I picked up a nice mint 2003 over the weekend, and i'm trying to plan out mods. I figure suspension / stiffening related makes more sense up front, I can spend a few hundred every month or two and enjoy the difference in the ride.

So the question is what ones are really worth it?

I like the 3 point shock tower brace but there already is some 2 point brace there, I don't know which it is. so this seems a worthwhile upgrade

Polished Stainless Steel Miata Shock Tower Brace for Miata


The undercarriage single bar seems to make sense for its price

BEATRUSH Front Performance Bar for Miata 1998-2005

and after that, maybe some high performance engine mounts, I chuckle a little at how much the transmission tilts with accel/decel

But beyond that, I'm stumped as to which changes make enough of a difference to be worth it. Not so much worth the $, but worth the effort of installing

maybe this rear shock tower brace?

Rear COBALT Shock Tower Brace for Miata

Of course better sway bars, but I figure it makes more sense to stiffen up the suspension first to get max value out of that

Are the door bars worthwhile? and do they make getting in and out much more of a pain in the neck?

 

Frog arms, frame rails, roll bar. Done.

 

.... what.

 

step away from the "buy it now" button because all that junk you just linked is a giant waste of money

 

^This is all you need. I put on fender braces and those were instantly noticeable the first corner and bump I hit. They also reduced the the cowl shake that I kept experiencing when I first got my NA.

I've tried those shock tower braces, they don't make enough difference for you to feel anything, It's a waste of money and just adds weight.

 

Have you considered delrin door bushings?

 

I thought we had established that delrin door bushings do not increase stiffness; they just keep your doors from rattling around.

 

What about the PACO brace that FlyinMiata sell?

 

Basically what i said, "frog arms" were the OG brace, AFAIK. Now that they are no longer made the FM ones are probably the go too. I just couldn't think of the name of the FM ones at the time.

 

I like the v8 roadsters design for frog bars

https://v8roadsters.com/product/cowl-stabilizer-braces/

 

All the fender braces do pretty much the same thing. So get whichever you think are pretty and would look good covered up by your fenders.

If you want Frog Arms, OBX is selling exact copies of them on Fleabay.

 

Well, sure the sway bars are for body roll. If you don't stiffen up the body although you'll reduce roll, you'll still have the body flex, potentially even worse as now more of the force is put into the "frame" of the car as the suspension tries to take a flatter path. Body roll isn't in a turn identical front to back, so you'd be putting more torsional stress on the piece in the middle, the "frame". At least that's what I was thinking.

 

Of course better sway bars, but I figure it makes more sense to stiffen up the suspension first to get max value out of that

This is what i didn't understand.

Anyways, a good suspension will have about.... 148,982,124,463.3x more impact to making the car good than anything being talked about in this thread.

 

Yeah, true. I guess I was thinking more in order of pain in the neck to install too get the hard parts done so my project energy doesn't peter out before i get to them. pretty common on my projects really, I complete 80% and trail off

 

None of what you're talking about in here is hard. Almost none of them actually do anything in terms of performance.

 

Yeah, and even if I do the FAST autocross, if I do it more than once a year i'd be surprised.

I'm debating just throwing a 7" android head unit in, maybe some better speakers, and just enjoying it as is. Not like it sucks

maybe just over time replace pieces with higher performing when rubber starts to go like the sway bar bushings, just replace the whole sway bar then.

 

Stock Miatas are the best. Especially the 90-93 cars. Mazda made the best possible car.