Rotaryknight slowly but surely build

Havent done anything major to the car until this week.

My very first mod was tires!!! BFG gForce comp 2 195/50/15 Had these for a few auto x runs and one day at the road course. Handles well but the stock suspension was holding the tires back.



Installed bilstein pss B14 coilovers after reading up on coilovers that would be good for street and track
The rears were a piece of cake, but the front...switching top hats is a lot of work.



Didnt have the correct tool, but ingenuity wins out. Got a spring compressor to take out the stock top hat and swap it over.



During the tire install I found the pads were at 50% life so I ordered a set of Hawks 5.0 pads and flushed the old fluid with ATE200 using a vacuum bleeder. Made bleeding a whole lot easier.


This is the car with stock suspension and BFG tires


Car as it is now sitting on Bilstein B14 coilovers



After installing everything and test driving around, I must say, I do love how these coilovers ride. Its not harsh but I can FINALLY feel the road!!! I told a friend earlier that if I had ran over a kid on my stock suspension, I wouldn't have known that I did LOL. I have the driver front sitting a little higher because of weight. I havent weight balanced it but I tried to estimate the height to offset my weight in the car. The stock pads were good when I was at NJMP, rarely faded but the initial bite was something to be desired. Hawks 5.0 seems to be the replacement for the HPS. Great initial bite for mid speed corners and will withstand the higher sustain braking than the stock pads.

One more thing that I must really do is to get an exhaust, the car is seriously too quiet. I replaced the old dirty air filter with a K&N. Next major mod seems to be sway bars.....racing beat or corksport...

Mod list by order
BFG gForce comp 2 195/50/15
bilstein pss B14
Hawks 5.0 pads
ATE200 brake fluid
SPC camber bolts (max camber I got out of it was -1.6 degrees)
K&N air filter
BFG Rivals 205/50/15
DDMworks rear bar
Kicker Hideaway powered subwoofer

Nice upgrades! I was not impressed with the comp2's though. They were loud for daily driving, and did not grip well enough on track to put up with that noise. I have the corksport bars, though I also have a more mild build (RB springs and CS dampers). I think you should get the RB rear bar 1st, and then see how you like the handling. A few of the more avid motorsport guys around here seem to dislike the bigger front bars.

eyeballs said:

Nice upgrades! I was not impressed with the comp2's though. They were loud for daily driving, and did not grip well enough on track to put up with that noise. I have the corksport bars, though I also have a more mild build (RB springs and CS dampers). I think you should get the RB rear bar 1st, and then see how you like the handling. A few of the more avid motorsport guys around here seem to dislike the bigger front bars.

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I havent noticed any loud noises from the tires compared to the stock ones yet. These tires are going to be my daily for summer until I can get another set of rims and stickier tires for STF class and track. Racing beat front sway bar is much thicker than corksport. You are right, I should look into the Racing beat rear bar first.

Don't forget about us. I liked it a lot when I had our rear bar and the bilstiens. Did you do anything to get more front camber?

You car reminds me of mine about 2 years ago.

Zach

Zach@DDMWorks said:

Don't forget about us. I liked it a lot when I had our rear bar and the bilstiens. Did you do anything to get more front camber?

You car reminds me of mine about 2 years ago.

Zach

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havent forgotten about you guys
I was looking at your rear bar and intake just last night. Almost pulled the trigger on buying it until I looked at my bank account lol

Havent done anything on getting more camber yet. I should after yesterdays Autox. Tire pressure is at 43 hot and its rolling over the tire a little bit too much. Camber should help with that especially through the very tight u-turns where I can feel the tire roll over.

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Zach, how does your rear bar compare with the RB bar as far as stiffening the rear? You should get one for comparison on a test-n-tune auto-x day.

The RB bar will be stiffer because of the tube size, but I am not sure how much of a difference you will notice since the rear only moves about 1/2" before it lifts on my car.

After 11 months I finally ordered the ddmworks rear bar lol. Going to install it this weekend. Next auto x event is June 5th for philly scca, I'll also get to see how it handles the track on track night June 22 at njmp, and then south jersey auto x on June 26. With the rival S, people are saying it overheats after 3 laps, but considering the Mazda 2 is much lighter it should do well.

I'll also will be ordering an stiffer engine mount, there definitely to much slop. Might also do an ecu flash also.

eyeballs said:

Zach, how does your rear bar compare with the RB bar as far as stiffening the rear? You should get one for comparison on a test-n-tune auto-x day.

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That would be fairly easy considering I have an uninstalled RB bar, and am only 40 miles from Philly. not sure if I can make the June Philly event, but the 26th in AC is a possibility.