Lowered Miata

When we bought The CTBNL it was lowered on a set of Racing Beat springs along with a set of Koni Sport yellow shocks. When a car is lowered the spring rate needs to increase, otherwise the shorter suspension travel will bottom out on sharp road imperfections. The Racing Beat springs were around 20% stiffer and that would have been great is all the roads we traveled were fairly smooth, but in the real world it seemed like were hitting the bump stops way too often.

Our previous Miata was lowered on a set of Flying Miata springs with those same Koni Sport shocks. So, not long after we bought the current car we swapped the Racing Beat springs for Flying Miata’s almost 100% stiffer units. No more hitting bump stops.

Flying Miata says that after their springs are installed the ride height, measured from wheel center to the fender lip, should be 12.5″ in the front and 13″ in the rear or an even 3/4″ lower than stock. When I measure the ride height on the CTBNL now it comes in at the advertised 13″ in the rear, but the front measures just 12″.

This extra 1/2″ lower ride height comes into play rarely and only when really pushing the car the car through a very sharp turn. The tire will scrape the inner plastic fender liner. This is especially prevalent in the winter when I have the taller Mini Cooper all-season tires on the car.

I don’t remember these stiffer springs feeling this harsh on both the last car and on this one when we were in South Carolina. There is probably a reasonable explanation for this. It could be we are getting older and less tolerant of being jostled. It could also be that we used to drive the Miata a lot more back east so we were used to be jostled around. It could possibly be the roads out here are worse than in South Carolinas. Or it could be a combination of all three.

I have been considering swapping out springs back to stock to maybe mellow out the ride some. Also, because of that whole aging thing again, it might be nice to get that 3/4″ of ride height back. A set of used springs are fairly cheap, around $100, but the labor to swap them out will probably be 4 times that. After the swap and alignment would be needed. With what little we drive the Miata anymore, 238 miles in the last 6 months, I’m not sure it is worth it.