Lowered on Eibach Pro-Kit (Before & After Pics)
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I've been eyeing on the eibach springs, but they only released fwd version (mine is awd). That's the perfect gap for a daily car. Not too low, looks great!
Have you noticed any camber change or had it realigned? As far as I know this car doesn't have any camber adjustments, and no toe adjustment in the rear with torsion beam setup.
Have you noticed any camber change or had it realigned? As far as I know this car doesn't have any camber adjustments, and no toe adjustment in the rear with torsion beam setup.
Thanks. I did not measure camber or have it realigned. I don't put many miles on it these days so I am just going to monitor tire wear and rotate often. As you mentioned, alignment is limited with this car but may be corrected with shims. Although, I'm not a suspension/alignment expert. Just gonna play it by ear and hope for the best. If something crazy happens I will deal with it then.
Decreasing compression travel cannot be helpful for a compliant ride, which in my opinion is already too stiff.
I agree is looks great though.
Incidentally, prior to lowering, your car looks just like mine. Congratulations on your good taste.
I agree is looks great though.
Incidentally, prior to lowering, your car looks just like mine. Congratulations on your good taste.
Heh, thanks. I agree the car already handled great and the springs did make it a bit stiffer and bouncier but only slightly. It's still acceptable to me and ultimately my wife couldn't feel a difference so I'm in the clear.
The car looks great. Perfect lowering for a driver. I recommend an alignment. They are not expensive, around $100 and will minimize tire wear and make the car more enjoyable to drive. When lowering the front axle the tie length toed in or out the front wheels. At a minimum you should have this realigned to reduce wear on the inside edge of the tires and improve steering feel and response.
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Reducing compression travel a bit has little to do with how the car rides. There is more than enough travel to compensate for a couple inches of lowering before you get into the stops, and if you are lowering you should have installed different length stops with different rates anyhow. If you can feel the car getting into the bump stops they are too long and too stiff. If the car ride is too bouncy with aftermarket springs, the dampers are not valved correctly for the new spring rates.
+1 for the alignment comment a plus after the lowering...
As well on the comfort and shocks don't forget/underestimate the value on a progressive spring vs stock linear... my 2018 with Eibach are much better over larger bumps/holes with less bottoming... much strong spring when compressed than stock but softer over small bumps... Rear springs stock 171 lbs/in... Rear Eibach progressive 137 - 194 lbs/in
As well on the comfort and shocks don't forget/underestimate the value on a progressive spring vs stock linear... my 2018 with Eibach are much better over larger bumps/holes with less bottoming... much strong spring when compressed than stock but softer over small bumps... Rear springs stock 171 lbs/in... Rear Eibach progressive 137 - 194 lbs/in
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Here is what the Eibach springs look like coming out of a hard turn at speed on the compression side. The tires are 235/40-18's
![Land vehicle Vehicle Car Motorsport Racing]()
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How do you think the car performed in the autoX?
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The answer is a bit hard to definitively say. I am used to a full on rear wheel drive race car that I have run for the last 10 years. With that said, It has a bit more body roll than I would like (correctable with sway bars), it pushed going in to the corners if entered too aggressively (retrain the driver), but very responsive to steering inputs and corrections. My biggest complaints are it needs more power and the engine is too quiet. With my helmet on, there is no engine noise feedback. I had wheel spin when exiting the some of the corners and only knew about it by the feel of the steering wheel since the engine is so ridiculously quiet! I finished 61st out of 122 cars on my 1st time in a new vehicle with the wrong wheels being powered... I will make a few more changes to make it better handling on the street and then leave it alone since it is my daily driver.
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Sway bars aren't for correcting body roll. There is no reason to "correct" body roll per se, its there for a reason. Sway bars exist to change the weight transfer characteristics of the car. The car is designed to understeer as a safety measure. Stiffening the rear suspension by means of a larger rear bar will help reduce that understeer. Also, adding some additional negative camber in the front will help keep the tread faces on the pavement when the suspension loads up in a corner . This sort of suspension tweaking was easy with the Gen 3 cars, but since the Gen 4 cars have a different suspension in the rear there aren't a whole lot of parts available yet. Better tires are a must on these cars too. For the most part, the Mazda OEM tires are pretty bad.
