Question about BC Racing Coilovers on City streets (NA MX-5)
 

Does anybody have experience with how well BC Racing BR coilovers for the NA 90-98 MX-5 handle rough roads. I live in Baltimore, City and the roads are horrible. Lots of train tracks, random pot holes (which I do try to avoid). Current I'm on budget coil overs (TEIN Adance Z.). Whenever I try to get up to speed and just have some fun, all it takes is some rough patch or slightly uneven pavement and the car literally bounces it's way off it's wheels and practically sets off a chain reaction of bounces that ultimately force the car to not stop bouncing.

If I were to guess, the dampers on them are just not capable I'm afraid to handle the springs they come with is my best guess. So I'm really hoping for someone's genuine honest reviews of BC BR series for the NA, or anybody with experience, in another set of coilovers. Because they are pretty costly and I've been saving. I'm hoping to build the Miata into a daily driver for several years to come, and right now I'm probably looking at generating back arthritis, if I don't find the right set to handle Baltimore city and county roads smoother and with less bounces.

So how about it, does BC BR series live up to it's good reputation? Or do you have any other suggestions (I'm willing to save up to around 1250+ give or take 150, but 2k is way too much for meee)

I do want to monthly/bi-monthly track the car also.

I think what it comes down to is BC Racing BR Series VS MeisterR ZetaCRD. I heard the MeisterR's are very good and dedicated to the Miata scene. Both have great reputations. I just haven't heard anything bad about BC's either. I have to say I am mainly focusing on daily livability if I had to pick one or the other. But because I haven't tried neither of them, I don't know which should ride more comfortable & low!

I highly appreciate your guys' time on this thread. Any insight or knowledge is considered golden to me right now!

Cheers everyone & Have a blessed night~

If you're gonna be dumb, you best be tough.

Which is better for 230whp on baltimore city & county streets? lol to sum it all up. or is there something else. enlighten me plx ty

I'm running bc br. And I do really like them for dual duty, fun weekend toy, and occasional track and autox.

originally I had 8k/6k. Pretty comfy street and mild track setup. But was not sprung enough for more serious track use.

went with new dampers from bc matched to 12k/8k springs.

noticeably stiffer on the street, but still enjoyable. And now pretty good on the track as well, no more riding bump stops.

now, I am in Florida with silky smooth roads. And no way in hell would I even consider daily driving this suspension in the pot hole universe known as the north east.

My experience consists of :
flying miata vmaxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Junk, too harsh on street, way too soft on track.
bc 8k/6k - nice semi stiff street and mild track use.
bc 12k/8k - stiff street, but still enjoyable and good track performance.

I have never tried xidas. Maybe if I do get to try them, I then might reconsider my liking of bc coilovers.

honestly for pothole ridden streets, it will be tough to find a bearable coilover solution.

How many inches of shock body travel do you have available to you at your current ride height before contacting the bump stops? Please measure. Start there.

I don't think it hits the bump stops with my current setup, which has been okay it's just so uncontrollable bouncy

But how much does it have? 1in? 1/2in? 3/4in?

Post some shock dynos of the ones you are considering so we can analyze them and help with the decision.

Are you familiar with the idea of digressive valving and why it is desirable?

Nope. Not familiar with that. I can look this stuff up when I'm off work in 12 hours.

However, I'm currently running Tein advanced z. It's the 450-550$ coilover option for na/nb miatas. I'm running the NA. And i have them set to pretty much as low as they go. (Which isn't that low. I hear other brands bc's, etc go lower more comfortably) Not sure if it's possible to find what you're asking for anywhere online based off of just that. I'm ganna try to further my understanding when i get home.

But a thought crossed my mind. Is there a coilover that exists which rides comfortably low, for looks and streets. But performs good enough to handle higher 10k/8k+ spring rates for if you decide to just swap out the springs and adjust the dampers by a knob for track day? Would be nice to find all of that in one!

This forum will tell you to build your own bilstein coilovers using sleeves and rates of your choice or $2000 Xida's. I tried asking about "off the shelf" and was met with bad spring rates (meh, they can be resprung), bad dampers (this is essentially what you're paying for), and overall low effort builds (ride bump stops or improper top hat configuration) because at the end of the day these companies are looking to turn a profit. they want to be able to use the same springs on every set of coilovers, same top hat designs, and choosing rates that would be "good enough for anyone who buys them."

