FM Butterfly brace?
 

Now that it's on sale, I am considering one. My only suspension mods so far are FM sway bars and lowering springs that I haven't even put on yet (before spring, obviously). I know I should just have lovefab weld up some reinforcements but this brace seems reasonable and looks so nice.

Depending on my wife's commissions, I plan on some fatcat mounts and illuminas to go with the set of Victorracers/Konig lightweights I just bought for more track days next summer. ( http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=2057117 ) The car did great last summer, completely stock, but I really want to go fast on the curves too next time. I overheard several people talk about how fast that miata was, and most of your cars are so much faster. Are you going to gingerman for wmhm, splittime?

RB braces, have it done custom, or FM Butterfly?

I didn't notice a huge difference in the handling of the car with the BF brace but it did takes potholes and bumps a lot smoother, no longer jolting the car and rattling the doors and shit like that. It's a pain in the ass to have to remove it everytime you work on something above it though, and it does hang a bit lower than the frame rails so you'll drag it on speedbumps occasionally. Also it sorta just leaves your fuel lines jumbled together. I've yet to find a good way to fit them into the space between the frame rail and brace, but perhaps mine are just bent up from the PO's bottoming of the car.

depending on how low your car is it defiently is more vulnerable to hitting speed bumps and other random stuff in the road. Just keep that in mind.

Was it worth it for you? Does the car feel significantly more solid and less flimsy? I really miss that about my FD rx7.

I am lowering it about 1.5 inches. Slammed miatas look great but my wife won't have it. Thats also why I still have ac.

How about the brace on this site: http://www.racinglifestyle.com/.

Anyone tested it? It's cheaper than FM's butterfly

If anyone is interested, I have a friend that has one(FM Butterfly) used. It is in good shape. I will contact him to see what he wants to sell it for and handle the sale for him in the "For Sale" section.

I'm interested.

If a decent price, I'm interested.

You guys might want to check out seam welding. I'm planning on stitching the area by the door sills this winter.

Sorry for the question Ben but; seam welding? would you mind providing some clarification?

I guess this time is a double whammy for me: first the language (sorry not my native one) and second, is there someone who's done that and would you happen to have a pic?

I'm old and the rattles are driving me crazy!

This guy gets carried away, but here ya go
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7731546@N07/

Just stitching up the door sill areas is reported to make a huge difference in stiffness.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/4...8fd7d4.jpg?v=0

The seem welding post is in here somewhere, I need to look for it again too. What is a good price for a used brace? Anyone else try one on an early car?

Thanks. My car is going to the paint shop tomorrow so I'll take them that pic. I think doing that with the doors could be a good solution.

Sorry but I had to ask:dunno:

Do you think the Butterfly brace is really worth $160 more than the two racing beat braces?

I have the Hard Dog door bars. They stiffened the car more than the butterfly did. However, I still would keep them both.

The downside of the door bars is that not many race seats fit.

Thanks for the advice. I think I am going to go with the RB stuff. I have always liked them ever since I bought my first performance exhaust in 1993 anyways.

Hopefully, 8psi, hawk pads and ss lines, FM sways, RB braces, and 205 V700 can give a lowered 04 NSX with eagle F1s a run for his money. And its only like six months away. :(

I think you're going to be disappointed about the RB braces in comparison to the FM frame rails/butterfly. While the RB braces may (and most likely will) help, the most pronounced area of chassis flexibility is torsion between the front section and rear sections of the cars, right through the passenger compartment. The RB braces aren't going to help there, but the FM braces will, as would seam/stitch welding the door sills.

My deciding factor was really the ground clearance. The roads are not great up here and the short dirt road to my house is very bad. The flex in the car doesn't really bother me too bad, but I would really enjoy more of a coupe like feel. But if it could feel like the FD rx7, I'll buy anything.

roads.are.shit.up.here.and.my.90.is.low.butterfly. rarely.hits.and.if.it.does.its.only.the.front.part .of.the.frame.rail.braces.

i.also.have.fm.springs.and.sways.and.rb.cannon.bra ce....i.think.the.butterfly.works.well.and.would.b uy.it.again.

...but.it's.expensive.and.usually.the.money.is.bet ter.spent.elsewhere(like.more.power)

Are you having a seizure while you type this?

Leave the poor guy alone, he's typing it while riding in his car and the ride is quite jarring because of his race suspension and bad roads.

I guess I will start small, like I did with boost, I can always sell what I change or buy another miata for my wife.

I've got just the frame rails (DOTD score), and alone these improved the feel of the car a lot and change ground clearance very little. I'd like to try a butterfly brace, but suspect that ground clearnace would be a bitch.

I have the Butterfly brace and the BF brace is the lowest point on the car.I think it only clears the ground by 4 inches,but clearence will depend on how low your car is.

Busted keyboard ftl.. no space bar (btw this is on my cell)

Very low. Not JDM retard low but low enough. Part of my problem arises when I have my 13" wheels on, I loose almost an inch of clearance.

As long as it's not JDM retard low,then you should be fine.Just make sure you avoid pot holes and big speedbumps.Even if you were to scrape something really hard or just hit it,the brace is really sturdy and solid and the damage will be really minimal,well unless you catch the lip of a really high manhole cover.