To lower or not to lower

[Brods]

Hey guys, what is the general consensus on coilovers, and lowering your mx5, does it improve handling? Or will you just bottom out all the time?

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[sailaholic]

Depends on how low you go and and roads you drive and what you look for as an improvement.

You can certainly go lower then factory and not bottom out.


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[plohl]

SLAM IT!

[davekmoore]

The two extremes are:

1. Decent coilovers with stiffer than standard springs and better than standard damping plus lowering with the correct balance between front and rear and a good alignment will make your car handle better and be more comfortable. Corner weighting will further improve it. The older your existing setup is, the more the above will improve it.

2. Just cutting your springs and adding big negative camber will create a monster.

[Brods]

I would go no. 1, does this mean you can venture away from the stock wheel ( +45 light weight 54mm hub) with out ruining the handling

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[hks_kansei]

Wheels won't really stuff the handling at all, as long as you don't go crazy (ie: no massive low offset and huge width)

Suspension really depends what you want from it, if you're happy with how it handles right now, and just want it a little lower for looks, but a set of lowering springs in only slightly stiffer rates from stock.
Handling will be mostly the same, but car will be lower.

[davekmoore]

MX5s like light wheels. Many owners of cars with 16s or 17s upgrade to 15s. No need for more than 8" wide with 205-215s unless you need heaps of grip on the track. Even 7-7.5" with 195s would work well if you're on standard power. Remember bigger wheels and tyres means more power needed for a given speed.

[Brods]

Oh sweet, do you guys know how high a stock mx5s lowest point is? In terms of the 10cm ride height rulws

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[hks_kansei]

Oh sweet, do you guys know how high a stock mx5s lowest point is? In terms of the 10cm ride height rulws

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Easiest to measure it.

Factory specs have I think a +-15mm spec. (so a two brand new NAs could have been 15mm different in height)
Then factor in up to 25 years of springs possibly sagging. (could be anything)
Then factor in wheel and tyre sizes having changed from stock (assume still legal which is/was 15mm either way, up to 7mm diff)
Then factor in tyre wear. (est 10mm tread on new tyre, say 5mm drop for low tread)

All that means that since new, an MX5 could possibly be up to 30mm lower than it originally started (and that's not counting spring sag)


So basically.
Measure how much you've got, then work it out.

Mine started with I think 140mm of clearance at the sills before I lowered it. So there's a rough baseline for an NB.

[Mr Morlock]

living in a place like Melb suburbia a lowered car- not what you want to hear- is an absolute pain.It is a bit of farce with an old rocket being held up by the lowered ute gingerly creeping over the speed humps which are often badly designed. Road after road with speed humps and steep driveways and parking bays designed to catch the front lip- you would have a lot more patience than me. The MX5 already handles well and is actually a very comfortable car.

[taminga16]

If you really want handling, take some time to look at what the fast guys are doing. Ben Sale is just one great example but if you want low there are hundreds of cars, all makes and models that are 'slammed' look cool, handle like camels on roller skates and leave bits at every bump.
Greg.

[M1474]

Don't listen to 'em, dump it to 100mm.

At standard ride height you can't get enough camber without sacrificing caster.

[The American]

I had my NA set up with approx:

110mm to the forward-most straight bit of pinch weld
120mm to rear-most straight bit of pinchweld

With 15x7s and 185/55r15 re01-r's it felt nice and low with limited roll on the skid pan. (Height set with coilovers and coupled with adjustable f&r anti roll bars.)

Fairly stiff dampers and no hills in Perth meant I had no issues with clearance, except when cutting the second last corner of the short track at Barbagello.

Standard height allows limited max camber adjustment (as m4174 said)

[The American]

It depends what you want to achieve. Almost anything will feel better than the 18 year old suspension I had before I started mods.