So with that being said, there's nothing decent for <$1000 and everything in the $1000-$1500 is putting you closer and closer to Xida's which are the BEST miata specific coilovers and just above what it would cost to build your own bilstein coilovers. I recommend reading through the better bilstein coilover thread and give my 10+ page summary a read too. you'll see the roast of me and the basics of what's required. To summarize, ~$420 in NB Bilstein B8 shocks, $140 in coilover sleeves, Summit Racing 7" springs; pick spring rates of your choosing (I'm going with 550/350 which I was told is comfortable yet sporty, you have the power here), extended top hats for shock travel, Integra bump stops that you cut down to length, and some other miscellaneous bits such as bushings and washers. My thread has a spreadsheet with part numbers and cost, it's ending up right around $1000, say $1100 with all the little bits and pieces added up that I'll have lying around the garage. The best part is, Bilsteins are able to handle a wide variety of spring rates, if you want a more "plush" ride, drop it to 350/250 ish. but I plan on being noticeably lower than stock height so stiffer springs to reduce slamming the bump stops and rubbing fenderwells is worth it to me (I'm young still).

to quote a noob who read the better bilstein thread:
Even SuperMiata (949 Racing sister company, Xida developers) recommends DIY Bilsteins for ~$1000 budget. It's hard to argue that BC (meister just a recolor and rebrand) or any <$1000 coilover will be better than a bilstein with your own spring rates. Bilsteins are VERY quality shocks, came standard on some NC's and on MSM and even some NB's. Also, NVH is huge. These cars are old now. They're starting to rattle a bit more as plastic ages and things aren't like they were 20 years ago. Many cheaper coilover companies use spherical bearings at the top hats which leads to a host of random vibrations from improper NVH damping. This is alleviated when you use NB style bushings which isolate the shock from the top hat which isolates the shock vibrations from the chassis, saving your plastic from rattling from the shocks doing their job.

editing to add that there are other shock brands (tokico, koni, kyb, etc) which "work" but the bilstein is the best option.

Good luck in your quest sir. You have much ahead of you. It's almost fall which means snow will be on the ground soon. Perfect time to gather information on some bilstein coilovers and start ordering up parts!

Also this video is really informative if you're wondering how the hell you turn a pile of parts into a coilover.

I've had BC BR coils before, years ago, in their standard valving and 10k/8k rates.

I went the "budget Bilstein" route afterward, unfortunately i was never really satisfied with it and it was far from cost effective.
to be happy with Bilsteins on street/rough roads, the bodies have to be revalved or the spring rates have to be kept below 7k / 400lbs. in my opinion, based on direct experience.
They do ok on smooth roads given that they have any bump travel left.

Having driven several Xida'd cars, they were all how a Miata should feel.
I got Feal 441's now, and they are the best dual-duty ride on a Miata i've felt next to Xidas and Ohlins.

my 2 cents, don't waste time or money to frankenstein a setup, or have to buy multiple sets of coilovers because they all suck. Do some research and get something reputable, install and don't look back..

Thanks for sharing the video! I've been going through the better bilstein thread for days now (I've read it over from beginning to end twice) So much info there it had my head spinning a bit.

I'm down in South FL, so winter is 60< degrees. I'm planning on tackling this project in the next month or two.

After your 10 page thread, this is what you learned?

Let's try that logic on another scenario....

If you build a cardboard box correctly, it will emulate a house for cheaper.

yep, it works!

so long as the use case is not rain protection, it will work. Just like as long as your use case isn’t primarily track based, you can get away with not dropping stacks on xidas... but if you don’t plan on doing any real track days, I think anything is better than 20 year old stock suspension.
arent we done being assholes? Or is that still a thing...

Assholes? heck that was just some good morning humor, sprinkled with a bit of truth!

i did learn things from my 10+ page thread, and the 78+ page better bilstein coilover thread, and some more googling and youtubing and stuff...

I thought you were being serious though, cause the people in the other thread would say that I actually didn't learn anything lol.

As I said in the last stupid thread, either stay stock or get Xidas. Everything else is wasted money.

You can jerry rig your way to a decent setup that costs a bit less than Xidas but it still won't be as good (especially on rough roads) and for only 500 more you could have Xidas. Which you are going to get eventually anyway when you get frustrated with the bargain setup.

Tampa has awful shit roads with moonscape potholes and speed bumps galore. I'm on Xida GS and it's noticeably better in every circumstance than my previous setup. It has great control and stability and it eats up huge bumps and rough roads without complaint. You just drive the fucking car. Unlike most suspension upgrades for the Miata this one isn't actually a tradeoff.

There's your problem right there. You need NB bilsteins (HD, Hard S, or MSM) to properly cromulate the xidas on a budget.

