805nb

Hi all,
I purchased my nb1 with BC coilovers already on the car. Not something I would buy myself, but oh well. I haven't really messed around with properly setting them up yet, just picked a ride height I liked and sent it for my first track day. I'm heading back to the track in a few months and want to get these properly dialed in.. but I'm not sure how. I haven't been able to find any threads for track prepping BC coilovers because the track guys typically would never run these lol. I'd like to go with a 4.5" pinch weld height I think, but I don't really understand if I should adjust the preload/spring perch to get there or spin the whole shock or what. All your fancy words (ie bumpstop stuff, droop/compression travel stuff) are still slightly beyond me at the moment and I'm struggling to find a decent guide.

My best current understanding for setting these up would be:
1). Remove the spring and mount the shock on the car
2). Spin the shock body so its pressing against the bump stops right before the wheel makes contact with the fender well.
3). Take the shock back off, mount the spring, and adjust what they call "preload" (spring perch) to achieve desired ride height.
4). If the spring is loose and completely unloaded at full droop, get helper springs.
Is this correct? Thanks in advance and pardon if I've worded anything oddly.. still trying to learn

curly

iTrader: (25)

Little backwards from what I’d suggest. Set the spring perches to just touch the spring, maybe one turn further. Use the shock body to then set desired ride height. “Dialing in” would involve adjusting your rebound/compression **** to best suit your tire/alignment/track setup, which is where you’ll probably start to run into road blocks, as the BC coils aren’t designed or built very well. Even Chelsea Denofa runs Penske guts.

Tran

In this situation, how would they make sure that there isn't some kind of crazy contact at full compression, or that there is in fact some decent amount of compression travel?

Interesting! Though that means the damping performance will be much better, but they're still strut and the BC struts have terrible stiffness.

This is what I did when setting up 2 piece Meister R's. But as Curly says, this isn't really dialling in, this is basically what happens just installing a properly designed set of suspension. Anyway, best of luck! If it's your first miata on track, you'll have a blast, even if the car is bouncing around.

Z_WAAAAAZ

I bought a set of BC coilovers for my NA when I got it (was new and didn’t know any better). Take it with a grain of salt because I haven’t spent extended amounts of time on any other coilovers but I actually don’t have any qualms about the damping characteristics on these.

The issue I ran into with the BCs after tracking them a couple times is that the supplied spring rates lead to some pretty pronounced oversteer when driven at full bore. 10k/8k isn’t much of a spread between front and rear rates. My car was pretty slide-happy running 1/4” of rake even with the big racing beat sway bar in the front (although it was in the softer setting). I’m currently running 4.75” pinch weld heights all around and a wing that seems to make a little more downforce than my front aero and the car is just the right amount of tail-happy.

805nb

Thanks all. Appreciate the responses. Once I start to feel the limitations of these shocks, I'll likely spring for some xidas. And z_waaaaaz, I follow you on instagram lol. Loved watching the build come together over the last year. Had no idea you were on BC's.
I ran a 1:31 at SOW CW last time, hoping with some properly set up shocks to run a sub 30.

Z_WAAAAAZ

Ha, no way! Small world. Hope you’ve enjoyed watching my blunders over the past year lol.

Yeah, I haven’t found any fault with the BCs yet but a set of Xidas is high on my upgrade list for next year. I’m sure they’re better in ways I can’t even imagine yet haha.

Good luck with the build! 1:31 at SOW in a stock engine Miata is fast.