lowering my 05 legacy

I plan to mod my suspension setup, and I am debating new springs and shocks, or a new set of coil overs. I know there is a price difference. But I have heard bad rumors about towing a lowered car. I would also like the ability to adjust my ride height. Also, what about sleeved coil overs? They are a little cheaper, but what would be a total setup that anyone experienced would recommend? Also, brand recommendations would be helpful too.

 

Nick

i lowered mine an inch all the way around. just did springs h-type from Tein and got to do shocks soon. the ride is still pretty good. The roads around me are pretty shitty.

Are you planning to autocross or track the car?

auto-x yes. Maybe down the road, in a year or so. I probably wont lower my car until next year, but I am getting as much info as possible before starting. I want to have my suspension and handling set up well, so Im thinking it through before I buy any parts.

auto-x yes. Maybe down the road, in a year or so. I probably wont lower my car until next year, but I am getting as much info as possible before starting. I want to have my suspension and handling set up well, so Im thinking it through before I buy any parts.

 

best thing for you to do is spend a lot of time searching and reading in this subforum.

Agreed. Check out the iwsti site too, they tend to have more technical info. Miata.net is also very good.

 

Currently I'm running a JDM rear bar to eliminate some understeer. I didn't go with the larger bars because I didn't want to "tie" the rear suspension together. LCA bushings were changed this summer with Group Ns, you can read the thread on this. This helped the car turn in for sure as it was obvious how much the LCA was moving around. I have a set of Konis which helped control the springs much better especially at the limit. Its amazing how much the tires were bouncing around with the old struts. If the tires aren't on the ground its doesn't matter what you do the car isn't going to go where you want it. The final upgrade will be a set of iON springs. The spring rate in our car is too low which allows for a lot of body roll. There is enough roll that the front camber curve can't keep up under spriited driving conditions and the front tire always end up pointing out. When I autocross the outer edges of my tires are alway much hotter than the inner part of the tire and the egdes are all chewed up. I could add camber plates to increase static camber but its my opinion the real problem is the springs. Put all these parts together and you should have a very nice handling car that will understeer some at the limit.