My alternative man maths is that since my car is 10 years old now, so thus will be the dampers.
Since my car has the Bilstein dampers, if I were to need to replace one at c£220, best practice says I should actually replace the other side as well, so c£440.
However, I would then be feeling uncomfortable about having a front/rear new/old split as that could seriously impair the handling of the vehicle (… honest gov! ) so I would have to do the other axle as well at another £440, so now i’m in for £880!
Add £140 worth of lowering springs into that and suddenly I’m in for £1000!!
So by buying an £800 set of MeisterRs, I’m actually realising a £200 profit!
There may be a reason why i’m not allowed to give out financial management advise…!
If you go meisters you can save on buying a spring compressor and have a full complete set of struts to sell to offset costs. Or keep them and take the meisters off for resale in the future. Fitting coilovers not difficult for most diyers.
The lowered springs and the alignment from WIM should give you confidence in the cars handling. The ride height of the standard car has much written about it and I believe the car is more as Mazda suspension dept. intended with a 35mm drop. If I remember correctly you will not need as much static camber on the rear once lowered improving grip. Old Bilstein dampers will have more work to do with a higher rated spring but should not suddenly cause increased wear.
From working through a number of stages of modification to my NC1 I would recommend driving the car for a while before changing the Anti roll bars to yellow dot RX8.
They will certainly increase roll resistance feel but will also reduce grip on uneven roads. The car will become more nervous and you will still have an understeer bias. More oversteer balance can be found just by adding a red dot RX8 rear bar. It will just depend what you want from the car and how you like to drive. I am taking my Yellow dots off.
) so I would have to do the other axle as well at another £440, so now i’m in for £880!
