Mazda Talk Forums

projectrally wrote:Brian,

Earlier on in this thread, you mentioned working on an Air Dam for the NC2. Any progress on that front?

Sorry, that idea not forgotten but has not gone far yet. I still hope to get it done this Fall.

Brian wrote:

Ranfy wrote:Brian, I have a 2007 PRHT GT with the Bilstein sport suspension package. I had a Mini Cooper which had flat, no body roll, cornering but a very harsh ride. I don't like the amount of body roll on my MX5, but don't want a harsh ride on my daily commute. What do you recommend?

The 2007 sits HIGH....my suggestion is start with just the Progress springs. That alone will make a big difference because it will fix the center of gravity and give you enough spring rate to reduce squat, dive, and quite a bit of the roll in the turns. If after the springs you want more, then let's talk about HOW MUCH more you want. If just a little then I would say our Racing Beat sways. And if you want a lot more reduction in body roll after the springs then I would say add the Progress Sways. My wife's car rides great with both, yet is very flat....but our roads are good here in San Diego and every choice is a compromise and might as well take it just one step at a time.

Brian,

What combo of springs/sways/shocks would you recommend to reduce body roll, improve handling, & yet keep ride quality high? Would you stick to the same plan for an '08 PRHT GT without the factory Bilstein sport suspension package or take it in a different direction? Interested on hearing your thoughts on the Eibach PRHT springs versus Progress springs also - would the Eibach's higher spring rate be an unacceptable compromise to ride quality?

JamesD840 wrote:

Brian wrote:

Ranfy wrote:Brian, I have a 2007 PRHT GT with the Bilstein sport suspension package. I had a Mini Cooper which had flat, no body roll, cornering but a very harsh ride. I don't like the amount of body roll on my MX5, but don't want a harsh ride on my daily commute. What do you recommend?

The 2007 sits HIGH....my suggestion is start with just the Progress springs. That alone will make a big difference because it will fix the center of gravity and give you enough spring rate to reduce squat, dive, and quite a bit of the roll in the turns. If after the springs you want more, then let's talk about HOW MUCH more you want. If just a little then I would say our Racing Beat sways. And if you want a lot more reduction in body roll after the springs then I would say add the Progress Sways. My wife's car rides great with both, yet is very flat....but our roads are good here in San Diego and every choice is a compromise and might as well take it just one step at a time.

Brian,

What combo of springs/sways/shocks would you recommend to reduce body roll, improve handling, & yet keep ride quality high? Would you stick to the same plan for an '08 PRHT GT without the factory Bilstein sport suspension package or take it in a different direction? Interested on hearing your thoughts on the Eibach PRHT springs versus Progress springs also - would the Eibach's higher spring rate be an unacceptable compromise to ride quality?

Not Brian, but figured I'd toss in my 2 cents. First, Eibach springs aren't higher rate than the Progress. They're lower rate with more drop, so they're actually going to ride worse than the Progress springs. If you're on a super-tight budget, I'd think that your best bet would be Progress springs with a set of low-mileage NC2 OEM Bilstein shocks that somene took off their car when upgrading, plus a swaybar upgrade. Pretty much any swaybars are better than stock. RX8 bars are the cheapest, but adjustables ones like Racing Beat are still pretty reasonably priced.

Indeed the listed rate on the Eibach is higher than Progress but our simple tests here suggest the Progress is higher rate and with less drop it will have better ride than the Eibach....primarily because there is more travel with the Progress springs BEFORE we hit the bumpstops.

I had the Progress springs and Tokico HP shocks installed on my 2007 PRHT per Brain's recommendation and am totally satisfied with the results. Resulted in about a 1" drop and the ride has been fine with us on several multi-week trips. Still too much lean but for my purposes I can live with it.

Been closely following the advice in this tread. Installed Progress springs on my newly acquired 2008 PRHT GT with the stock black shocks over the weekend. Big improvement in ride, handling and roll. The black shocks seems to be better suited to the Progress springs than the stock factory springs. My "hand" shock dyno tells me that they are too stiffly valved in compression but pretty good in rebound. For the street, I prefer shocks with almost no compression force and lots of rebound. I'm going to install a RX8 red bar in the rear only and see what that does next. The car is pretty balanced right now but the rear end feels like it "digs in" at times. I think just a little stiffer bar in the back and I'll be happy. This is my DD and I hate spending money on it.

Hey Andi & Brian:
Now that this SS build is coming near to two years, please summarize your thoughts and how satisfied you are with the modifications. Would you have done anything different with 20/20 hindsight? Have you done anything more with sound deadening? Did I miss the install of the Street Single and the other mufflers or did that not happen? My stock 2012 SE is way quieter than the 2013 Club soft top that I test drove so I am interested in the different mufflers for the PRHT.

My wife does not want it loud, so you won't see any of the single mufflers on this car. She loves the sound level as it is, which is with the RoadsterSport Street Header, RoadsterSport Midpipe, and RoadsterSport SuperQ muffler. We simply got accustomed to the road and tire and wind sound and never did anything on sound suppression as a result.

As I posted elsewhere recently, every time I get out of this car I tell my wife something like "Wow, your Miata is a blast to drive!". Fortunately, she shares that sentiment, it is much more fun than stock...but not too serious for the wife. It is not an autocross car, not a track car, but for around town it is perfect for a fun drive and great for weekend canyon drives and road trips. The only thing we might do differently is our Racing Beat sways instead of the Progress Sways. The Progress sways are amazing, and I love them on freeway ramps, just more than my wife ever needs.

Are you planning to do a Moto East tune on the SS? Why or Why not?

honestobob wrote:Are you planning to do a Moto East tune on the SS? Why or Why not?

The MotoEast tune is in it now, just have not yet had time to run it back to the dyno to show the results of that tune here, but we will soon.