A few weeks ago, I decided to start gathering parts for the Miata to get it ready for the Tail of the Dragon which is the main event, and reason for, Miatas at the Gap (MATG) happening in August. If you’re not familiar with MATG, give it a google and read on. I’ve never been but will be there this year. I was finally able to book a room at the resort so I can be there at ground zero. Can’t wait!
I’m prepping the car a bit on a budget. I’d like to say it’s to stay on theme of the car being cheap, but really, it’s because I have a two-year-old and most of my funds go to her and her care. Worth it for sure, but what I’m left with for car parts leaves much to be desired, so I’d been saving and had a budget of around $1,000. Up until now I have been focused on bringing the car back to life with repairs and maintenance and a few upgrades sprinkled in. Now it’s time to give it some actual mods. Since the event is focused on driving the Tail of the Dragon I wanted to turn my attention to the suspension.
I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with it. It is a Club trim and therefore has the factory Bilstein shocks and Club springs, which are essentially the same as the non-club springs except for the rears having a slightly higher spring rate from what I’ve read. I thought to just replace the springs as the shocks still seemed good. I saw no sign of leaking and they were comfortable with no floatyness or bounciness over bumps. But, they have 140k on them, so it may not be a bad idea. Still, I went looking for springs. Even though I’m working on a budget, I was absolutely not going to go with cheap coilovers from Amazon/eBay. I wanted proven quality with a good brand. I’ve never driven this car on the Dragon so I wanted to make sure I had good parts with no surprises at the limit, not that I plan on reaching the limit there.
Placing My Order with Flyin’ Miata
I looked at Progress as they are a very good price as well as Flyin’ Miata and Eibach. I decided on Flyin’ Miata. I trust their design and products. I’ve used Eibach in the past and have been very happy with them but I thought a proven set of springs from a company dedicated to the platform just made sense. I went on the website, found them, but before adding them to the cart I wanted to see if they had a deal on their handling packages in case they had something in my budget. They did.
And what a deal it was…
You are seeing that right. The Stage 1 setup was on sale for $279. That’s the set of springs and four adjustable Koni shocks. I immediately bought it, got my confirmation and was thrilled at the price they were at. It seemed way too cheap but then I remember a video recently where they mentioned they were developing a new suspension for the ND platform, so I thought they were blowing these out. As it was tagged “Sale” it seemed like a conscious decision.
To Good to Be True
Fast forward a few days later and I receive an email from Flyin’ Miata and an Invoice for just over $1,000. Apparently, it was not a sale. They emailed me that there was a mistake on the website and could not honor the price. If I still wanted to buy the set, I would need to pay the invoice, otherwise the order would need to be cancelled. Well, that would put me out of my budget, so I wasn’t going to do that.
Now I could have made a stink, sent them screen shots and tried to force them to honor the price. Would it have worked or held up legally? Maybe, maybe not. But I have no interest in that and understand that mistakes sometimes happen. Unbelieveably good deal denied, I still ordered the original set of springs from them that I initially set out to order anyway. Perhaps I could have asked for a discount given the situation but I’m not usually that guy.
While I’m in There…
Springs sorted, I now had a taste for new shocks. While not part of my original plan, the Koni shocks that came in the Flyin’ Miata kit did get me thinking. As I mentioned earlier, the OEM ones have 140k miles on them and I’ll be removing them anyway as part of the spring install so I may as well replace them. This is my third Miata and all of them have had factory Bilstein shocks, so why not just get a new set of those? Well, that’s what I did. I ordered a full set of Bilstein B8 Performance Shocks from Fab9, they had the best price. The shocks and springs together set me back about $842.
I now had $158 to add to the suspension and I wasn’t quite sure how to make the best use of it. So I turned to the forums to see what their advice was. I went loaded with a few options though. I could spend the $100 on a used OEM rear sway bar from a Fiat 124 Abarth, the Miata’s short lived sister car, as it is about 2mm bigger for a nice mild upgrade. I could also spend a little more and buy a front adjustable sway bar from JBR. Consensus is to not just install a rear sway bar, but replacing the front one is fine. Not only is it fine but recommended. So after some more research and advice from the forums…I did both! Yes, I blew the budget by an extra $82, but I figured if I’m going to do it, I may as well just do it. So now I have acquired all the suspension goodies I need for a nice, sporty street-driven upgrade.
The Parts
- Flyin Miata Lowering Springs ($305)
- Bilstein B8 Performance Shocks ($537)
- JBR Front Adjustable Sway Bar ($140)
- OEM Fiat 124 Abarth Rear Sway Bar ($100)
Everything has arrived except for the JBR Front bar but that should be here shortly. I have a day marked off in June to install everything and get an alignment the next day. After that I am going to try and fit in a set of tires before the trip but that is not a priority. The tires on there have plenty of life left for the trip, but the fronts are a different brand than the rear. That’s how it came and I have been waiting until after this trip to change them. I figure I may as well get one last trip out of them and wear them down some. I’m not going to be going all out, it is a public road after all and I have to drive the car home. But with all the turns it’s only natural that there will be some extra wear. I’d feel better with a new set for the trip, but only if I can make it financially viable. Funds for this are short remember. For now, that’s my plan. I’ll update as I install the parts and give my thoughts. The next part should be coming soon and cover the install of the rear Abarth sway bar.
Supergoat Garage 