My Stewart Development Shock/Damper Review
 

First of all, I wanted to thank Bernie and especially John Mueller for making this come together for me.

Second of all, I do not feel like posting my shock dyno plots (I want to see how I do at autocross and track days) and if you want to see dyno plots, get your own custom valved dampers.

So here we go:
After 3 long hours I installed them today using the long-bolt method. The 3 hours included set-up time, labor and 45 minute test drive.

Installation:
No problems, hardware came off easy due to anti-seize I used when installing the FCM top Hat kit. Everything went smooth. I removed the front splash shield and the RB Anti-Sway blocks so I could slide the bolts forward. I have AC and PS so I needed room to slide the bolts forward. I think I only used 12, 14, 17, 19 and 21mm sockets and wrenches, all 6 point. A snap-on 3/4 inch flex head ratchet combined with an open end 21 dispatched the nuts and long bolts. Everything else was easy but time consuming. Torque speq checks from the Mazda manual are included in this total task time. Cleaning and other steps are also included. 9:30-12:30 with only a 15 minute break for cigarette and coffee after finishing the rears.

Setup:
Spec Miata suspension: 700# front springs and 325# rear springs. Spec Miata front and rear bars. For Autocross I have tried the rear bar off, disconnected or replaced with stock and it works in tuning out oversteer on certain courses.

Test Drive-Typical Crappy Roads:
The handling is unreal! Yes, unreal! Awesome! Not daily driver awesome, but handling awesome! Any ripples on the road less than 1" are dispatched with ease. The rebound damping is unreal. The car just comes back down and there is no drama. Certain high speed turns (50-70 mph) with broken pavement mid-turn are now very confidence inspiring. The car refuses to jack down. The car refuses to skitter. During a concrete section of overpass some 3 miles long where I get strong wash-boarding on my moto, this car is just composed. When the pavement is rough and I put my foot in it she just goes forward with confidence and no drama and no loss of grip. If I jump on the brakes on rough pavement, the tires just stick and the dampers handle the imperfections with ease. During large high speed transitions, the car is balanced left to right and quick to turn in and quick to roll out. Much quicker than before. This is with 205-50 Bridgestone RE-11s on 15x7 Team Dynamics with 30 offset.

2nd Test Drive-Mountain Roads:
Same conclusions as before: when stepping on it, the car just goes no matter how rough the pavement is even in a turn. Mountain roads, with smooth pavement and the car just rolls a bit and grips like crazy. The transitions from left to right are smooth, well controlled and very fast. Mountain roads with snakes and ripples do not unsettle the dampers even at speeds 10-15 mph faster than before.

Broken up roads:
Do not get this suspension set-up if you are looking for comfort on crap roads as this is not a Rally set-up. I was not. My DGF found the SM package comfy while I thought it was somewhat punishing at times. This is much better because these re-valved dampers do a better job of eliminating the small stuff. I found myself taking the outer lane in high-speed turns and purposely driving through the drain covers yet the dampers handled it without any issues unlike before where I would avoid the dips. Manhole covers whether raised or dipped could not unsettle the car either at similar speeds.

What's Next?
I want to test these in the wet and at an autocross as well as a track day or two. I will post the results. I just wish I had the money to get 3-5 set-ups from Bernie for various conditions. I also wish I had a garage where I could do suspension swaps whenever I felt like it.

Summary:
For a non-adjustable suspension (except for ride-height) this is awesome. Bang for the buck, it is impossible to beat. I keep futzing around with my Moto settings (high and low speed compression and rebound adjustments) to no avail. They never match my driving. I bet that for track work, backed up by a data-logger one could optimize settings on multi-adjustable dampers but in my experience, those feature just do not work well on the street unless you find a compromise and then set and forget. That being said, I was looking for a re-valve that matched most of my needs and I think I found it.

Thank you Bernie for a great job, and thank you John for cleaning up the backlog and the comm issues. You guys are tops. My money went to the right place. Cheers!

PS. This is NA Miata used for DD, Autocross, Track Days on bumpy tracks, ... Not yet Turbo, but in next 1-3 years if my skills improve sufficiently handling-wise.

;)

How much did it run for the rebuild?

I'm confused as to why you aren't posting the shock dynos? Are you a nationally competitive autocrosser?

Yeah, what he said. And for consistency's sake, a pox upon you, sir. ;)

Weekend-Racer has the current prices. I paid something less, but that is another story.

No, not nationally competitive. Not even regionally competitive yet. Soon.
My goals are different than most. Let me sort things out with Bernie and John and see if I can post something. Their work is awesome, but me set-up may not work at all for you.

What does this mean, sir? I am sorry, but do not understand "... a pox upon you..."?

All in fun, Danny.

It's a medieval insult essentially hoping you catch a case of the clap. In Romeo and Juliette, Juliette's cousin Tybalt get's fatally stabbed by Romeo in a quarrel, and because he's pissed at the whole situation says, "A plague on both your houses", meaning, essentially, "fuck you all, assholes". "A pox on you" isn't nearly as serious as that, and is only mild insult of the sort you would expect from a buddy because you refused to buy him a beer, or for withholding high performance shock information.

