Over the years, we've been selling a spring design that was unique to Flyin' Miata. The rates were stiff enough to keep a lowered car off the bump stops and the ride height was chosen to be both aggressive-looking and functional.
However, the Miata market has changed over the years. Function takes a higher priority than ever before. That's something that suits us just fine as we prefer that sort of thing. Combined with a few batches of springs that were lower than our specification, we decided that it was time to rework our popular spring design.
The spring rates were well chosen in our opinion. We settled on 318 lb/in front and 233 lb/in rear for the new parts. At the same time, we also raised the ride height specifications. When measured from the center of the wheel to the fender lip, the new springs will be approximately 13" in the front and 13.25" in the rear for a 1990-97 car. This is about 1/2" higher than the old springs were intended to be and as much as an inch higher than they sometimes ended up. The 1999-05 cars will be 12.5" in the front and 13" in the rear thanks to their greater suspension travel. The higher ride height will give the suspension more room to work, providing a better ride than before. This does not mean that our shock mounts are no longer required, but they're certainly not as necessary as before. The ride of our test car is similar to that of a stock 1996 we used for comparison.
The new springs are also being manufactured in the US and we'll have an easier time dealing with any quality problems than the previous Swedish ones. The 1990-97 versions of the new springs are shipping now and the 1999-05 versions will follow in mid-May. We no longer have any of the old design.
Along with the new springs, we're reintroducing the Tokico Illumina shock. It's a little more expensive than the popular AGX, but some think it's a better shock although it's more difficult to adjust. It's always had fans at FM but we were afraid the price would scare people off.