I've played with bump stops a bit. Keep in mind though that the car is on the stops during moderately spirited cornering. The bumps are working as a system to provide a progressive spring rate for the car. It's a lot like a miata in that respect.
I've played with bump stops a bit. Keep in mind though that the car is on the stops during moderately spirited cornering. The bumps are working as a system to provide a progressive spring rate for the car. It's a lot like a miata in that respect.
I noticed that the car spends a lot of time on the bump stops when I test drove one. I didn't really drive it hard enough to tell, but it seems like the effectively rising rate front springs would make the car turn in nicely and then push more and more as the suspension loads up.
Or is there something else going on?
In reply to Yavuz:
PM sent. Car is going to be stock by the end of the month.
DaewooOfDeath wrote: I noticed that the car spends a lot of time on the bump stops when I test drove one. I didn't really drive it hard enough to tell, but it seems like the effectively rising rate front springs would make the car turn in nicely and then push more and more as the suspension loads up. Or is there something else going on?
That's pretty much it. It's why the car feels so good on stock tires (or dirt) but tends to fall on it's face once you put stickier tires on it. You can kind of drive around it once you know what's happening, but it's a frustrating car to autocross on sticky street tires.
Seems like a prime candidate for a bumpstopectomy and stiffer nonvariable springs. Although it looks like you guys are all in stock class autox.
The problem is parts availability. There just isn't much that will sit on stock struts. No much that won't give you a dope stance anyway. The only other option for stock style struts is to get the single adjustables from Corksport. Those run you $400. Now get lowering springs for $200 and you're into it $600. One might be better served by shopping around and getting the bilstein kit for $850 or so. I have it on good authority from the B-spec guys that the 2 becomes brilliant again when riding around like a proper race car.
But yea, class restrictions suck.
Sounds like custom springs might be the way to go. They aren't that expensive, in my experience. Double the spring rate, stock ride height so you don't mess up the camber curve roll center etc ~ don't be in a stock class. 
What would you do for dampers? That's more of the cost problem than springs are.
DaewooOfDeath wrote: I noticed that the car spends a lot of time on the bump stops when I test drove one. I didn't really drive it hard enough to tell, but it seems like the effectively rising rate front springs would make the car turn in nicely and then push more and more as the suspension loads up. Or is there something else going on?
I fixed this (at autoX) by cranking up rear tire pressure.
Vigo wrote: What would you do for dampers? That's more of the cost problem than springs are.
There's a chance the stock struts can be opened up and have inserts put in them. A chance. I still need to open up a set and measure. That would be the best solution.
Excellent idea. That's the kind of hot-rodding i get into. I've found ways to mount springs and dampers from a variety of vehicles into my K-cars. Oddly enough, the Mazda2 doesn't seem to have any better aftermarket support than those, other than the b-spec kits.
And to be honest, once you get into the 1k+ range you can pretty easily get anything for anything so imo the relevance of available products goes down sharply at that point. You can get double-adjustable inverted BC coilovers up front and QA1 shocks in back on a k-car for 1k and change. Big whoop. When you can get a full set of decent dampers in the 4-500$ range, that's where i get happy.
Quick question, I've got an old set of Miata steelies I'm intending to throw snow tires on for the deuce, and have no interest in buying another set of TPMS sensors.
Am I just looking at a light on the dash all winter or are there more serious ramifications?
Just the light. I've been driving and auto crossing with the light on for over 6 months. Everything works fine.
Vigo wrote: What would you do for dampers? That's more of the cost problem than springs are.
I got custom aluminum coilover bodies, more or less the valving I wanted and my choice of spring rates on the Daewoo of death. About $650
That's cheap for 'custom'. How'd you pull that off?
They were based on a Daewoo Magnus kit, the insides were all off the shelf Bilstein copies and the springs were universal and off the shelf. Except for the mounting stuff, I got pretty much a mix and match kit.
Also, Korea = custom for cheap.
If you guys are interested, I could probably set you up with Tech Pro coilovers.
Downsides:
I imagine the shipping would get pretty nasty.
You will pay a big premium for adjustables.
If you don't get adjustables, you are pretty much stuck with a choice between "comfort, sport, and race" valving packages. I use sport, and it's plenty for my setup.
The springs don't come in super-fine rate increments. 7 kg, 9 kg, 12 kg were my no-cost options, though for a little bit more I could have chosen 15 kg springs.
MA$$hole wrote: In reply to Yavuz: PM sent. Car is going to be stock by the end of the month.
I shot you an email back. I'm definitely interested!
They were based on a Daewoo Magnus kit, the insides were all off the shelf Bilstein copies and the springs were universal and off the shelf. Except for the mounting stuff, I got pretty much a mix and match kit.
Cool.
Also, Korea = custom for cheap.
I suspected that was a factor. A cool factor.
so who wants to buy my mazda2? 
They're not quite cheap enough for me to buy a second one just because. Let us know what you end up selling it for, I'm interested to see where the used market is. They do make good B-Spec cars.
I pretty much destroyed my Focus ZX3 at a rallycross ("Man, this huge jump is swee... uh oh.") in June, and it finally conked out on me last weekend. After a lot of looking around, I finally ended up with a '2 of my own, due in no small part to the absolute blast I had in Mazdeuce's car earlier in the year at the Southwest Rallycross National Challenge.
Mazdeuce, since you asked about the market - mine's a 2012 Sport (5MT of course) with 16.5k miles on the clock, and it was $11,795 + TTL, doc. fees etc... so around $12,800 out the door.
My 12 Touring is officially all back to stock. Time to sell it and ditch the car payment. I don't have the patience anymore to sell it private party so I'm planning on shopping a few dealers and selling to the highest bidder.
In reply to Winston:
Mine has a few more miles (and a few more rallycrosses) but it's nice to know they're holding value OK. You going to rallycross this one?
mazdeuce wrote: You going to rallycross this one?
Quite possibly, depending on what happens with the Focus.
mazdeuce wrote: In reply to Winston: Mine has a few more miles (and a few more rallycrosses) but it's nice to know they're holding value OK. You going to rallycross this one?
Soooo, what happened at the championship in Tulsa?
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