If your budget is ~$1000 (or under), aside from rebuilding some standard Bilsteins, most of the coilover options available to you will be virtually the same. Generic length, generic spring rates, generic valving. No matter how hard the seller/manufacturing pushes their chinglish marketing to you about how their dampers are custom valved etc etc, it's all just a load of crock. For the two brands that you mentioned, they are just the same generic damper with different clothing. Don't let the marketing fool you.

Please note that I am NOT saying the Meister/BC's are bad, far from it, as they serve their purpose well i.e a cheap set of coilovers for the majority street car where most customers can't really tell the difference. Just don't expect anything "custom" or "special" in that price range.

If you can extend your budget by a couple hundred dollars, then there are 3 options that stand out (there are more, such as the Euro brands) that are available to you which are above and beyond the budget coilovers you mentioned above. These are the budget offerings from the mid-range coilover manufacturers, all with US facilities for servicing & support:

- Fortune Auto
- Feals
- YCW Suspension

All 3 offer custom spring rates from Swift Springs, offering rates from 4K-50K. ALL of the budget brands use cheap $5 Taiwanese coil springs from Yangmin/Triple-S suspension in Taiwan. This one company supplies 90% of the coilover market in Taiwan. Infact, if you actually stop and think about out, if you take off the $400 worth of Swift Springs from the price, these coilovers are actually cheaper than the budget stuff.

The important thing to note though about these companies (and what is actually the most important) is that they all have an in-house shock dyno. This is extremely important for 2 reasons:

1) It allows them to fully customise the valving in your dampers to your exact vehicle specification/requirements i.e Spring rates, Motion Ratios, Swaybars, Corner Weights, Tire Pressures etc
2) It allows them to match their dampers i.e Left & Right. This is extremely important as you do not want mismatched dampers. I can guarantee you that none of the mass-market Korean/Taiwanese dampers are matched as damper matching on a dyno is not part of their QC process (most don't even have dynos). I've had BC's on our dyno that can vary over 150lbs of force between the left/right damper (brand new set that was brought into us for a re-valve). Even the Euro brands are known for this, especially Koni.

I'm not sure to the exact extent that Fortune Auto and Feals extend their services to their budget offerings, but they do have the tools/facilities in place to do things correctly, so I would choose these over any budget brand all day long.

In the case of YCW Suspension, we take our customisation a little further and allow our customers to not only choose their spring rates (from 4K-50K), but also choose their spring length AND damper body length. This applies to our entire range, from budget to professional.

Now, being a sponsor on this forum and owner of YCW Suspension, I may come off as a little bias, but in all honesty, these are simple facts that everyone should know about when purchasing any brand of coilover. None of the budget brands can back up their chinglish marketing claims, and none of them can offer the same level of service/product as these 3 mid-range companies.

by that logic, the ebay $180 chingchong special "yellows" are not bad either.

there is literally nothing bad then. at all. just different measures of good.

THERE IS NOTHING BAD IN THIS WORLD. :likecat:

Well, to be honest, I've never had personal experience with the really cheap stuff, but generally I would stay away from the "Made in China" coilovers (there are exceptions, such as the budget Teins and Cusco's).

If you are referring to Yellow Speed Coilovers, then those are made in Taiwan (branched off from D2 which, in itself, branched off from BC Racing):

http://www.ycwsuspension.com/assets/...wcoilovers.jpg

I'm just sayin,
the main reason this site is famous for no-nonsense info and knowledge is because we make a point to not blur the lines between junk and quality parts.
once blurred, high quality products from reputable vendors like you, averagemiata, 949, tse, sadfap, and others will no longer be considered the beez kneez and no longer be popular, but be referred to "slightly better" compared to junk

oh, don't get me wrong. I'm sure most people can probably tell from the tone of my post that I'm an advocate against these budget coilover companies (note the difference between budget coilover company vs budget coilover from a mid-range company), however, there is no denying that they do serve their purpose for the majority of street cars where the consumer simply can't tell the difference between junk and not-junk (otherwise there wouldn't be such a large plague of the stuff available on the market. Someone must be buying and using it).

I guess the point I was trying to make is, by simply budgeting an extra couple hundred dollars, you can have a decent set of budget coilovers that have at least some form of proper QC and US servicing/support :)

But the TDR crank dampener is still good right the ati is just a tiny bit better:rofl:

I mean, if you really want to get into the intricate details of source/supply/manufacturing, I could tell you "trade secrets" about most popular brands on the market, but there is a time and place for that which is not really on a public forum. Besides, what matters most is not where the parts come from (to an extent), but who does the R&D, assembly, tuning and servicing.

That is absolutely correct. 99% of the stuff is made mostly in sweat shops, the difference being the age and intelligence of the children both here and there :D