What a lucky find… I wish many happy years motoring and if the petrol gets to expensive I have seen a company on the Web that is beginning to convert MX5s to EV.
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reading your post and looking at your car i’ must say the story is much the same as mine allthough i was about 66 when i got my first nb (rustyish) silver job but it got me hooked.a couple of years later i got a nice strato blue one like yours not rusty. i.m 71 now and have an nc stormy blue very close to strato blue as you may know. but unlike the nb which is low enough the nc sits a bit high so i’m contemplating lowering it . either with springs or coilovers . not being one of lifes rich men my chice is limited if i end up doing neither i will still have a smile on my face every time i sit in it lol
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Hi Terry,
What a beautiful example NB your car is, from the photograph the condition looks superb.Is it a late NB facelift model, it looks like the sport edition?
Great car and happy driving, roll on summer!!
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Thank you! It’s a 2005, one of the last. It’s a standard 1.8i model. One owner before me and 31k on the clock. I think the original lady owner got a lot of extras with it as it was an end of the line model - hardtop, alloy wheels, leather seats and steering wheel, fog lights and some other stuff I can’t remember. Yes, roll on summer and off with the hardtop!
Not lowered 
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Not being happy I had a complete answer as to the difference between a Coil Over and a Strut my recent research online has given me a conclusion I can live with as below:
a. A Strut (Mac Strut) complelely replaces the top wishbone.
b. On the front the top of the Strut has a bearing and rotates with the wheel.
Stupid really that I couldn’t crack the difference earlier in the topic having replaced a few Ford Struts in my time. … Doh!
Roy 
That’s a MacPherson design - type suspension. Obviously the design is not applicable for the double wishbone suspension system the mx5 has however the name “strut” has nothing to do with the design, both can be referenced as a coilover strut and a MacPherson strut. In aviation industry we also call the main landing gear body as strut as well.
Yup, it was the Mac Strut I was thinking about earlier in the post I just lost the plot a tad on the way through the topic.
Roy
I don’t see that agricultural look either and that’s because those agricultural-look remarks concern the pre-facelift You don’t have the pre-facelift ánd you have the optional sports suspension.
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I would never do a modification that makes it look better to my taste but makes the car perform/feel less. That being said, I don’t know how you find your car when you walk towards it, I have to look where it is Even better, if I really like the way my car looks then when I walk away I usually turn my head a couple of times to enjoy the sight of it. I had that especially with my JDM Integra Type R.
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This, together with some remarks from some knowledgeable people made me decide on some lowering and confirms that I made the right choice - I got the Bilstein B12 kit which comprises 30mm Eibach springs and Bilstein B8 dameprs, which are an upgrade over the optional Bilsteins from the Mazda factory. Seeing a few prefacelifts with 30mm lowering makes me look forward to installing the new suspension sitting in my shed!
Not sure if I would have done that with a facelift with optional sports suspension, I’ve never driven it but from what I hear it sound more like it should have been. In that documentary one of the US Mazda engineers comments that the prefacelift was a bit geared too much toward comfortable cruising.
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I will be replacing my standard (2l Miyako) dampers in the Spring, the existing ones seem to ‘bonk’ on larger bumps but do damp bump and rebound even if not as well as they should. They are 11 years old and have travelled 49k miles, enough in my view to warrant replacement.
I want standard or dampers offering a standard damping rate, Suggestions on the best ones to go for would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Roy
I am by no means an expert, but I try to use logic. Mazda offered Eibach springs as an official option/mod. Apparently Mazda trusts Bilstein seeing that they installed them on the factory cars. And Bilstein combines those Eibach springs with their own B8 dampers. Personally I trust Eibach. Mazda does too. So I think Mazda endorsed springs, with a damper that a Mazda endorsed damper company thinks fits best, should be a good, OEM+ -like option. I am aiming for an OEM+ feel as I am just some wannabe racing driver lacking skills, that needs his car to communicate, rock hard suspension doesn’t do that 
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Here’s a MX5 before it is lowered and one that has been lowered. It’s a matter of choice I like the look better when lowered.
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Bigger wheels too, double effect 
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Yes, now your talking, I often wonder if a MX5 NC would get away with 20” wheels ? Mine are 17” I would like 19” minimum …
As it was already mentioned, the NC2 and onwards has a lot of changes compared to the NC1 (including ride height).
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Yes, I agree, changes did occur during the introduction of the NC2 I think that this slight lowering of the NC2 might be because of many owners comments on the unnecessary Hight that the NC1 sat on its springs, Few could deny that the NC1 sat unnaturally high and therefore looked cosmetically wrong too ! Best regards to you from Ray in Essex. Ps I cannot comment on the other upgrade you mentioned, I’m sure that Mazda looks at each model and makes a decision on what might improve each model just prior to going into production, , Ray Hill. Essex
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While you might be able to make them fit, they do horrible things to the handling and you’d have to do some fairly major adjustments to your speedo at a minimum, which would badly under-read your speed - which is illegal.
If you’re only interested in aesthetics, you answer OP’s question, which came at it from a purely engineering perspective and highlighted quite carefully all the reasons it’s not a good idea to adjust the suspension. Adding bigger and bigger wheels serves to confirm that in destroying (objectively measurable) handling and geometry for the sake of (entirely subjective) aesthetics, the former is discarded in favour of the latter.
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I Think that the concept of the “” CAR “” has been lost in recent years, They seem to be designed to appeal to the buyer cosmetically, An extra swoop or body alteration each year is meant to lure the buyer into buying the new model each year, the swoop or body alteration rarely has a function, Etc….
Me ? I am ‘ all for the cosmetic looks of my car’ Above all other considerations,…. I just hop in it and drive it ( which isn’t very often) I only look into something being ‘’obviously wrong” with it, before I have it checked out… Best regards from Ray in Essex…
PS… I cannot comment on your ‘other’ pointers within your post…however, I do acknowledge them….