Just for that:

:laugh:

:fawk:

mine

Thanks wannafbody.

More Driving
 

No wet weather, so I just did more Daily Driving:
The set up is outstanding! All the small stuff bumps and drops 1-2 inches do not unsettle the car at legal speeds. At all! This is good enough that I would recommend as a Daily Driver set-up. Remember that I run 700# springs up front so a lot of energy gets stored and released. These shocks are doing a great job of dealing with the bumps and they do not shock the tires which is exactly what I was looking for.
At low speeds, they are on par and sometimes better, albeit sometimes worse than my stock Mazda2 OEM set-up. If the potholes or bumps are severe, the Mazda2 absorbs them better but the chassis gets unsettled as it bucks over the terrible roads.

Today I did a 2 hour road-test in mixed conditions (traffic-wise and road condition-wise) and my opinion did not change. The car is very composed, easy to control and I continue to love high speed turns over less than perfect pavement. The suspension is composed, compliant and yet very communicative. The quarter I ran over is tails-up!

My DGF drove the car Saturday over 100 miles and came back with these comments: Much better than before, smoother, more comfortable, car felt faster, easier to slice through traffic, more confidence inspiring braking over broken asphalt, less busy, easier to drive. She'll be driving the car to work over the next 2-3 weeks every day, so we should be collecting some 1,000 miles on this set-up.

I have a track day at the end of the month and hopefully will get some wet weather wheel time before then.

Hope you like this kind of feedback and post questions if you have any.

I drove mine over the weekend too. I aimed the car toward some broken pavement and fairly large dips with drainage grates, I gritted my teeth waiting for the impact-they ending up being non events.

These shocks are great for handling and are not harsh at all compared to other shocks. I have one complaint though. For some reason, even though bumps are not harsh, the chassis accelerates up and down just enough that it makes me feel queazy on longer rides on less than perfect roads. I experience this especially on mt 45 mile drive to/from work every day. I have never expereinced this before. I have read some reports that this could be related to the rebound settings used. Have you guys experienced anything like this?

I can't say that I experienced this, but now that you mentioned, I will pay attention to this. I wonder if a frequency calculation may not yield some sort of coupling between front and rear. Anyway, can you duplicate the symptom and post more details? Try the same section of road at varying speeds and see if the symptom subsides.

I doubt that it's the shocks-I suspect that it has to do with ride frequencies. Try upping the rear spring rate and see if it goes away.

I have no problem duplicating the symptoms, all I have to do is find a less than perfect road. I have tried 2 different spring rate setups 550fr/250r and 400f/250r. I had a previous suspension setup with rates really close to the 400f/250r and did not experience the sensation I am feeling. I might see if I can borrow a set of 350's for the rear from a friend of mine. I really have a perfect f/r ratio for my handling preferences so I do not want to screw it up.
Can any of you guys post a copy of your "before" dyno plot? Bernie only sent me the "after" plot. Assuming that most of the shocks are pretty much the same out of the box, it will help me better understand what he actually changed on my set.

If you up the rear rate and then put the front sway at full stiff :)

I went from 400/250 to 400/333 and love it.

I do not have a before as I was not really interested in the before. I am sure that if you ask Bernie he will provide you with one. I've been harassing him quite a bit with technical Q's lately and I want to keep a bit of goodwill for my next re-valve.

Brain, do you still run a rear swaybar with 330 rear rates? I already have the front bar full stiff. Increasing to 330lb/in in the rear will make it oversteer more correct? I really like the neutral setup I have with my Jackson F/R bars and 400/250 springs.

How was the suspension set up before the SD shocks? Was it stock? Or did you have the big springs and stock Bilsteins? Or???

On this car I have had stock, RB springs AGX shocks and NB racelands with a few different spring rates. I have also had another miata with stock springs and Koni Sports.
I actually got a missed call from Bernie the other day to answer the question. I guess they are really working to turn around the customer service situation. Now I just need to get a chance to call him back since my work has been nuts.

85Dave, mine was Spec Miata.

Actually had Bernie call me 3 times to discuss my issue, but I kept missing his calls. Once he finally got a hold of me he really redeemed himself, nice guy. Not the misterious dishonest guy some of the latest threads made him out to be.
Long story short, he agreed that he tuned the rebound a little more than what I really wanted and offered to have them adjusted for free. Now I just need to find the time to pull the shocks off the car again. This has become a rather frequent excersize lately.

Update!
 

Finished the season and decided to try something different. I talked to Bernie about a different set-up with 450/275 springs vs. the 700/325.

I also had experienced delays (like most here) so I said -----it! I'm going down there and meet the man behind the hoopla (quality-wise not business-wise).

