New Toys for the Miata!
- Thread starter DannyRS
- Start date
Mazdaspeedgirl
Resident Autocrosser
- :
- 99 10AE MX-5 | 2016.5 CX-5 GT
LUCKY! 
I want some of those...what brand are they? spring rates?
I want some of those...what brand are they? spring rates?
RyanJayG is indeed correct.
Tein Flex coilovers. 16 way adjustable shocks with ride height adjustment and pillowball mounts. You can adjust the ride height via raising or lowering the shock itself. Or, for that ultimate slammed look, you can dial out spring height as well.
I am currently setup to 12" front and 12.25" rear (center of wheel to fender) which is what my H&R springs were at. Spring rates are 392F/336R. I am getting it aligned on Thursday.
But... I have put on over 200 miles, so I have some semi-impressions...
Car turns incredible. Its almost like it helps turn the car better. I have manual steering, so the car always felt rather heavy to me, but with the Tein in, it turns great. The ride is MUCH better do to the increased travel length. Before, crossing railroad tracks at speed would cause my KYBs to bottom out. Now, the Tein just soaks the bumps up. It is stiffer than normal, but not objectionably so.
Issues - the rear of the car feels twitchy now, almost unsettled. It is very subtle, and impervious to anybody else that drives the car. I am messing with damper settings try to get the nervousness out of the car. Its not undrivable nervous, you can just feel the rear hunting a little bit at speed.
and OMG - is this thing tail happy. I have no problems getting the car to over rotate, and this is on the street. Tail out driving is fun, but this is almost ridiculous! Like I said, I started at the recommended damper rates, which were 8F/8R (from full hard) so I am experimenting with 4F/8R. The car is more planted, but I have only driven it this way for 10 miles.
A couple of peeps on miata.net recommend doing just a front swaybar with this setup. I still think I can dial out the nervousness with damper settings, and a re-alignment. Furthur nervousness can be dialed out with tire pressure.
The best part - the car is so FLAT in a corner. Its amazing the way it grabs the road and just corners! The few times I had the tail out, it was VERY easy to catch, not like my old setup where once the tail was out, you had to carefully manipulate the throttle. With the Tein, its just a little countersteer and you are good to go!
My first track event will be July 10th and 11th. I am going to Streets of WillowSprings. My fast time there, I believe, was 1:44.7 on my last suspension, so we'll see if better ride and more travel will also equal faster lap times
-Danny
Tein Flex coilovers. 16 way adjustable shocks with ride height adjustment and pillowball mounts. You can adjust the ride height via raising or lowering the shock itself. Or, for that ultimate slammed look, you can dial out spring height as well.
I am currently setup to 12" front and 12.25" rear (center of wheel to fender) which is what my H&R springs were at. Spring rates are 392F/336R. I am getting it aligned on Thursday.
But... I have put on over 200 miles, so I have some semi-impressions...
Car turns incredible. Its almost like it helps turn the car better. I have manual steering, so the car always felt rather heavy to me, but with the Tein in, it turns great. The ride is MUCH better do to the increased travel length. Before, crossing railroad tracks at speed would cause my KYBs to bottom out. Now, the Tein just soaks the bumps up. It is stiffer than normal, but not objectionably so.
Issues - the rear of the car feels twitchy now, almost unsettled. It is very subtle, and impervious to anybody else that drives the car. I am messing with damper settings try to get the nervousness out of the car. Its not undrivable nervous, you can just feel the rear hunting a little bit at speed.
and OMG - is this thing tail happy. I have no problems getting the car to over rotate, and this is on the street. Tail out driving is fun, but this is almost ridiculous! Like I said, I started at the recommended damper rates, which were 8F/8R (from full hard) so I am experimenting with 4F/8R. The car is more planted, but I have only driven it this way for 10 miles.
