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Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:03 am
by rastap
The red looks much richer than the first red ND you had. Will your RoadsterSport exhausts fit on the ND2?

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 8:22 am
by Brian
rastap wrote:The red looks much richer than the first red ND you had. Will your RoadsterSport exhausts fit on the ND2?

Mufflers and Midpipes fit, the only question has been headers. Slightly bigger outlet from ND2 motor and suggestions from Mazda engineer Dave Coleman that extra size of NB2 hole is not centered but weighed to the top put the header fitment in question. We plan to answer that fit question TODAY.

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:14 am
by NathanD277
I love how GWR gets right down to business. :)

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 1:40 pm
by NathanD277
If you ever want to pull those heated cloth seats out and sell them to a loyal customer, I know my wife would like them for our Club.

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2018 3:10 pm
by Brian
Header fitment....confirmed. Our headers fit ND2.

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:17 pm
by Brian
More ND2 driving impressions today and what really jumped at me today was these Club package Bilsteins are so much different than over damped original ND1 Club Bilsteins. I dare say these Club Bilsteins can be called PLUSH. Never figured on saying that about a Club package ND. I had to look back under the car to make sure we actually got the Bilsteins on it.

Dropped it off at my Clear Bra guy, and that's a bit of a misnomer here because we don't just 'bra' it, we have him do the entire car. It's worth it, I just hate getting the paint nicks. For years we did just entire front end up to A pillars but then a rock from the side would gash the door and I would regret not doing entire car.

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:55 am
by NathanD277
It may still be early to ask, but do you think the 2019 Bilsteins are a positive change, or are there drawbacks?

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:48 am
by LateNights
Congrats!!

Surprised to hear the power change hasn't translated into real world performance - that said, I'm kinda not surprised Mazda stuck to their guns and kept it as a pure sports car rather than try to make it more of a muscle car - with the aftermarket for these thriving as they have since nearly day one, why would they bother taking the risk of alienating a large part of the market!?!

Good call on the coating btw - I used to detail and those are the bee's knees - some interesting chemical interactions going on behind the scenes, pretty much the equivalent of bonding a new clear coat to the old one, which in turn makes corrections so much easier as well as giving that extra layer of protection to begin with!

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:42 am
by Brian
NathanD277 wrote:It may still be early to ask, but do you think the 2019 Bilsteins are a positive change, or are there drawbacks?
I think that will depend on what a Customer's plans are for the car. If they had planned to go with stiffer springs without having to buy new shocks, I expect the new Bilstein means their choice is our Progress Springs. The overdamped ND1 Bilsteins were a terrible match for factory springs, but a perfect match for 300/200 rate RoadsterSport springs. I don't know if we will bother with just springs on this project but I expect these ND2 Bilsteins won't handle the jump to RoadsterSport 300/200 near as well.

Re: PROJECT ND: Parts Development, Testing, Measurements, DY

Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 8:03 am
by Brian
Clear Bra complete and now just putting in the break-in mileage. While we do, keep letting us know folks what YOU want to see done/tested on ND2. First impressions one page back still holding true, it's very quiet, it's very smooth, it's not very exciting in stock form but it's an amazingly plush ride for a 'club' edition. All the plush/smooth stands out as rather different from ND1 Clubs, the valving on bilsteins this time around is softer and the smoother dual mass flywheel engagement adds to the impression of a smoother car, and throttle response is also smoother. Is all this 'smooth' good or bad? That's a subjective question I will leave here for others to debate. If ND1 was more like a discount/lighter Porsche Cayman in feel, ND2 has gone more Merc SLK. With ND1 Mazda said they were seeking a younger demographic, with ND2 it seems they are polishing off the sporty edges for an older demographic again. But again, still below extended redline, will explore that more after mileage is complete.

Once we do, will be testing ND2 baseline on our dyno, and see what it does with our headers and other exhaust goodies. What else should we test?