The dude is only 600 miles away, a day's drive from my pad. Let's set a date and do this. Done. The weather was predicted to be nice, so it was done. Found a cheap hotel that did not rent by the hour and started the trip. Drove out Thursday and returned Saturday.

Why?
Well besides the obvious (loose nut somewhere), when I was a kid, I would ride my bike cross-town to meet my friends and get into mischief. I wanted to see the man behind this wonderful product that one can get in 2 weeks or 6 months (depends on how the planets align). Some folks are better at running a business than others, and the chatter here left me un-clear about some details. I wanted to understand what farnorthracing.com was talking about. I wanted to experience this from a builder not in a short phone-call, but by actually going through the ins and outs. The secrets I learned will stay with me for the most part. Some I will share if they benefit you and not hurt Bernie. So what better way to accomplish this than a face-to-face? And a handshake?

Trip Summary:

Day 1
10 1/2 hours later I arrive in High Point, NC home of SD;
Stopped by the shop first where I met Bernie and Britney, both nice folks;
Did a quick tour and headed out for the hotel (I was beat) as I was eager to get out of my smelly Mazda 2;

Day 2
Met Bernie and started going over the details: Bilstein vs Penske (he does both); His background; Why the delays; What goes wrong; Secrets of Bernie vs. Others; Customer Priority;
At lunch we headed over to Petty's Garage; Met a bunch of great folks there also: John Hayworth (sells and re-builds Brembo as well as other brakes) and a few other characters. We ended up a few hours there after which we stopped to pick up some take-out (no time to sit) and headed back to work on more shocks;
We spent 4-4 1/2 hours rebuilding my shocks; Yes it took that long, and Bernie is ------- quick: he knows what he is doing. He ended up dyno-ing and re-building one of the shocks about 5 times over until it came out perfect (in case you noobs wonder how he gets them matched so well). This is why he can do better financially if he can batch them and do 40 sets in a good week. I saw a whole bunch of used shocks that customers sent in for re-valves and was amazed by the amount of damage on the parts. I asked him how he can make money by replacing so much ----. He smiled because I now understood. He tries to get for free or buy for cheap donor shocks. He said that if he did not do this, folks would just buy new and live with them. Then I understood why other folks in this business need to sell features. I mean, why pay Bernie 300-1000 for a rebuilt when you can buy new for 450-1,000? So unless you want that special magic, there is no business case here. He does get business from customers that win races with his product and those take priority. Re-valving a set of new shocks is better than used. Re-valving Penskes is easier than Bilsteins (you get what you pay for). Bernie uses some custom tooling to allow him to get to the precision he gets.
So, we chatted some about other issues and opportunities, I grabbed my secret shocks and split.

Day 3
I think I drove home. I detoured over some really nice NC, VA side roads and the BRP and Skyline Drive and 340 and somehow I found myself home holding a nice Brown beer some 13 1/2 hours later.

Secret Tip: How do you go faster in a Mazda 2? Do not slow down for the turns!

Install to be done in the next few weeks (I am waiting for another set from Bernie). Results will be posted. I will also update my other thread and share thoughts after one season I completed on his first dampers/shocks.

Glad somebody went and met with him. I had nothing but great things to say about him, and he always came across very knowledgeable. It was a shame that the numerous delays really soured everything. Especially when I had such a good experience, and I promoted the group buy. My car felt amazing at the track earlier this month. My PCA national instructor commented that it was one of the best feeling miatas he had ever ridden in. I'm running 450/300 with NB tophats, FM front sway, stock rear sway, and FCM 36mm bumpstops.

Makes me really glad I bought from FCM. Shaikh always starts with new shocks -- not junkyard donations.

Sorry I posted, if this starts any mud-slinging! Some local folks re-valve Penskes for high dollar machines. Parts are re-used as a matter of course. I worked with aircraft engines and we never discarded turbine or compressor blades. We inspected and re-used. If you call that Junkyard, so be it.
I shared my experience.

Mods, feel free to lock this down. I never meant for this to be a this vs. that.

http://www.aviationtoday.com/am/cate...rcial/345.html

Yes in the aircraft industry we inspect and re-use rotors, blades, and just about every part available.

I think it is nice to have the good and the bad available to forum members. Then people can make an educated decision. Hopefully with their own research added to the mix

Good to see more SD info. I may be needing another set of revalved Bilsteins in the future.

I dont think anyone here has anything negative to say about his product, just they way he handled himself last summer.

I would have laughed if somwhere in your story he said something like "youll get them tomorrow"

I plan to install them in the next couple of weeks and post feedback. I am swapping out the 700/325 with SD Shocks and swapping in the set I just picked up valved for 450/275s. My out set is going on another Miata that will be turboed that belongs to a friend that does track days at Pocono, NJMP and E-Town. I also plan to do some data-logging of my new set-up and see how it compares to the older one. Everything else in the car remains the same to allow me to compare the two set-ups without noise from other mods. Even the ride-height and alignment settings will remain for half the season.

See you soon. Hope to have some nice graphs for you in 2 months or so.