Penske 8300 Coilovers
 

Is anyone using Penske 8300 Coilovers on their Miata? I am building my 2004 Miata for the track (with occasional street use) with 250whp-270whp goals. I have been racing it bone stock on street tires, and its time to upgrade wheels/tires, suspension, and cooling. I only want to spend the money once on the suspension that I can overhaul in the future. Having read a lot of posts, XIDA BGK seems to be the popular choice. Penske 8300 is one of the highest end kits money can buy, but no one mentions it. Is it worth the $5K+ price tag, by the time it is all said and done? Thanks!

That depends, how serious are you about winning HPDEs?

Being that they exceed the value of most Miata's is probably why no one uses them. I haven't been around Miata's very long yet but it seems that there's much better choices for way less money than that. Specifically if you aren't racing competitively,I'd imagine that is insanely overkill for an occasional track day car.

A few of the guys in the Race Prep section run them, but they're serious racers with cars that are prepped to the limits. Penske 8300 money buys you XIDAs or Vorshlag's Bilstein Motorsports shocks PLUS an OS Giken, plus a couple sets of NT01s. Easy choice for me.

Im not sure which model, but Moti of Blackbird Fabworx is using Penske on his nb2 track car "Creampuff." I rode in it at M@MRLS and was amazed by that total package(aero, weight and susension), even coming from my Xida BGK.
You could shoot him an email for more info.

Unless you have mega deep pockets or have a sponsor throwing cash at you, why would you spend that much for a fraction of a second per lap?/

Dick-swingery.

Another option you might consider is Motion Control Suspension, US made high end race shocks.

XIDA-S and OSGiken and you'll blow away the penske lap time... for the same money

I run Penske 8300 of my own design and measurements.
They perform better than any Miata I've ever driven, and I've driven a fair few.
Funny enough, this is with out of the box settings because I upgraded to the Penskes recently and have yet to do any serious turning of the knobs to get the most out of it.. I've done 3 days on them so far, but all three were just taking passengers for fun rides (one at BRP, two at MRLS).

If you're the kind of guy that would leave the settings alone after installation and / or initial setup, it's a waste of time.
But if you're like me, which at normal events I will play with the setup all the time to make the most out of it, it is hard to think of a better way to go.

FWIW, I previously had on the car DAs from a miata vendor that were performing reasonably well, the Penskes were a HUGE upgrade from those even with everything set to full soft.

I'm a believer.

Moti

Thanks Moti! It seems that the select few that have used them, swear by them. Knowing myself, I will eventually build the car and race it competitively, although right now I only do recreational track lapping (could not afford racing before), and at the moment I definitely do not need this kind of suspension. But one thing I want to avoid is spending the money several times on the same component. $2500 for Xida's now, $5000 for Penske later. It is cheaper to get Penske right away. I just need to determine if I will ever need them down the road. One build, the right way, even if its slower!

I love mine and beyond that, I see no need to justify any of my purchases to anyone on some internet forum.
It's your car, buy whatever you want / makes you happy... who cares if you're racing competitively or just want to drive HPDE in a point-by run group?
I couldn't give two shits if someone feels like I should spend my money differently :rofl:

Note that the actual amount of people that have first hand experience with these shocks can probably be counted on a bomb squad guy's hand, so don't expect much useful input.

I drove a car on guy ankeny penske remote doubles, not sure which series they were. Compared to my xidas they did everything that the xidas are lauded for but incrementally better. But those shocks cost within a grand of buying xida doubles.

That is the price range of the 8300.

please do buy the penskes, that way someone here can get them for cheap when you part out your car.

do you race your bone stock miata with floor mats and the spare tire? get some track time. or listen to the suspension sponsored guys throw names at you for shit you should buy.

We've got XIDAs on our CSP autocross car and love them.

We plan to upgrade to Penskes this winter because we want double-adjustability and because Penskes are user-serviceable (we're kinda nerds like that). But we're also pretty serious about trying to find a few tenths of a second on an autocross course.

As other people have said, if you're just doing HPDEs, a 1/2 second faster lap time means nothing. You don't need Penskes at all. XIDAs would probably still be overkill, really. Some Konis and a coilover kit would suit your needs just fine.

Neal Tovsen

If you have to ask, you dont need them.

Welcome Neal. I think we met at Wilmington and at Nationals this year.