ok guys. heres the deal. im looking for a good road racing grip setup...

im going to be getting a new master bushing set. tranny mounts. due to mine being bad..

im getting coilovers with 12k/10k spring rates.. 12 way damper adjust. and pillow ball mounts..

i havent decided on swaybars.. or tower bars...

but i live in the mountains. and im lookin for handling without the rear end sliding all over. lol

 

You're gonna slide all over the place with 12k/10k rates. Mountain roads aren't completely flat like tarmac, so you'll need softer rates to absorb the imperfections. What coilovers?

 

well. the coilovers are from a shop i know in nor cal. and they havent been made yet. but ive seen some for another car. and they are nice.. 1yr warrantee and 100% satifaction garrentee. lol

wow i suck at spelling right now.. but the shop is called Zankoku preformance.

 

and the roads i cruise on are pretty smooth.. just the everyday roads are rough.

 

Its going to skip all over the place with those springs on the street. If you are worried about oversteer, try something in the 400/300 or 250 lb/in range.

1 yr warranty as major selling point?

 

You definitely need to do some more research before picking your suspension. Search the forum in the various areas of interest (i.e. Suspension/Brakes etc.) There's tons of information out there.

 

those 12/10 k springs rates are mostly suited for double a arms suspensions.

For strut suspension its normal 7/5 rates

TO get the most grip out of the car, you would also have to set the alignment right to the road, and most importantly, tires. its the only thing thats contacting the ground and transmitting the power to the ground.

 

++1 for the good advice above.

Go search the Race and the Suspension areas. This has been discussed many times. While there is no One Great Setup that works for everyone, there are some common points that you can work from.

The 12/10 setup is too stiff for public roads. You may think that they are "smooth", but those rates will prove you (and your spine) wrong. Remember - grip is a matter off keeping the tire in contact with the pavement as much as possible. Uber-stifff springs and shocks/struts don't allow that to happen.

The "stiffer is always better" crowd really needs to take a moment and think about why a lot of very good and experienced (and winning) racers have setups that are a lot softer.

Good luck,

-b

 

Forgot to mention:
My auto-x only spring rates aren't even quite that high (650/500) and the car is um... lively on the street to say the least.

 

I would say start with the standard 8k/6k for these cars. It will definately put you in the ball park, and you can adjust from there to your liking with swaybars or possibly stiffer or softer springs.

12k/10k will be be horrible to drive even on the track, and extremely unforgiving in all conditions.

 

Koni Yellows, Eibachs, and a set of RB Sways. The make sure all the suspension bushings are good, get 'er aligned and you're good to go.

10/12 is too stiff for grip, especially on a mountain road.

 

ok. i will be doin some research.. and i may be able to get the maker of the coilovers. to use different springs. to make them a bit softer...

and i still gotta get the master bushing kit.. all the bushings are cracked or missing something lol.. but soon enough. im waiting for a day its not raining to go underneath and make a checklist. and check everything out.

 

i agree with the new shocks, springs, and sways combo. energy suspenion makes a master kit for most of the bushings underneath. it has everything besides the rear diff bushings. those things are already a great start.

biggest thing to me though, all these mods will be useless if you dont get good tires. you can have the greatest suspension of a car in the world, but you wont go fast without good tires.

 

Natey is correct on a good basic combo. You can swap in KYB-AGX for the Koni's if you are really tight on cash, but don't go higher than around 400# (which is plenty stiff) on the front springs - that's about the limit on what the KYB's can handle.

And as, if not more, importantly - get rid of the DTSS. It makes the back end too unpredictable. This should be one off the first things you do when you get bushings.

-b

 

ok. thanks guys for all the info. but what is DTSS?.. ive read other threads about it.. but i didnt want to ask questions on someone else's thread.

and i wont go with the coilovers im lookin at.. though thay are 655 shipped.. and have a warrantee. so yeah.. but. as it stands. my current suspension is shot.. my rear end kicks out a little when i go over ridges in the road... it sux but i can correct it if it starts sliding.. but of course. if i have someone in my passenger seat. they kinda hold on for dear life. lol

but anyways.. ive been checkin out tires.. and rims. im thinkin either nitto or falcon tires..

 

http://mazdatrix.com/faq/rrsteer.htm

 

thanks!

 

$655 is not going to get you an even remotely decent set of coilovers. That's barely enough to get a decent set of dampers by themselves.

 

I agree 100% with what was said before. Shocks are the #2 most important part after tires for making a car handle well, don't cheap out. Cheap coilovers will suck, no exceptions. If you don't have $1500 or so to spend, you really can't get anything very good. Unless you're going to the track alot, I think that coilovers are a waste anyway, do yourself a favour and stick to stock type shocks and lowering springs if you must. Keep in mind that if you lower the rear of the car more than 1" or so, you'll need to take some negative camber out of the rear to avoid premature tire wear, which requires extra parts. Go with a simple on car adjustable center adjuster, the slight difference in camber side to side isn't a big deal on the street and the individual adjusters with stiffer bushings they will cause binding anyway, so you really can't use them anyway, besides, they're more expensive.

 

^--- This.

Don't cheap out on shocks.

I'd rather have a set of lowering springs and good shocks than a cheap coilover kit with spring rates all over the place and shocks with tons of damping adjustments that don't do anything.

 

I hope you don't mind me chiming in but coilovers are going to give you a fairly harsh ride when the car already rides rough to begin with. With the money you are going to spend on coilovers you could get a darn good setup consisting of springs, struts, front strut brace, larger front anti sway bar and adjustable end inks and have a car which cuts like a knife but does so while keeping all the pearly whites in proper order.

 

man if i could find all that for 655. then i would. i do wanna lower the car. as it sits. its to high for my taste. and i will make the nessesary adjustments on the car to make everything work. its not a big deal... and as for"going cheap" i dont want to.. given what everyone says about me getting these coilovers.. i will see if someone else with an fc is getting them and wait to see what they think.

but i will look around for shocks and springs. that u all have described.

and once again. i know i will not be cheap when it comes to any of this. i like brand name stuff. and to be " legit" so yeah.

 

ok i did some looking around.. and i went to the site. race inspired. and found a combo.. that i think will work. but lemme know what u guys think.. ok..

tokico Hp gas series strut.

some eibach lowering springs.. they are on race inspired.com.. doesnt say spring rates. but yeah... and mbbe a bigger front sway bar eventually... but.. so far thats it.

 

To the OP, after reading all of your posts i will make a bold assumption that you don't know a whole lot about suspension geometry, along with damping and spring rates. I'm definitely in the same boat as far as that goes and on that note would recommend a setup similar to mine. Tokico Blues with racing beat springs. Keep it simple, if you don't really understand the art of suspension tuning then there really is no reason for you to have adjustable shocks, and racing beat has put quite a bit of research into there springs and suspension components.

This setup has lasted me well and tokico has a life time warranty on there shocks. you really can't beat that, and this setup is very affordable.

Keep in my mind this is just my $.02 when i first wanted new suspension components i like to say the coilover bug bit me. But upon further research cheap coilovers just cannot match a well balanced shock and spring combo.

 

Those are fine but you could find those products for a cheaper price by just doing a quick search. You could add a TC Sportsline front strut brace for $75 (Mazdatrix), front and rear adjustable end links for about $140 (Racing Beat). Not sure what size your front anti sway bar is but I bumped up mine from one off a turbo (used) for about $25 (from this site). All told this setup could be had for less than $800 plus shipping.