Get Rigid... MX-5 Suspension Braces

[marcusus]

Peter is a top bloke. He did a lot of work to my Swift Gti a few years ago. He is very passionate and commited to doing the best for each customer.

Back to topic.

Nah, this is more fun

Turns out he's actually a good friend of one of the guys from work, and the guy from work said I should go see him when I was looking at getting my CAI done as he was saying Peter was keen to get in to MX5's.

Gotta say the CAI I've got is a quality bit of gear, and sounds fantastic. I really want them to do all my power modifications since they've already started with the CAI. The only problem, as mentioned, is that every mod since the CAI has been DIY suspension work

[Ando]

The lower rear brace was fitted and seemed to affect the alignment and introduced a tad of oversteer. I drove around for a few days and felt that maybe the toe was out in the rear? So, I took the car to Marks & Wallings in Artarmon where they whisked the 5 straight up on a hoist for a precision alignment. They were very MX-5 savvy and all came over to check out the bracing.
The tech Stefan asked all the right questions and gave me all the options between tyre friendly street driving to track day set up. I declined any tyre chewing camber settings as I won't be using the car for anything but my daily drive.
I drove the car to Church Point straight after for a bit of a twisty run and loved the result. The combination of lower braces and the Stylebar have really settled the car down.
Here is the data from the alignment today after the Racing Beat lower control arm brace was fitted...

FRONT -
Caster - Left 6º42' / Right 6º12'
Camber - Left -0º36' / Right -0º06'
Toe - Left 0.6 / Right 0.6 / Total 1.2
REAR -
Camber - Left -0º42' / Right -0º42'
Toe - Left 1.2 / Right 1.6 / Total 2.8

[wun911]

I removed all the bracing from my car it weighs a ton, I assume NB8A is lighter because it does not have all of this junk.


Are the ultra racing brace made of aluminum? How heavy are they? (If possible please weigh them and include the bolts used to fasten the brace and weigh it to the last gram)

It looks like the NB8B brace can bolt straight onto NB8A has anyone done this??

[Okibi]

IIt looks like the NB8B brace can bolt straight onto NB8A has anyone done this??

No but i'd love to try, wasnt the later NB meant to be something like 30% stiffer?

[Nark]

I removed all the bracing from my car it weighs a ton, I assume NB8A is lighter because it does not have all of this junk.

Have you weighed all of that, including bolts?

[Ando]

They are all steel. I assume the guys at Ultra Racing will have the weight specs for these braces. There's no way I'm taking them off now!

From memory, each of the UR braces didn't seem excessively heavy at all. The strut tower brace is roughly 1.5 kgs. So, the whole collection is probably less than 10 kgs easy.

Check out how flat my frame rails are in the 3rd pic. Looks like some savage speed hump beaching occurred before I found her...

[Garry]

wasnt the later NB meant to be something like 30% stiffer

The later NB had the extra centre brace but the side sills are also redesigned and made of thicker gauge steel.

[wun911]

ohhh man I have more wight that I cant remove from the car...

Did 10AE have all this stuff becaus I know 10 AE is about 50-70 kg lighter than NB8B.

[AB7]

Nb8a doesn't have the centre and rear bracing like the one on nb8b

[Speedyblue]

I removed all the bracing from my car it weighs a ton, I assume NB8A is lighter because it does not have all of this junk.

Why don't you remove the engine too. That'll save you some weight

Insurance companies don't take it lightly when factory structural parts are removed from the car. They are there for a reason, otherwise the factory wouldn't put them in there.

[CJ5]

I removed all the bracing from my car it weighs a ton, I assume NB8A is lighter because it does not have all of this junk.


Are the ultra racing brace made of aluminum? How heavy are they? (If possible please weigh them and include the bolts used to fasten the brace and weigh it to the last gram)

It looks like the NB8B brace can bolt straight onto NB8A has anyone done this??

isnt ur car all wobbly now

[wun911]

I'm trying to look for a lighter alternatives I want aluminum brace. I wish the butterfly brace was aluminum.

I guess the car would feel like an NA.

[marcusus]

The problem with aluminium bracing is that if you whack it on a speed bump, you're likely to ding it pretty hard. Think of how you can crunch a soft drink can in your hand. Now think about how heavy your car is and how much force would be applied to said aluminium brace if you hit a bump with it.

Although many bumps are just scrapes, some occasionally are a proper ding, and that won't be very friendly to any aluminium. I'm sure the FM braces have been made with stainless for a reason other than purely cost.

[CJ5]

plus the extra rigidity and feel of havin the butterfly brace will MORE than overcome the perceived loss of performance from the extra 13kg below the car's CG

[16bit]

alloy braces are fine - if they are not a roll cage and made of proper grade - like a titanium alloy for example. if mazda used alloy on the body panels to save weight dont you think they would have also done this on the bracing if there was not a good reason - like lasting longer than a set of tyres. wun you really should consult an engineer before you do some of the crazy things you are doing. for your own safety.