A couple of peeps on miata.net recommend doing just a front swaybar with this setup. I still think I can dial out the nervousness with damper settings, and a re-alignment. Furthur nervousness can be dialed out with tire pressure.
The best part - the car is so FLAT in a corner. Its amazing the way it grabs the road and just corners! The few times I had the tail out, it was VERY easy to catch, not like my old setup where once the tail was out, you had to carefully manipulate the throttle. With the Tein, its just a little countersteer and you are good to go!
My first track event will be July 10th and 11th. I am going to Streets of WillowSprings. My fast time there, I believe, was 1:44.7 on my last suspension, so we'll see if better ride and more travel will also equal faster lap times
-Danny
Indeed! I think the twitchyness I am feeling is from the fact that the difference in spring rates between the front and the rear has decreased significantly. For instance, the spring rate on stock springs is 164 front, 97 rear, for a difference of 41%.
The teins on the other hand, have a difference of only 14%. And as you know, as you stiffen up the rear relative to the front, you increase a cars tendency to oversteer.
Like I said - nobody else who has driven the car can't feel what I am feeling. Its probably a very subtle difference in the way the car handles.
BTW - my fast time at Streets of WillowSprings was 145.4 on Toyo tires. Didn't want to be quoting false times. LOL
-Danny
The teins on the other hand, have a difference of only 14%. And as you know, as you stiffen up the rear relative to the front, you increase a cars tendency to oversteer.
Like I said - nobody else who has driven the car can't feel what I am feeling. Its probably a very subtle difference in the way the car handles.
BTW - my fast time at Streets of WillowSprings was 145.4 on Toyo tires. Didn't want to be quoting false times. LOL
-Danny
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Mazdaspeedgirl
Resident Autocrosser
- :
- 99 10AE MX-5 | 2016.5 CX-5 GT
Well I didn't know that!RyanJayG said:
I hve been drooling over the Bilstein PSS-9s for a while now, and haven't done any research on the Tein's, thought they come highly recommended by a lot of miata peeps. (dunno)And it's great to hear your feedback on the Teins, Danny. This is info that I am VERY much interested in, since it would be way too expensive to buy a slew of different coilovers to just try them out.
Aren't the spring rates of these like double(or more for the rear) the stock rates? CRAZY! (crazy)
How much did they run you and where did you order them from?
I too looked at the PSS-9s. However, many people stated that the Bilstein's were not a very good track solution. Since I use my car for both track and street, I had to go with something suited better to both. Hence the Tein Flex. The Flex series is the gap between their street suspension (HA) and their race suspension (RA). I had owned Tein HA suspension on my Subaru RS, and I absolutely loved it. It was a no brainer to pick up Teins again.Mazdaspeedgirl said:Well I didn't know that!
And it's great to hear your feedback on the Teins, Danny. This is info that I am VERY much interested in, since it would be way too expensive to buy a slew of different coilovers to just try them out.
Aren't the spring rates of these like double(or more for the rear) the stock rates? CRAZY! (crazy)
How much did they run you and where did you order them from?
I got them from Kastle's Korner http://www.kastleskorner.com/ and while he doesn't specifically deal with Miatae, he can get Tein. Since he is one of my best friends, he gave them to me for cost. You can probably get a set from him for $1300.
Weird thing about those spring rates. Because of the lever of the Miata suspension, they do not feel all that stiff. The lever effect (which is around 1.4) means that these springs feel a lot better in my Miata than the same spring rates were in my Subaru (which had zero lever effect).
-Danny
WOOT!!! The oversteer is gone! I knew I could dial it out with damper settings! I switched the rears to be softer by 4 clicks than the front (25% softer?) and now the car isn't twitchy at all. Just nice and soft and very compliant. Can't wait to track it now.
Of course, I got pulled over for cornering too fast. Cop was nice and let me off with a warning. (2thumbs)
-Danny
Of course, I got pulled over for cornering too fast. Cop was nice and let me off with a warning. (2thumbs)
-Danny
