I was shopping for E46 M3 or Abarth 500....but missed a lot of good deals as the Mazda had not been sold yet. We still have M3P and Alphard, so no hurry.

^Have you considered a Fiesta ST? Those seem well priced in HK compared to Vancouver.

Man the fist is stupid money here, people want like MSRP or over:fulloffuck:

Didn't you have an M3? I guess you missed it. :)

I was checking out the FIST / Abarth 500.

But the depreciation curve on the Veloster N was slightly similar to what you would experience in the FIST/Abarth 500 after putting 50 - 60,000 KM.

Should check the Veloster N out. Buy for $33 - 38K, dump it for $30 - 33K when you're done with the 6 year warranty.

trying to sort out the formula of [1 - Alphard - M3P] = a fun gasoline car that can strike balance. I'd thought of compact off-road (Jimny type), convertible (EOS, Abarth cabrio, S3/A5/S5/ cabrio), or any stick shift (but not wife friendly). That's why I didn't shortlist Fiesta.

I have a Model 3, but not a real M3 lol.

Thinking about buying some lowering springs for my Mazda to fill in the wheel well.

Spring rate is 3.4K front and 5.9K rear. 1" drop in the front and 1.5" in the rear.

Since my car currently has just under 7K mileage, does it make sense to just swap the springs and then get replace the shocks later down the road with something like Koni Yellows when they wear out or should I just replace everything at the same time?

Y don't you just coilovers, it's not that much more then springs and the install is even easier and might be cheaper as you don't have to take apart each shock and rebuild. Easier too if you want to sell and revert back to stock

A few questions:
1. The spring rates you mentioned - are those current factory spring rates? Or are these the ones you are considering?
2. Which brand of springs are you getting?
3. Are you looking to keep your factory shocks with said new springs?
4. Are you willing to sacrifice comfort as a daily driver?
5. What are your long term goals with the vehicle?
6. Do you have a specific budget to keep in mind?

I think it's easy to recommend coilovers, but depending on his goals, this would vary significantly.

Thankfully, there are a lot of options out there for coilovers that can be customized with spring rates with matched shocks tuned for the spring rate. There often is no "one size fits all" option, unless you go with an Ohlins Road and Track setup, but that's baller. Then again, everyone on Revscene is. :lol

not sure what Mazda is that, the K number for Miata or Mazda3? 5.9K rear seems harsh.

If you are picky about K rate, go speak with Swift Springs to get the perfect springs for your car. For normal driving and tight budget, it's fine with stock shocks.

Mazda 3 Turbo.

https://corksport.com/2021-mazda-3-t...and-sedan.html

A lot of folks seem happy with them from checking out the main Facebook group. The spring rates on these aftermarket ones are the 3.4K front and 5.9K rear that I mentioned earlier.

Apparently the OEM ones for the non-Turbo is 2.23K front and 4.20K rear. I don't have the exact rates for the OEM Turbo springs, but they're a bit stiffer since the Turbo model is heavier.

I kind of have a few options.

1. Buy the Corksport springs, use OEM shocks until they give out then replace with aftermarket shocks
2. Buy the Corksport springs and replace the OEM shocks with some aftermarket shocks
3. Buy a set of aftermarket coilovers

I feel that options 1 and 3 make the most sense.

I don't know a lot about car suspensions, but it doesn't seem to make sense to replace the OEM shocks (with less than 7000KM on them) with aftermarket ones right off the bat. Might as well wait until they start giving out before replacing them.

I wouldn't mind getting coilovers (a friend recommended I get them), but I'm just not sure if there's value in it for my purpose of getting rid of some wheel gap.

https://i.postimg.cc/Kzg9tfFj/IMG-8496.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/YSPn4V5T/IMG-8493.jpg

i covered up my ratrolla with a 34 dollar cover.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000ALG86E?...roduct_details

https://i.imgflip.com/2nlscw.gif

Nice Corolla hatchback :troll:

@Razor Ramon HG

Speaking from my own personal experience, albeit not a Mazda, I got a credit from a shop and had to spend it before the end of year, so I ended up getting H&R springs for my stock Corolla iM. Front MacPherson strut and multi-link rear suspension. Why not, right? But I was wrong.

Lowered it, had some fun with the car, but it really shortened the lifespan and reliability of the factory shocks. While the factory shocks did not fail (leak or explode) you could really tell it wasn't happy with the lowering springs anymore. In the end, I ended up having to switch out the factory shocks and springs, and and bought some Teins, which also aren't happy with the factory springs, hence why I asked whether you care about comfort. In the end, I regret lowering the car. I wished I just kept everything stock. Suspension can be a bit of a black magic for daily purpose enthusiasts.

