I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: Anti-roll bar and springs
I’ve yet to pickup my MK3 but being the owner of an MK2 I’ve been through the whole lower and stiffer process before, however that was with a “make it good for the track, average for the road”.
Now, the MK3 is going to be my road car.
I dislike the stock height, even on the sports dampers which are apparently a little lower (???). Mixed reviews on Eilbach lowering springs on the Bilsteins, from my limited reading anyway.
I’ve also read that the front sway bar is “ok” but the rear is poor.
So basically, is lowering the car with the springs going to tighten up the drive or should I just deal with the fitment and get the ARB?
Driving and looks are important to me, I think for this particular car looks are pretty up there as it’s a very very clean example. I would never sacrifice driving for that though.
So the thing with coilovers is…I really don’t want to start going down that route. I was more interested in an OEM+ sort of approach. It’s a deep hole I don’t want to fall into, first it’s coilovers, then I’ll want new wheels, then I’ll want to replace the exhaust and so on and so forth.
Unless the existing dampers are shot (they aren’t) I don’t really see the point in removing the Bilsteins.
I love how you assumed I was always going to fit the springs (maybe I was lol), and this post was just me gaining some confirmation bias.
I am genuinely open to either. If the springs aren’t going to make the car feel more planted, and instead is going to throw it all over the place I won’t bother at all
If we are being sensible here (which we are) then doing the ARB is the right thing? Or does it really not matter? I’ve not even driven the car yet, but if it’s anything like a MK2 in terms of suspension then I know exactly what to expect and I don’t like it.
Among the first things I did was fit tein coilovers, new wheels and tyres and il MotorSport anti roll bars. I’m happy with all of them but can’t comment on the individual differences they made as they all went on at once . Mine is a road car.
Seems to be a common thing. Most people seem to be fitting coilovers and a bunch of other stuff at the same time. There is more than enough info the highlight the weakness of the vehicles suspension and wheel setup, so mosts posts are “I did all the things and it’s better!”. Yeah but, I want to know how each component alters the feel .
I was going to go with Whitelines, £180 for the rear, not sure if that’s good? My MK2 has Racingbeat front and rear and I got them used for half the cost of retail. Should I go with Racingbeat again?
I don’t even know if they are good, all I know is the MK2 is a lot better with them but I’ve no comparison across brands.
What’s wrong with them? As I say I fitted mine in conjunction with coilovers so they are doing some heavy lifting too but there is very little roll compared to the stock setup with the bilsteins…
I am personally not sure, however they are half the cost of the alternatives so I imagine it’s probably not as well built? Perhaps someone who has had both cam chime in.
Well they’re alloy instead of steel so much lighter, I’d say half the weight of the stock bars at least. The construction and finish is very good with billet anodised mounting brackets, as good as any other arbs I’ve bought from eibach, whiteline, godspeed etc with the exception they’re generally chromoly steel. Without having the equipment to test their torsional stiffness I can’t attest to their effectiveness other than to say they seem to be doing a good job…
You seem to be in a similar dilemma to me. I daily my NC1. if it sees a track it’s because I’ve gone and got a 3rd car as a daily.
Advice I’ve been given by the specialist is if you’re going down that rabbit hole for years to come then do coilovers first for the max benefit, knowing you’re coming back for ARBs later.
If you’re not burying that kind of cash over time, then accept the ride height problem and fit ARBs to help the roll and pitch problem.
Also every YT from a specialist (Flyin Miata etc) seems to advise against springs alone.
On coilovers I’m very much Alice looking down that rabbit hole about to jump btw. If I do it will be a standalone upgrade for a while, without new bushes or ARBs.
the IL Motorsport ones look and weigh the same as OEM ones by the looks of it - when i held the whiteline and the OEM ones i noticed the whiteline wee about 4x the weight /thicker and there was NO flex at all! I could almost bend the OEM ones with some pressure - pretty sure the IL Motorsport are just a replacement for the OEM. Theres a reason any decent spec ARBS are about twice the price of IL Motorsport
The il MotorSport ones are much lighter than stock - I have them. (I’m not defending them just because I do, if they were ■■■■ I’d warn people off). According to their own info they are 45% lighter and 35% stiffer. I can confirm the weight is dramatically less, however, as I said the additional stiffness is debatable due to having fitted the coilovers at the same time. As for cheapo they were 300 quid without links. I wouldn’t say cheap, though certainly a chunk cheaper than h&r, whiteline or eibach.
As your car is at least ten years old and an NC it will probably be ready for suspension bushings.
The best bangs for buck to improve handling for a road NC without compromising ride are:
Replace the worn out bushings, ideally with uprated rubber ones
New bushings and used RX8 arbs
New bushings and new arbs
New bushings and good coilovers
New bushings, arbs and coilovers
Stiffer arbs will improve handing without affecting ride comfort.
New bushings and good coilovers will improve both the ride and the handling.
Good coilovers also allow for the car to sit lower which will improve the stance and the handling with little compromise if any to the ride.
Good coilovers might remove the need for stiffer arbs but if you’re under the car doing other work it’s worth adding RX8 arbs though as they’re cheap.
Springs on their own will compromise ride and handling unless matched to the 10 year old shockers.
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