Best front hub - Mazda Motorsports or Miatahubs?
 

Which of these two hubs would you consider to be the ultimate, buy once, set-it-and-forget-it hub? Both the Mazda Motorsports front hub and the Miatahubs front hub seem to be the two ultimate choices, but I can only find very little information on either, it doesn’t seem like many people run them or have feedback on them. The biggest difference is that the MM hub uses tapered roller bearings, while the MH hub uses a dual row ball bearing. For context, these will be for a V8 car with 245 width tires. Not really concerned about the price as I am with longevity.

Miatahubs use a cartridge style dual row tapered roller bearing, not ball bearings. The bearing preload is designed into the cartridge and you install and torque the hubs just like OEM.

No comment on which is best since I'm obviously biased. :)

Brofab is another good option.

Mine looked great when I unpacked them. Unfortunately in a moment of (hopefully temporary) insanity I sold them, Seriously considering another set, but the little Aussie bleeder is in the dumps atm making them too expensive right now.

Interesting, I wasn’t aware of that. In your opinion, how well sealed are these compared to the MM ones? On Flyin’ Miata’s site, they state that they shy away from recommending them for DD use because they aren’t sealed as well as OEM, but the seal setup on these looks very similar. What’s the realistic expected service life for the bearings for street use with possible occasional Auto-x mixed in? Again, it will be a V8 car with 245 tires, and I was hoping to experiment up to 275 one day. I want something that will hold up and not be a constant service or failure point.

Our seals are OEM quality and just as good as the stock Mazda seals. We don't really have a service life recommendation because we've seen so few wear out, even with serious endurance racers. For street and autox only you'll never kill them.

Jeffs MiataHubs are works of art and bulletproof.

Sounds like it will be the way to go then, I’m all about bolt on and never worry about it again.

On a similar topic, in your guys’ experiences opinions, how common or advantageous is it to need the extended lower ball joints and “R” series tie rod ends, especially with my intended set up?

Yes to both. The ELB give more negative camber that you will probably need on a track car. The "R" series tie rods have corrected bump steer geometry, though you can also space the steering rack to get a similar effect.

I’m probably not going to be able to space the rack due to the V8 conversion. I figured as much on the tie rods since it will be lowered some (not beyond flat control arms, maybe even less) but I’m worried about ending up with too much negative camber with the ELBs. I guess I should have also mentioned that I have the V8R Pro Series control arms already so I have quite a bit more adjustment points than with factory arms.

Next question - do y’all ship to Alaska? Your website says no dice :rofl:

Yep, just email us. The website doesn't process it correctly and we have to do it manually.