Not lowering, anti roll and tower braces?

Technical Area Steering & Suspension
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  1. My model of MX-5 is: __ND 1.5
  2. I’m based near: __Eastbourne
  3. I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: __bracing and anti roll bars.

I don’t want to lower my ND 1.5, too many puddles and potholes near me and it’s a daily driver for my wife who really wouldn’t like it. I’m wondering if tower bracing front and back, and stiffer anti roll bars will be a good thing to have done without lowering or if it’s generally only going to help reduce roll and handling if I lower it?
I’m thinking of having it done while in for it’s service later in the year.
Thanks.

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I think the best thing would be to fit the Mazda (Eibach) springs which will help control roll a bit and won’t effect ride quality that much.

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Wouldn’t they lower it though?

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Yes but not enough to give you any problems with speed humps. Stiffer anti roll bars on standard springs is not a good idea as it can produce cracks on the front mounting points. Don’t worry about bracing!

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Aah. I see. In that case I’ll stay stock. The potholes and puddles are more the worry. Thank you.

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You can fit stiffer ARBs on standard springs if you want, its just you need to fit re-inforcement plates (PacoMoto) when fitting stiffer ARBs.

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Cheers. Worth it?

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I probably won’t be able to advise sorry, mine are waiting to fitted along with upgraded front and rear strut braces, under body bracing and MeisterR GT1 coilovers, so what difference the ARBs alone make I won’t know as it will all be fitted at the same time.

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That makes total sense. Thank you! :pray:

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Gareth is quite correct you can fit anti-roll bars and Paco Motorsport front reinforcement kit (which has to be imported from the US (which i have done)), however it is the more expensive option. I’m not understanding your thinking as to why lowered springs wouldn’t be able to cope with potholes and puddles.

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I already had to turn around and find alternative routes a few times on our country lanes in the last month due to flooding, some of the holes at the side of the roads are pretty crazy and the oncoming traffic doesn’t care, even the tyre fitters near me said it really doesn’t need lowering where we live as it’d be impractical out on the country lanes. My wife already had a few flooded areas on the way to work that she was worried about in the first month of ownership. East Sussex has a reputation for terrible roads.

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They sound like some bad roads. Adding anti roll bars will reduce roll with standard springs, which the ND can benefit from. It will however make it more reactive to bumps as well.
If you want to make it handle on those roads I would suggest this :blush:

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Thanks. I think I’ll have to wait until we’ve done the holidays in Europe, wife will find that she really wants her Citroen C1 and I can keep the Mazda to myself instead of her using it as a daily. Then I can mess with it, drop it, put a v6 in it and mess around. Until then I’ll keep it fairly stock. I’ll put these on my list though obviously :grin::grin::grin::grin:

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After scraping in some speed bumps in Pevensey Bay this week I’ve realised that lowering isn’t an option, we like to explore country areas, car parking in some places is gnarly and some of the holes and speed bumps locally would cause trouble.

We used to drive off road in our Lexus is200 between Firle and Berwick on the old coach road that is used by the farmers snd I know we won’t be doing that anyway.

Shame. We used to get done funny looks from walkers.