another hour of work Matt got it over 20 HP of gain and I was amazed.

With a final hour of work Matt got it over 25 hp above our baseline...and I was blown away.

PEAK TORQUE GAIN OVER 30 FT/LBS...WOW

Car feels great, can't wait for cooler conditions to really drive it hard in the canyons.

To put this number in perspective, our NC with full Max Power Header, 2.5 inch midpipe and 2.5 exhaust did the same 166 at the wheels on this same dyno. Thus, I think and hope that once we get a header on the ND that we will see over 175 hp at the wheels!

[morrisg]

Wow, I'm impressed with the huge gains over the 2500 to 4500 rpm band! And this is with the stock header into the close coupled cat. It's going to be interesting to see what a full header with first cat at the mid-pipe does for this engine. This might make ND Miatas competitive with the Honda S2000s in STR class autox again (or at least I can hope…).

[Brian]

Our ND Midpipe installed. Perfect fit, adds about 15% more sound and carries 2.5 inches of flow all the way out, which will be very important once our new shortie header is ready.

By the way, found we had a rattle in factory damper. Picture below.

[Brian]

Got our BLUE ND Back with new ROLL BAR added, feels solid, looks great.

Will have it on our site for purchase in about 24 hours.

[Brian]

Our own pics on the way home today.

Stock aluminum 1 inch tube bar, weak by comparison.

[Brian]

Ohlins INSTALLED!

Also our shock tower brace for ND!

Did 40 miles so far today with the OHLINS over every sort of road surface from freeway to mountain roads and onramps and feels amazing. Got 9kg/6kg in the car currently, which will likely be the starting 'Race' version of the kit.

[Ryan @ GWR]

Back from a day playing at Mazda HQ, fitting many of our wheel options over the Club model's Brembo brakes to see what fits and does not.

The big (pleasant) surprise was our 16x8 Enkei RPF1, which actually clears the Brembos neatly. We loved this wheel with sticky RE71s at the autocross and it's a very cool option for Club owners:

One of several new Advanti Storm S1s we test-fit:

Here's an example of a prototype wheel that did not fit. This is the point where the clearance with these calipers is tightest for most wheels: