Customer Reviews
Safe to say that this IS the way! I read many reviews but the suspension really does feel and drive better than the OE bilsteins. I'll need an alignment but the few miles I drove through the canyon felt awesome! If you're on the fence about this setup this is your sign to do it! It dropped about 1" overall and looks as good as it feels.
Thank you to the FM for answering my tech questions pre/ post purchase.
Thank you!
This shock & spring set is a wonderful upgrade at a fair price. I did the FM sway bars and front reinforcements first, which did a lot to tame body roll. The Koni shocks and FM springs were much easier to install than the front sway bar. Body roll did not diminish much more, since the fat FM sway bars do their job very well. With sways already installed these shocks provide an incremental improvement in body roll with the lowered center of gravity and stiffer springs.. The improvement in damping and cornering grip however, are well worth the price.
Ride after hitting a bump while cornering is vastly improved over stock shocks. The car remains settled and just keeps generating lateral g. Turn in is quicker, and total grip seems improved once you add some negative camber per the FM recommended specs.
I routinely exceed 1 g cornering at track days on sticky 195 width Toyo 888’s that came with the car. The lowered stance allowing more negative camber no doubt contributes to getting lots of grip out of skinny tires.
On the street with the shocks adjusted toward soft, the car is a delight on winding back roads when driven at a responsible pace. But rough, potholed interstates are where the stiffer springs make themselves known. On really bad surfaces, the ride is just a bit harsher than stock, even with the shocks dialed full soft. The upside is how quickly the car recovers from going over bumps in the road. Much better than stock.
You trade SLIGHTLY increased harshness driving on poorly maintained roads for vastly improved control and damping in all situations. Being able to turn up the damping for track days and easily dial it back for daily driving is icing on the cake.
I am glad I installed them.
FYI, an inexpensive bicycle spoke wrench works very well as a damping adjustment tool and is easier to carry in the console than the larger Koni adjustment knobs. Which are expensive to replace if you lose one. .
Installed this kit on a 2020 Miata with the 17x9 flow formed wheels from flying Miata. The kit with the sway bars was sold out so I opted to order this kit and do the sway bars later. This lowered the car perfectly and the body roll is now at an acceptable level. Love the way it looks and drives now. Awesome!! The figment with 235/40 17 tires is perfect. Don’t hesitate, order today. You will be pleased.
I just added the KONI shocks & FM springs to sway bars purchased earlier. A worthwhile improvement.
The sway bars did a lot to flatten cornering alone. The KONI kit improved handling even more.
An easier install than the sway bars, particularly the front. The only hard part is torquing all the bushings with weight on the wheels. Beware the internet advice to jack one wheel at a time while simulating wheels on ground. You are begging to have the car fall off jackstands that way. I rolled the car up on ramps and then put the opposite end on jack stands for safety. I have ordered a Quick Jack on sale to eliminate using jack stands entirely..
Car used to have a reverse rake, 14.5” ride height front and 14.25 rear. Nose high. Now it sits 13.5” front and 13.75 rear. Perfect. While I was loosening bushings while still on jackstands, I bumped front camber to max leaving caster at 7 from a dealer alignment.
First impressions at 3/4 turns from full soft one each shock:: springs firmer but ride still compliant. Not punishing at all. Tendency to “hobby horse” is gone. Rebound damping is superbly matched to the springs. Reaction to bumps is “one and done” now. Turn in is improved with toe in unchanged. With increased front camber, the car has more lateral grip. After a quick turn in the car just sticks better on the same tires. Higher turn exit speeds are comfortable. A proper alignment should improve handling even more. Less nose drop when braking, and even flatter cornering the with just the FM sway bars. The car is a lot more fun to drive now. My ND1 GT is now a very proper sports car.. A much more nimble dance partner on mountain roads.
This was my first time messing with shocks/springs and I ended up getting them installed wrong the first time. Note to others: One of the washers you reassemble the new shocks with has to be drilled out to 12mm. I drilled it out until it slid onto the shaft of the shock and this ended up being too much. Thankfully I had some extra washers and after contacting FM I was able to figure out what I did wrong.
After installing and getting an alignment job done I took the car for a drive through about 200mi of curvy back roads. I installed the Karcepts front sway bar at the same time as these springs and shocks and honestly it feels pretty dialed in. Ride height went from 14.25" stock to 13.25" and the tires look much better tucked in without the huge gap they had with the stock springs, and there appears to be plenty of travel to work with for the suspension to do its job. Steering is amazingly direct, turn-in is immediate, and there is near zero body roll even taking corners near the limit of the tires. At the recommended settings the dampeners feel slightly firmer than the stock bilsteins but handle rough roads much better, especially washboard situations. Gone is the porpoising. I'd definitely classify myself as a novice driver, so I'm sure if I was a hardcore autocross guy I could find myself wanting something more, but I can't imagine what that would be at this time. The car performs, feels and handles like a true sports car now.