ZPS Build Thread

zps2004

Member
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1997 Miata, 2011 Mazda2
So this is long overdue, but I am going to start my build thread for my car.

Purpose: So my Mazda 2 is my DD and it is going to be my autocross car.well my girlfriend will be autocrossing it as well. I am not really concerned with being the fastest since I have my 240WHP Miata for that, and I am not really that concerned with what class I run in either, but it will largely be STF based. I do want the car to be very street able as well for a while at least. I also want to hit a fine balance with cost since most of my money will be going towards the Miata being turned into a track car. Overall I just want to maintain the fun factor of driving the 2.

Currently I have eibach lowering springs, fat cat motorsports strut bump stop for the fronts, slotted front struts for -2.5 degrees of camber, a 1 0.120 wall steel torsion beam stiffener which I made. I also have stock wheels painted black with 195 Star Specs. I have the fog light rings painted black. If anyone has any questions about what I did, feel free to ask. I mainly wanted to see if I could make a car handle properly with lowering springs. It was an interesting challenge. Also, I had no money since I was saving up for a house which I not have.

Moving forward, I have already ordered a set of 25mm wheel spacers for the wheels so they will sit nice in the wheel wells, and the 2 of extra track width will be good as well. I also will be getting a set of the Bilstein coilvers this June to help out with the handling. I really want a set of ASTs, but the Bilsteins are better on the wallet for now. Down the road I might get a set of ASTs or Ohlins. I also talked with Fat Cat about revalving the Bilsteins and they should be able to, so that is another option down the road. Depending on how the car behaves with the coilovers I might step up the bars on the car to the racing beat pieces to further keep it flat while having street able spring rates. Again this is mainly a DD/mountain run/autocrosser so I am going to work my best with lower spring rates.
I already did a full look at the shock travel on the stock suspension for the 2 which is why I ended up with the Fat Cat bumps stops in there. There is a thread out there with the info somewhere. Once I get the Bilsteins I am going to be doing the same thing. Looking at the travel and get the ride height set so it will be close to in the middle of the travel. I already have a backup plan for creating a new top hat which will mount the shock about higher up (inverted front shocks) to help with being able to lower the car more while maintaining travel. I might also put more caster into the car with the plates as well.

The way I see it, I want to keep the car light since that is its biggest strength and I am a huge fan of light cars. So I am going to get the 3.5lbs ballistic battery for it. The stock wheels are pretty light so I will keep them for now. I am going to build an aluminum exhaust from the header back. I am going to have a v-band connection from the axle back so for the street I will have a stainless magnaflow section, then for autocrossing it will just be an aluminum piece. I am also working on making an intake for it as well. Oh and I do have access to a dyno so I will have number to see if there actually is any performance difference.

I am also playing around with the idea of painting the brand and name of the tire on the sidewall white or some other color. Wont do anything, but I think it will look nice. I am going to tape on letters first to see if I like it.

Feel free to offer other ideas for things for me to do or try. I have good fab skills and a place to fab stuff so I can really do anything. I am also an ME so I can make stuff that works well right off the bat. I also have a design for a short shifter I want to try to see how it works, but I might not actually use it long term. I just want to see if it works well for the design.


2 clean.jpg
2 rear bar.jpg
black wheels.jpg
camber.jpg
 
Front endlinks, camber plates, harness bar with go-pro mount, rear motor mount insert, lightweight undertray, rear diffuser.
 
end links I will make my own for that. No need for camber plates. I would rather use the ones I am going to make to get more caster. Harness bar is just not needed in a DD. I will be filling my stock motor mount with a urethane. I might look into the undertray because if anything it will help with aero. I will be building a flat floor for the Miata then I might look into doing one for the 2. Diffuser would be nice, but again I think it would stand out too much for a DD.

I like the thoughts though.
 
I need that kind of camber. For some reason the camber bolts don't work well on the airrex struts.
 
I am going to try to use camber bolts when I put on the bilsteins because they are easier to adjust than slotting the struts. You just change the camber and hope it is correct. If not you have to loosen the bolts and push it by hand to change the camber. Not as easy to get accurate. Takes a bit of trial and error. I also bought ARP bolts for the hub-strut mount so I can bolt them down nice and tight. I don't think I can get to -2.5 degrees out of the bolts, but we will see.
 
I also bought ARP bolts for the hub-strut mount so I can bolt them down nice and tight.

I like that idea. I really crank down on those bolts to prevent slip, and have never had an issue yet but it'd be nice to not have to worry. How much did the pair of ARP bolts cost you?
 
If I remember correctly the bolts were $20 and the nuts were about $15. Part of the reason I got them was I am used to the crash bolts I had on my civic which were coarse thread 14mm bolts which you torqued to 140ftlbs. I had a brain fart and tried to torque the ones on the 2 to the same and stripped the first one I torqued. I then looked up the torque spec for them and felt stupid for not realizing how it should be lower. I just decided to get good bolts just so I wouldn't have to worry about it in the future.
 
The H&R bolts say you can get +/- 3 degrees. My alignment guy couldn't get more than -2 out of them. He didnt seem to understand them very well.
 
One thing I ran into when getting the -2.5 degrees of camber for the max in B-Spec was to grind a little on the back of the knuckle at the top/back. The knuckle was limiting how far the camber bolts would allow me to adjust the suspension with the H&R camber bolts. One side of the car was fine, the other needed the grinding.

-Derrick
 
What I did was loosen the top more than the bottom ( I think ), then "slam" the knuckle inward, keep it there, and bolt back up.

Btw ZPS, I'm looking forward to your build, and what you fab up. I'd like to see where you extended top hats go... A lot.
 
Well I made some paper Dunlop letters to see what it looks like on the tire. Hooray for arts and crafts!! I like it. I want to at least have my wheel spacers first so the wheels sit nicely before I actually go and paint the tire. Any thoughts on color. I can do white, but maybe green or red?

side.JPG
side2.JPG
 
I'm doing white lettering on my new tires again.. Did it last year on my Falken Azenis' and loved it.
 
I just found out that the coilovers should be here on Tuesday. Hopefully that is the case so I can get them put in and aligned that week for a autocross in ATL on June 6th. I will have my Go-pro with me for it to get my runs on camera.
 
I just found out that the coilovers should be here on Tuesday. Hopefully that is the case so I can get them put in and aligned that week for a autocross in ATL on June 6th. I will have my Go-pro with me for it to get my runs on camera.

If I wasn't going to be camping with the family next weekend I'd bring my car down to play. I do hope to make it to the event at Road Atlanta since its way too close for me not to go. I'll have the CS adjustables on by then (sitting in my garage now), and might even be able to talk the wife into going.
 
Well even better news, I just heard that the coilovers showed up today, so they will be going into the car tomorrow morning. I am going to look into the shock travel of the units for the front and the rear to add a bunch of pictures and info about them. I am really looking forward to tomorrow. I get to put the coils in the 2 and work on a FC Turbo II :)
 
Nice! I always wanted a turboII, or a GTUs. I really miss my '88 SE though. I was amazed at the top end that thing had...almost killed me.
 
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