Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

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Brian
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by Brian »

One of the OEM bilstein's on my wife's 2012 is leaking with just 22k miles and starting to making a clicking/knocking sound, figure we will be changing shocks on her car soon. Seen a lot of the OEM bilstein fail early, the aftermarket Bilstein units seem to be much better durability.

Note we don't ship to Australia, see Chris Gough at Targa Racing about sourcing one of our headers....or you can pick one up when here in the USA. Yes, header small enough you could easily pack it in your luggage. See the dyno graphs in the product descriptions for where the power difference is, you do get the most with the Max Power but the Street header still makes a big jump in torque from idle to redline.

Yes, for performance oriented driver the short FCM is my suggestion.
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
www.good-win-racing.com
jassi
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by jassi »

Brian wrote:One of the OEM bilstein's on my wife's 2012 is leaking with just 22k miles and starting to making a clicking/knocking sound, figure we will be changing shocks on her car soon. Seen a lot of the OEM bilstein fail early, the aftermarket Bilstein units seem to be much better durability.
So which one are you going for on your wife's prht maybe that will be a hint for me as well :wink: I have read you 2012 prht thread end to end already :D Do the Koni's lower too much beyond what the progress springs do by themselves. Or do you think the aftermarket bilsteins (i see a few options) are best replacements for street use?
Brian wrote:Yes, header small enough you could easily pack it in your luggage. See the dyno graphs in the product descriptions for where the power difference is, you do get the most with the Max Power but the Street header still makes a big jump in torque from idle to redline.
great header on my shopping list as well :mrgreen: Will figure out max power vs street. I looked but in the product description for max power there are no dyno graphs, the street ones do have the dyno graphs though. Can you point me to max power dyno graphs?
Brian wrote:Yes, for performance oriented driver the short FCM is my suggestion.

thanks thats sorted then!
Brian
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by Brian »

I just checked and the dyno graphs are still there in the product descriptions for the combos and discussed in detail....like this one, and this one, and this one....and again here. Those same graphs are also in various threads here in the forum, including the thread for my wife's car, 'the dyno thread', and the blog linked from the product descriptions. Note I also see in those product descriptions that we have a note about the Street header not fitting Australian Right Hand drive cars....because steering rod is in the way.

The bottom line on the header choice is more power with the Max Power setup...but also MUCH MORE SOUND than our 'Street' header, which might be good or not, depending on your tastes. Every time I drive my wife's car I am struck by how perfect it is, how the factory should have made it exactly like that, it's just enough extra fun without ever annoying that I sometimes think it is the best Miata that I have ever built....despite fact it will never win any races! My own Miatas usually slowly slip into more and more extreme states, faster and and faster...but also louder and more aggressive to the point that it might not be your first choice for a relaxing cruise, whereas I am always thrilled to take the wife's car for a Friday night event...hope that makes sense. With the Wife's car, it's all about more fun WITH moderation, and sometimes moderation is a good thing!

Wife has already told me she does not want more lowering, so no Koni for her which would lower at least another half inch, she really loves the height right where it is now. My first inclination is to use the Tokico on her car...though the Bilstein Sport might also work for her. It really is HER car and she makes the choices after I lay out the options, she is like the ultimate one-person focus group and I have really enjoyed watching her make the choices and sometimes reject the things we have tried on her car. Not sure she will bother to adjust the Tokico so I will ask her about that and suggest the Bilstein Sport if she is inclined to never adjust the shocks anyway. Similarly, I will also offer her the FCM comfort vs Sport and see which way she decides to go...more comfort or more sport?
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
www.good-win-racing.com
jassi
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by jassi »

^^ Brian that moderation is exactly what I'm after! Mine is a daily driver and doubles up as first choice for my wife and I on weekend road trips. If it was very loud or fast or stiff then I can kiss it goodbye on weekend drives with my wife as she will prefer the less fun bmw suv then :P

Hence I like your super-q as it comes with baffles to reduce the sound if I go headers. I'm guessing go with your catted mid pipe first (from Chris at targa racing here as its too big to carry back from US) and yes pickup the max power header on one of my US trips. Thanks for the hint on the street header not fitting Aussie mx5!
Thanks for the links on the dyno graphs, I couldn't find them as I was looking at the headers product pages but not the combo exhaust pages!

Now for the suspension while I've heard great appraise on the forums for progress springs with koni or oem bilstein there is not much on progress springs with bilstein sport or hd shocks. In your experience do you see this combo a lot and hear good stuff about it? From your product descriptions the bilstein sports are 1/2 inch shorter, so does that mean they will lower the car a further 1/2 inch when combined with lowering from progress? I don't intend to adjust height (tokico) or go too low either and hence I'm not sure coil overs are needed for me. I'm just after the right level of moderation for fun as you described :)

I'm quite eagerly waiting for an update on your wife's 2012 prht thread to see which way she goes on suspension shocks choice and Bumpstops. As I'm sure the combination that goes on her car will be best for a fun road only car :mrgreen:
jassi
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by jassi »

Brian - as serious as Ohlins dfv coil overs sound from a pricing point a view do you think they will make a fun road car? I've been thinking if it makes sense to save a bit and go all out vs spend slightly under half of what the Ohlins cost on springs n good shocks. Also are Ohlins by themselves enough or is it recommended to add front/rear sways (say progress), better end links and Fcm sport Bumpstops.
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by Brian »

The average Ohlins customer is using them for pure street driving. The Ohlins are a full revolution in the handling of the car, many will tell me it rides better than stock...and yet it sticks the turns and the wallowing of the stock suspension is gone. I use these on my daily driver for the best in street handling...and the fact it can turn fast times in weekend competitions is a bonus.
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
www.good-win-racing.com
jassi
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by jassi »

thanks Brian - have been reading up a lot on this forum as well as m.net and I see a lot of daily drivers with ohlins.
From an adjustments point of view, does one need to tinker a lot with the settings. If I do go down that path, I will end up getting the ohlins fitted by someone locally, hence it will be good to know I don't have to keep going back for changing things like height, preload, etc and I have no mechanical gear at home to do myself.
Also I am confused by the rebuild intervals, although I read that you have been running them for a long while without rebuilding - being my dd downtimes for rebuilds would be difficult for me.
Lastly can you keep the ride height relatively close to stock on these - I want a little bit of lowering say 1/2 to 3/4 inch from stock but don't want to be 'scraping speed bumps' low :)
jassi
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by jassi »

Hey Brian - I will be ordering the max power ceramic header soon from you as I will be in San Jose in early May. Do I need to order O2 sensor extension cables and which ones?

The plan is to also buy your mid pipes but locally here in Australia from Chris at targa racing and install the headers and mid pipe together to complement the super q :D
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by Brian »

Yes, you 'need' both O2 extensions, it's all explained in the header product description and both extensions are linked from bottom of the product description page for the header so they are easy to find. The only exception is that if working with a tuner they can shut off the second sensor and if you do that you can skip the second sensor extension.
Brian Goodwin
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jassi
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Re: Progress spring and sways and gwr exhaust questions

Post by jassi »

Thanks Brian! Yes saw the descriptions but wanted to confirm before ordering as some people said extension cables are not mandatory. Anyways will order the max power ceramic headers and both long and short O2 extension cables over this weekend :D
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