The thing is here though if you are planning on autoxing, upgrading parts to make the car better will probably put you in a class where the car won't really be competitive anyhow...
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Arathol... I will only partially agree with you on the sway bar comment. The weight transfer balance between the front and rear is changeable by altering the stiffness of at one end or the other with sway bars resulting in changes to the handling characteristics which agrees with your statement. On the other hand, increasing roll stiffness at both ends without altering the stiffness balance relative to each end results in less body roll period. By keeping the suspension closer to the static ride position enables all of the tires to stay flatter against the ground which increases overall grip. This vehicle appears to have a need to increase overall roll stiffness at both ends and could use a bit more in the rear to help compensate for the current pushing condition. Adding negative camber helps keep the tire contact patch larger, but only on the outside tire when turning. The inboard tire will have less contact patch AND less load on it which definitely reduces overall traction. My experience has shown a nominal amount of negative camber can be a good thing, but surprising little is required. I am very early in the build of of this car and have not begun to experiment with camber changes, addressing bump steer, or even having the ability to change basic shock settings. As far as tires go, I addressed that with a good compromise tire in the form of Hankook RS4's in a 235/40R-18. While nowhere near as sticky as the Hoosier A7's that I run on the MGB, they are a decent street tire that will autocross just fine. Just changing to 1.5" wider wheels bumped me out of the HS class. The tire size I chose to use bumped me out of the STS class. This landed me squarely into FSP, which I am fine with. This class allows me quite a bit of flexibility to modify and tune the vehicle to my liking. As far as being competitive, I am just fine with being an experienced driver in an average car. With a few more tweaks to the car and a bit more seat time, I am sure it will be capable of a top 30 finish overall and it already came close to 1st in class this past weekend. After 9 years of refining my marginally streetable autocross car for the purpose of track dominance, I will be happy to keep this Mazda at a much more streetable level thank you.
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No, not really. Less roll means less weight transfer, so less grip on the outside tire in the corner. You want to keep some weight transfer or you are losing, not gaining...Making the chassis rigid and getting rid of body roll is one way to prevent unwanted camber changes from a strut suspension under load. This leads to other problems such as driveability issues due to an overly stiff suspension. Using a big sway bar to counter front roll and eliminate loss of camber leads to increase in under steer, so you add more rear stiffness to counter. Once you are done dialing out all the camber changes by making the suspension stiffer and get the car balanced properly, the car will be quite unforgiving to drive.....
The way to get around this is move the strut tops inward (camber plates), providing you with a decent camber gain. I think you will find that these cars with a front strut suspension benefit from adding 3 or so degrees of negative camber in front and a couple degrees in the rear.
If you are running rims with less positive offset - say +40 vs +50 - the scrub radius has changed a bit and you may be seeing a bit of bump steer. Moving the tops of the struts inward moves the steering axis outward, and may correct the scrub radius change brought on by using a different offset. Maybe...
Hey you are in Atlanta right, AMS? I was at this event in my previous car a Civic Type R - small world! Im considering the ProKit for the 3, just I dont want to mess up the ride is my only concern. Looks great tho.
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Cool to hear you are local to me. It is hard to say how much they improved handling in competition because I never put the stock vehicle on the track. On my first day in it on track it had already gotten the tires, wheels, and springs. On the street, it handles awesome, but does have more body roll than I am accustomed to. The little bumps it actually seems softer as the rear spring rates would imply. Bigger bumps, it is definitely firmer, but not obnoxious. The bump stops are roughly an inch closer so really big bumps at low speed or typical Atl expansion joints at highway speeds you can find them. I still recommend them based on my driving and my girl friend doesn't complain about the ride either.
The goal is to always improve , the ride look, the car handling (straight line, cornering and with bumps/potholes) , the cars braking characteristics in a straight line , and cornering while braking. I think what is key is (all the above) and a car that is properly 4 corner weight distributed and the 4 wheels aligned accordingly and compensating for driver weight.
My biggest issue on lowering springs is the difficulty even with adjustable dampeners (Corksport 15 way ) too bumpy and bounce...
mentioned
My biggest issue on lowering springs is the difficulty even with adjustable dampeners (Corksport 15 way ) too bumpy and bounce...
mentioned
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