Customer Reviews
I've been upgrading my NA Miata exclusively with Flyin' Miata (FM) components since 2001, starting with the FM II Turbo Kit. Over the years, I've made more than 30 major upgrades to my car using FM products. After the FM II Turbo Kit, this latest upgrade is, without a doubt, the most transformative. In my 20+ years of ownership, my Miata now feels like a different / brand-new car. If you're considering this upgrade, don't hesitate—it's worth every penny. I only wish I had done it sooner.
I installed this in my 1996 miata and it made the car feel so much more rigid. Installation was simple and straight forward. As long as you follow the directions on the frame rail installation the butterfly braces fit spot on. It was an easy install for me, took about an hour and a half, with a good chunk of that time markings and drilling holes. I recommend getting a good drill bit it makes the job a lot easier. Hardware worked excellent with none breaking or stripping before reaching the recommend torque specs the directions provided.
The kit installed good. To be sure the railes lined up, and the front butterfly brace lined up, we installed it before drilling the holes in the chassis (adjusted the rails during this step). We drilled the holes we could get to (all but one each side), and anchored it snug. Removed the butterfly, and drilled the other two holes, and anchored. The only issue is the intermediate pipe rests firmly on the front section of the front butterfly. It is a 1999 car, and only has 2200 miles on it, it is prestine! I have to figure out a way to get that intermediate pipe up higher...
It's surprising to have exhaust interference on an NB, but you could try stiffer exhaust hangers to keep it from sagging too much. You could also remove the stock heat shielding around the pipe at the interference.
Overall install went fabulous, followed the instructions that came with it to the word and went perfect. I was super super fearful when it comes to DRILLING into the car, as I feel it is something you can't come back from. Well, bit the bullet and did the drilling, and used herculiner truck bed spray coating to spray inside and outside the car around the hole. It was tight to get on, but I was able to use the scissor jack from the car to sort of "press" the brace into place for ease.
The driving effects were immediately noticable! I feels like the car never skipped ab day at the gym, the flex was gone from the center of the car. Going over the drainage curb to get on the driveway you can feel the car almost transfer its weight differently. Much smoother of a drive as well since the chassis is being taken out of the suspension jiggle.
Stock NB2 header and cat, Cobalt midpipe w/cat and a racingbeat muffler -There were no interference issues but I did go with poly exhaust bushings, which gave me a gap of 3/16ths from the brace to the heat shield. I have only heard it clammer once when I very poorly let the clutch out and stalled. Regular driving does not seem to make any noises at all but your results may vary.
Overall, I would 100% recommend this to anyone!
The braces are ok but the nut and bolt hardware was defective. The nuts would not tighten up and the bolts snapped when trying to remove the bolts. by the time the shop doing the install finished, it cost me two additional hours of labor plus the cost of bolts and nuts that worked. That made it way too expensive compared to the competition.. Flyin' Miata should review their suppliers and business processes to get their quality control back. I am relieved that I got my other upgrades from the competition.
We use stainless steel bolts and nuts, which require the use of anti-seize. That requirement, which is specifically outlined in the instructions, was missed here, which resulted in the galled hardware. We tried to reach an ammicable solution but were unable to. David, if there's anything we can do to help please reach back out.