Give me some input on a decent sub $1000 suspension setup
 

I am building a solo1 / hillclimb turbocharged Miata.

Adding up all of the costs to bring this car to track ready, things are getting pretty high.

Right now I'm looking for inputs for a good "budget" track suspension.

Our local track on the smooth rating is maybe a 7/10. No elevation changes either. And for hill climb, it will be on public roads so something that can work with a surface like this is best.

The shock/spring setup will be coupled with poly bushings and front and rear a/m sway bars. I haven't decided on which ones yet.

racelands:giggle:

Good to see you cheaping out on suspension rather than the engine, its the least important performance area.

Don't mis-take "budget" for cheap. I am far from cheap, if you saw my RX7 you would understand.

I am merely looking for a good shock/spring setup that will preform well until I feel like dropping 2k on the coilovers I want.

When I add up everything from safety items (cage, seat etc), engine, cooling, exhaust, wheels/tires etc. I just don't have the cash to spend on expensive coil overs right now.

And I KNOW some shock/spring combos can preform and are better than a lot of mid-grade coilovers. I just want to see what other people are running on the track and go from there.

Search "suspension hierarchy" in the box up yonder.

I thought the $2k shocks and springs were entry level?
You're not going to find anything "decent" aside from Tein Flex under $2k.
I'm certain you rRX7 was a raging piece of shit and I'd certainly curb-stomp it in a naturally aspirated Miata...and probably fist your girlfriend and shit on your chest too.

yup... looks like a raging pile of shit to me!
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You're a dick.

And I still own my FD, it's my DD and weekend track car. The Miata is going to be a stripped out competition track car.





Back to the topic.

What do you guys think of the Bilstein / Ground Control set up.?

The Bilsteins are $479 and GC's are $399.

Other option is the Flex.


Hey Bond... that's a good thread but for the most part it just shows cost. I'm trying to get some input from people who have used setups like this and how they found them.

I had GC/Bilstein and couldn't get them off the car quick enough to replace with flex. The bilsteins have WAY TOO MUCH REBOUND and will beat the everliving shit out of you on the street. On the track they were okay but the car was pretty twitchy and hard to drive...but I learned a lot from driving on them for so long.

yes, I'm a dick.

What about the FCM revalved bilsteins. I think that will set you back ~1k.

I think you could recoup a lot of the cost if you sold them later with the springs to someone that had a similar setup.

The problem also lies in the fact that you would have to find someone with a car that had a similar weight distribution.

I believe FCM wants spring rate, and ride height at each corner. It's supposed to be a pretty pimp setup. I'm currently saving my pennies.

I've seen the tein flex coilovers sell for 750 to 900 on this site. I can't recall if it was decided if these are really nice or overrated.

Hustler uses the tein flex so they must suck. My FM springs and my AGX shocks are better than hustlers tein flex setup. Everybody elses tein flex setup is the tits, just not hustlers.

You can try my car next time you're my way. Put the Flex on last night.

Can't say much more than that because I haven't really driven on them yet (rain).

What spring rates do the flex come with out of the box?

I'm kind of looking at the Koni Race now too. Savington uses them and seems to like them a lot.

tein basic?

Yes, I've seen the basic but I really thing a well set up shock/spring combo witll out preform a base model Tein for the same price. I've owned a few Teins in the past, one being the basic and was not really impressed. They were good for street driving but I think the would have been poor on the track.

Get used bilsteins (200), eBay coilovers for the collars (50), use rear 350's, get front qa1 650's (70), isc top hats rear (100), revalve from Stewart Development (400), sway bars of choice (200), 949racing end links (160), conquer Hustlers mom, profit

Can you point out these ebay perches? I've tried to find them....

Just get on eBay Motors and search for Coilover. I just did this and got >13,000 hits, the first few hundred of which appear relevant.

Example: 92 93 94 95 HONDA CIVIC COILOVER KIT (SCALE) : eBay Motors (item 170434006615 end time Jan-20-10 19:15:53 PST)



Heh. Once you've been here a while, you'll start to appreciate Hustler. Yeah, he's a dick. But so long as you're not the one he's mocking, he's a pretty funny dick. ;)

shit that stuff looks ghetto... I wouldn't feel comfortable using those.



and as for hustler, I kinda figured that out after reading a few more of his posts...

Konis and ground controls.

All of the used Flex that I have seen have been between $750 and $950. You have some time until spring so start watching ebay and the FS section here. I bought mine here for $800 shipped, along with a set of FM front and rear sways with Racing Beat endlinks for $100 shipped. Gotta jump on them quick, though.

As far as how they ship stock, 5Kg/mm rear, 7Kg/mm front but you never can be sure unless you check because people can order whatever springs they want from several distributors.

I also ran my car without the rear sway and used the FM front, street or autox. For autox, full hard front, 4 clicks down on the rear. It helped balance out the car and let it rotate with throttle.

If you are doing a stripped track car with 275's you will likely be need to be much higher sprung than mine. Anothe guy that autox'ed a competitive turbo Miata was somewhere around 12k/9k springs. Mine was a DD car.