mx5 suspension choice

[Mortey]

I am looking to upgrade the suspension on my mx5. I will be doing a few trackdays but will also use the car on the road. So I want a fast road set up that I can occasionally stiffen up for the track.

I want adjustable dampers but would be happy keeping a fixed ride height. So I am looking at either a spax kit or the gaz fixed height kit.

Does anybody have experience of either on an mx5. I am especially interested to hear what people think about spax as the price of the kit is tempting.

Cheers

[durbster]

I put the Koni sport kit on mine a few years ago and it's excellent. On mine they offer a significantly better ride than the original Bilsteins, but have far less body roll when fully stiffened. I don't think the car is quite as responsive on them, but it's superb on track and the adjustments offer a large variation on oversteer/understeer so you can tweak to suit.

So while I'd recommend them without a doubt, I'd also suggest caution when seeking opinions because it's very difficult to find valuable information on different suspension setups. Because of the work involved, it's not something that's easily compared like for like, and when people are replacing suspension it's usually because theirs is knackered, so it's not a fair comparison either.

[MX-5 Lazza]

I agree with durbster when it comes to opinions. Especially with adjustable suspension as people don't always know what they are doing with the adjustments. I've seen plenty of people slate perfectly good suspension because they don't like the way theirs handles when it could be fixed by spending a bit of time and effort getting the setup correct.

[gdaybruce]

This thread covered the topic of the Gaz fixed height units: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

As said above, it's hard to draw direct comparisons without trying different set ups and certainly in my case, the units I removed were well past their best. Still, my previous car was running on Bilsteins and I'd say that the adjustability of the Gaz units makes it possible to have either a softer or a harder ride than the Bilsteins, as required, and the actual damping is excellent. To me a big plus is that it's so easy to make the adjustments to the damping - you can reach the adjusters just by getting down on the ground and reaching behind the wheels.

[Mortey]

Cheers for the info and understand its difficult to make direct comparisons.

The gaz fixed height kit certainly looks good.
If anybody does have experience of spax I would be keen to see what you think.

Thanks again.

[MX-5 Lazza]

I used to have KYB AGX shocks with FM springs and FM ARBs. I've since has P5 Puredrive and now GAZ Gold Pro but I still think the old AGX setup was the best I've had. I only replaced it to get a bit more ride-height as the FM springs I had came from a faulty batch that were too short.

[Richyvrlimited]

Mortey said:

Cheers for the info and understand its difficult to make direct comparisons.

The gaz fixed height kit certainly looks good.
If anybody does have experience of spax I would be keen to see what you think.

Thanks again.

My mate has SPAX on his MK1, I wouldn't have it myself (he bought the car with it fitted). It's really quite harsh for a daily driver, but livable.

What hacks me off mostly about it is it knocks like crazy all the time. it's not broken and everything was torqued up correctly. I think it has the same design flaw that old GAZ kits had as they used to knock incessantly too IIRC.

[Mazdamender]

I agree with the rest,it is all down to what you want her for and how you are going to use her,there are loads of option out there,for every buget, i have fitted my Mk 1 with standard Mk 2 set up's, my roadsters are for road/motorway traveling,and i don't feel the pot holes as hard,i can still throw it around corners and so on,so that works for me but it is down to choice.
M-m

[mikey_p]

I'd also be interested to hear if anyone has experience of the SPAX suspension as I'm in the market myself.

Tired of bouncing down the road every time I hit a bump.

[itch]

I had Spax PSX set fitted to replace my ancient Bridgestone Potenza items which sadly collapsed.

The kit is adjustable for damping and has a fixed height. I chose the 30mm drop and am very glad I did! If I don't crawl over some of the moderately high speed bumps the car strikes on the chassis rails.

I'm not sure if the mechanics I had fit the car forgot to fit something, but the kit sounds like it's rubbing somewhere as there's a squeek coming from the rear on extension. (Sounds like a family of mice). However, the car the seems to ride well and I've really been enjoying the twisty sections