matrussell122

iTrader: (1)

Miata people dont rebuild stuff because we are a crowd of cheap sum bitches that sould be rebuilding them but arnt.

Spaceman Spiff

Great point, I didn't mean to present it in quite that manner, just that a reasonable rebuild interval appears as if it is going to be notably longer than the ~once a season it seems many beating on Xidas are doing. That said there is obviously a much smaller sample size so I could be eating my words in a year. I personally just had a much easier time pulling the trigger on my (admittedly used) set of coilovers because of the faith I had in Fox's R&D and FM's customer service.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

Those rebuilding their Xidas every season would also be rebuilding Fox every season, is what i'm getting at. Race shocks require periodic servicing. The use and care by the end user has a bigger impact on interval than who made the shock.

Not many pointy-end people using the Fox stuff. That's not a knock against it, i haven't used them. Just an observation.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

As Andy and another pointed out already, the cheap, plush ride option is buying a brand new set of Bilsteins and just keeping the spring rates modest for comfort. You don't need 550/350 if not running slicks on a track. 400/300 or 400/275 depending upon the sways will be super plush for the street and not hit the bumpstops all the time. Spend ~$120 per shock, $35 per spring, and get some cheap adjusters. Done.

jt@namiata.com

I am also very happy with mine. It rides awesome both for DD duty and an handful of autox per year. After years of trying different cheaper things like Bilsteins/Koni w/ softer spring rates and Ground Control perches, I finally have something I really enjoy.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Please state max budget for:
shocks/springs/mounts
sway bars
bushings if applicable

calteg

iTrader: (18)

I must have royally fucked my budget build up somehow. MSM Billies running 500/350 springs and it rides like a goddamn donkey cart. Any imperfection on the street is "grab your kidney belt" time.
I finally sacked up and bought the Xida race setup, it is 1000% without a doubt worth the money.

andym

Did you have extended front and rear top hats? I found that at reasonable ride heights having extended front and rear hats helped on that setup.

IanIsInTheGarage

DO NOT go with Feal. Unless you like getting coilovers showing up with bent rods and zero packaging. Then those butt holes tried to charge me a restocking fee and to fix their shipping mistake they wanted me to wait for them to rebuild their crap. Goodwin saved the day big time for me that day. I ended up with Ohlins $2400 or something. If your just wanting 1in drop and stock feel; i'd say bypass coilover and get a nice shock/spring combo. Use the rest of money for tires.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

That.... doesn't match my FEAL experiences. But that does suck. :(

matrussell122

iTrader: (1)

I too feel that my Feal coilovers are sweet. Very happy with them.

Scaxx

With all the driving you've been doing on them?

matrussell122

iTrader: (1)

Shhhhhh they dont know that.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

I heard those Feals have records under their belt. They speak for themselves.

matrussell122

iTrader: (1)

My specific coilovers have been raced and set many track racords......

Rallas

iTrader: (9)

Spend all the money that you possibly can or wait a while and save more money for the best setup you are willing to pay for. It is not worth spending a few hundred less thinking that you are OK with some reduced level of performance. Especially since you daily the car, you need to spend even more money to have improved performance and relatively comfortable ride quality. Cheaper solutions "feel" like higher performance to the untrained street driver, but ride quality sucks. I went through several cheap shock options during my college and younger years (AGX and Raceland), eventually I spent the money for two revisions of Bilstein revalves (first revalve was way to harsh for 90% street driven car). I could have paid for XIDA's (at that time) compared to the cost of my two revalves. For comfort you need shock travel, so lowering too much without extended travel top hats, especially on NA top hats, will only lead to terrible ride quality and bad performance. DIY bilstein setups require you to figure out a lot of things like spring rates, spring heights, helper springs, ride height, bump stops ect. Lots of crap to screw up and ruin the ride quality or performance, even if it is a good shock. Off the shelf options like XIDA figure all these things out for you and give you something that works out of the box without guessing/tuning, that's why they can charge what they charge and most options are worth the $$$.

My dad has a 99 and we have tried Koni yellows as well as the current FM-Vmaxx adjustables. Either of these options were good compromise options.Good performers with reasonable ride comfort. They will not work as great on track as my Bilstein setup, but work great for the occasional track day use. I would not recommend anything less than a Koni yellow or V-Maxx.

Not shock related, but for a mainly street driven car and occasional mountain spirited driving I really recommend the most comfortable shock, mild springs like FM, but add the stiffest sway bar. I did this on my wife's old 97 and it resulted in a very comfortable ride, but lots of fun when you hit the twisties. Not the best on track, but great for a car that will likely never spend much time on track.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

Slightly better than stock? Put Bilsteins under your stock hardware and springs.

MindfulMoose

Ahhh, crap. My email alerts stopped for this thread. Sorry guys. I thought I put my budget in the OP but I must have edited it out on accident when I updated it. I'd like to keep it around $1000, but I think $1300 is my hard limit for coils. I dont mind spending $1300 on coils and then having to go buy bushings and sway bar(s). I'll spend whatever is necessary on "supporting" mods for the coils.

I read through the thread and when you consider budget, it seems the answer is between Feals and DIY bilsteins. You guys like the Fox but its just way too up there in price.

I've also heard a few problems about fitment on the feals. You can find a couple of threads where they arrived in bad shape or didnt fit properly for some reason, but I'm not too worried about that since it seems pretty uncommon. I'm most likely going to wind up going with the Feals at this point. The DIY Bilsteins may technically be the best value option, but I honestly just dont want the headache of parts hunting. I want to place an order and be done. My garage has too many other headaches and I like the miata being a stress free car for me.

matrussell122

iTrader: (1)

If you get deals you want he road race which is out of your budget. That leaves the diy beilstein. So just do that. It's good and you will be happy with both the budget and performance.

borka

iTrader: (1)

I personally really like my bc racing br series coilovers.
Had an older setup with 8k/6k spring and it was nice and comfy on the street and decent track performance.

Then got 4 new shocks from bc with 12k/8k springs and now it's great on track, stiffer on street, but still a good ride.

I did pickup a set of xida race 700/400 and will be installing them soon. We will see what difference I might notice.