I didn't explore the option of getting coilovers because lowering my car any further than the lowering springs themselves would end up scraping the underbody of my car and doing a lot of damage. Speed bumps are pretty serious here in Toronto. If you don't have an SUV, you will pretty much scrape everywhere. Fuck Toronto.

Usually the OEM shocks are best paired with OEM springs. When you put aftermarket springs on OEM shocks, they tend to die way faster. Given you just want to lower the wheel gap, I personally wouldn't do it.

Decent coilovers such as Teins or BC Racing are easily 2k plus installation. Did you end up buying those forged wheels?

Don't do springs, especially on an old car. I made this mistake 15 years ago. You need height adjustability because an older car's suspension geometry is never consistent and the manufacturers "drop estimates" can be off by a 1/4" and ruin your whole look. I felt hella slammed at the back and too high at the front, and the left side was always higher than the right side, probably due to overcompensation for driver weight

Unless the gap is really bothering you, stay stock stay happy.

I've had five cars with aftermarket suspension, I can honestly say I was super happy with only one of them and it took a lot of tinkering and swapping parts to get right. Even then you'd expect a shorter lifespan with aftermarket bits as the whole suspension works together and when you upgrade one piece you expose the next weakest link.

If you REALLY want to do something, look into ST suspension or KW V1. Whether if a suspension is acceptable depends on your level of what's acceptable for daily. I dailied a gutted, race bucket CRX for a year and it was great. I drive a M3 occasionally on the weekend right now with Bilstein coils that I find too stiff because I am an old man, also I am disappointed at the spring rate and damper pairing they have chosen. The in between was the best setup I've had, a Mazdaspeed3 with anti-lift, Swift springs paired with Bilstein B8 and a HUGE RSB. It ate a set of RSB brackets and endlinks every 18 months or so but it handled so well.

I suspect Razor Ramon HG just pressed "BUY NOW" on a car parts site just right now for some springs or coilovers. :lol

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'll hold off on lowering it for now.

Yeah, the ZE40s are amazing quality. Costed me a bit under $2300 for the full set after duties. Amazing how much cheaper they are through Mazda Motorsports.

However, I haven't mounted them. After I brought them home, I realized that I wanted something else. I think if I don't end up selling them, I'll have to look at getting a NC Miata in the future just for these wheels. :lol

Nah, that's how I got stuck with a set of extra wheels a month ago. YOLO'd too hard.

Kappa

ST XTA is the way to go, otherwise no camber plates. That said I had a set of ST XTA on the E46 M3 and I didn't like it very much. I also had a set of racelands on the E36 M3 and those were shockingly comfortable. The car was dumped tho. I also had a Bilstein B8+ paired with H&R Race Springs, which honestly felt pretty dialed in without feeling jarring.

Best suspensison? My OEM suspension on the CTR. But it's a CTR so...

I haven't had a best OEM suspension moment. The F80 M3 floated stock, it needed another 100lbs of spring rate minimum cause the fronts were just 198lbs.

The Bilstein coils are 525lbs front which really are 100lbs too much and somehow Bilstein got it sooooooo wrong on the pairing. The springs are also not of a great quality.

ST/KW aren't the end all be all setup but they are a good starting point. Just because one brand works well on one model doesn't mean it will on others. A friend had KW Clubsports on his GTI and he said it was not a great setup.

I may end up changing my springs on my Bils, or get something else in the future. It's great when I'm on my own but once I start driving people it's a little embarrassingly bumpy.

Very true on the one model and not the other. My friend's CTR feels absolutely phenomenal on KW CS. But his 964 feels awful LOL.

I was going to suggest a really streetable OEM quality set of coilovers like the Bilstein PSS/9 - because they would've tuned the springs, dampers, and vehicle mass together as a system. But for some reason they don't seem to make them for the later model year Mazda 3. Weird.

I did hear good things about cocksport parts, and 1.0/1.5 isn't aggressive. Those photos look great without any wheel gaps, definitely worth a try. If the oem shocks leak, then it depends on your budge (cheap go with KYB or great with bilstein).

Do you need to cover the car in a garage?

I cover the Boxster when it's not driven regularly. Left uncovered, it gets really dusty/dirty and it accumulates over time.