Originally Posted by
imarcr2
Hello,
Just wanted to post my experience with FCM coilovers. I bought a set last winter in anticipation of our local autox group competition really heating up. Locally we have a class of good drivers with FI Miatas on street tires. I upgraded the supercharger as well as the suspension. Some drivability issues with my new SC setup has led me to moving the FCMs over to my track only Miata(91 Normally Aspirated, street tires).
I tried to maintain the same ride height with the swap to avoid re-aligning the car. Not recommended! I asked for a setup from Shaikh that would maintain some streetability, but biased towards track/autox. He came up with 500f/325r.
Street-
The car is definitely not as comfortable as a koni/stock spring combo, but I didn't expect it to be. The Bilsteins still have the slightly harsh feeling on bad pavement around town at lower speeds(similar to my old 93LE on Bilsteins). My Koni/CG setup was pretty harsh everywhere due to lack of travel.
Track- I am participating in NASA Time Trials. I personally think the car would be quicker if the car was lower with stiffer springs. If the track events were all I did, I would probably go to as high of spring rates as my valving would allow(about 100lb all arounds according to FCM). I used the same car earlier in the year with Koni Yellow with GC(375F/250R). I think the FCMs handle mid corner bumps better and put the power down better out of slow corners, but I think the Koni setup was slightly better at quick transitions. Overall lap times were remarkably similar between the two different setups.
AutoX- After re-aligning the car has been transformed! I wanted to write a review after doing well at a local event that the surface is pretty rotten. The pavement is breaking up and bumpy, On my koni setup, it is really hard to hold my line as the car is just getting thrown around by all the surface irregularities. The FCMs just seem to eek out more traction. I find myself really able to pick a line and stick with it rather than adjusting on the fly. That being said, I expected the FCMs to perform on a bad surface...they are kind of sold on that strength.
I held off on a review because our next event was on Tire Rack's test track that has been recently resurfaced. Smoother, grippier, and faster than our local lots. We had the Tire Rack/Grassroots MX-5 competing as well, so we had a good control car out there. The car was awesome in transitions. especially the slaloms that were within a skidpad. I had newfound confidence in the high speed stuff as well. I ended up neck and neck with our local fast guy in a 99 setup pretty well for STR(225 tires, all the bolt ons, etc) and slightly less than 2 seconds off the GRM/TR Miata. My car weighs 2475 with me in it(91 BRG with rollbar, and no weight reduction(AC and PS, full interior, etc)). I am on 205 RE11s with 7 inch rims.
Overall very happy with the autox performance of the shocks. I would like them to be slightly better on track, but don't want to screw up the autox setup. I will probably tweak the spring rates slightly higher next year when I hopefully go to a 225 RS3/6UL setup
