DMS shocks

[Matty]

Just a question of general curiosity - I have no idea what they cost but I'm sure I couldn't afford it - has anyone tried suspension from DMS on an MX-5? I believe they have a good rep in the rally community.

[Ted]

Haven't tried them on an MX5 Matty, but dríven a few cars with them on. Definitely work quite well when the springs and shocks are matched well. One mate with them on a WRX had a high maintenance schedule on them, but they were the inverted design on the WRX. For the money new though, I would go ring Murray and get a set of MCAs built. But if you were getting for a good price, different matter. Mind you, like anything else in that price range, there are lots of different types. I have only dríven on 40mm double adjustable, no canister, Their 50 or 55mm (I think they even do a 60mm 7 adjustable these days) stuff is probably very very different, but also quite a lot pricier. And Drummond is fairly close to you, where Murray is up this way. On rally cars, you will probably find just as many cars on Drummonds as MCAs or Proflex. Though the ducks guts these days seems to be Reigers. Price wise, I think they start at about $3K for common cars in 40mm, 50mm canister would be into the $6K plus mark. I think Reigers are something like that, but per corner.

[Matty]

yeah, can't say I'm in the market at that budget, but I'm just curious as there seem to be a few high quality options out there, but everyone is busy fapping over Teins, or FCM Bilsteins.

I would imagine that shocks that are good for rally would probably be excellent for the street, but maybe the sticker shock keeps everyone at bay.

[Ted]

Yes, generally that would be true. But for rallying, the large dia shaft is useful for heat, which is not as much of an issue on the street. You also end up with bucketloads of travel on a rally car, which street cars don't need as much of. 300mm of travel would be the go for gravel, yet 150mm of travel is considered pretty good for a street car. They had to work hard to get me the 150+mm of travel on my 6MPS.

Yet you see lots of street MX5s that are happy to give up that one inch of bump they have before the bumpstops!

BTW for a street MX5, I would get the Teins. I have Bilsteins now which have been reworked to death, in the aid of getting bump control as well as travel, yet an off the shelf Tein is seriously a better controlled ride. A lot of this though is because of being limited to the springs you can get for an MX5 as opposed to an adjustable collar coilover on small id springs. The difference though is the monotube Bilstein does seem to handle heat better, but I am sure the Tein Monoflex will do it fine too.

[Matty]

too late, just put cash down for some SE Billies...

[Ted]

Let me know if you want the dyno charts I ended up with. Of course though I teamed mine with Eibachs, so also had to lob 20mm off the bodies and change the perch for a bit of rideheight.