Mazda2 Thread

The 2's suspension is also much more aggressively tuned. As mentioned above, our stock suspension seems to be the same as the Ford Racing "Sport" suspension that Fiesta owners can order and install on their cars.

The 2 also has a much better steering rack (which is sort of a Mazda trademark) and a nicer manual transmission. Totally subjective, but I also think it's a nicer-looking car inside and out.

The cars share a platform and some suspension components but not too much more. They're actually less similar than the Mazda3 and Focus are to one another.

This is a great thread, I have been looking into the car for sometime and after reading the spec b article in Car and Driver i got really fired up. As for now i am wanting to get into autoX and this car looks like a lot of fun. Hopefully there will be one in the driveway by the end of the week.

At this rate GRM is gonna have to add a Mazda2 subforum, haha.

Just bought some lightly used Racing Beat springs from a guy who decided he'd rather have a Miata than a Mazda2. Wasn't planning on them being my first mod, but I knew the RBs were what I wanted and they were a good deal, so I'll probably have them and install them next week. Can't wait to see how the car is with a slightly more aggressive spring rate.

I'll have to get cracking on some better rubber to go with them now. Everybody seems to like the Star Specs so that's probably what I'd go with, but I'll have to use whatever I get as my daily driver rubber in addition to track, until I can get new wheels later this year. Are the Star Specs decently usable as daily driver rubber in a place that never gets anything worse than rain, or are they too track oriented? Googling makes it sound like people are getting some pretty impressive mileage out of them with daily use and occasional track/autox. Or is there any similarly sized and priced rubber that people would recommend for this application? I'm not trying to win STF or anything, just want a car that's grippy enough to be worth taking to the track or autoX, but still usable as a daily.

I drive my kids around on them every day. Six hundred miles and one autocross and they're still brand new. I don't expect that I'll get 50k miles out of them, but I'm thinking that 15k should be just fine. Been in the rain a few times and never noticed anything bad. I love them. If you decide to toss those stock springs, let me know, I'd like to try some experiments and a spare set would very convenient.

I'm probably keeping them so I can put the car back to stock, but I'll tell you if I change my mind.

I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do with my stock tires. Nowhere to really keep them, but they're too new to just throw away. Same will go for the wheels when I replace them later this year. Maybe I'll have to put them on my patio and chain them to the support beam or something.

I can't wait to get some nice wheels on this car. I'm in love with the 6uls but I'll probably go with the TRMotorsports, since they'll be $160 cheaper and they're not impossible to get. I wish I could find some used 6ULs in the right size and offset but nobody wants to let theirs go.

Has anybody messed with wheel fitment much?

Nobody seems to be sure how the 15x7 +30 TRMotorsport C1Ms would fit. Some people are saying it'd be perfect, which is supported by how well the +25 Koseis fit, but others are totally flush with 15x6.5 +35s, which would seem to be a bad sign.

I'm going nuts trying to decide what to buy. Not only would I like the better fitment that the lower offset would provide, I would much rather have the bright silver paint, and the normal +48 C1s that Tire Rack recommends for the car only come in grey.

I guess I also have to figure out if, where, and for how much to sell my OEM wheels. If I can get a decent price for them I'll just buy a set of used 6ULs I'm looking at and forget about the whole C1 thing.

Max, where are you? It is unlikely that we are near one another but I would be interested in some stock alloys since I have a sport with steel wheels

In reply to singleslammer:

Northern California unfortunately.

Yep, thought you were out west. Living in MO means you aren't near ANYONE... oh well.

Max, I might be asking you for some measurements and such when you get those RB springs in. Stuff like number of free coils and the like. I have some ideas.
Other stuff, I took the rear shocks apart this weekend for some experiments. They're pretty simple little shocks. After I took the first one apart, the second one went very fast. I took it off, disassembled it, mucked with the bump stops and put it back together in less than 10 minutes. Easy peasy. I took a few pictures of the top mount which is a pretty neat piece. It's cast aluminum and has a groovy little rubber thing in it to allow the shock to flex. Also presumably to reduce harshness of small hits. The cup itself doesn't support the shock at all, it just supports the rubber thing and the cup holds the bump stop in place. I like the fact that you can remove the shock from the outside of the car and don't have to take apart the interior to get to the top nut. I'm sure it's just an assembly thing for Mazda, but it makes my life simpler too.

Max_Archer wrote: Has anybody messed with wheel fitment much? Nobody seems to be sure how the 15x7 +30 TRMotorsport C1Ms would fit. Some people are saying it'd be perfect, which is supported by how well the +25 Koseis fit, but others are totally flush with 15x6.5 +35s, which would seem to be a bad sign. I'm going nuts trying to decide what to buy. Not only would I like the better fitment that the lower offset would provide, I would much rather have the bright silver paint, and the normal +48 C1s that Tire Rack recommends for the car only come in grey. I guess I also have to figure out if, where, and for how much to sell my OEM wheels. If I can get a decent price for them I'll just buy a set of used 6ULs I'm looking at and forget about the whole C1 thing.

I'm in Nor Cal also. I have the 15x7 +25 offset wheels (Dforce and Team Dynamic) from my Spec Miata if you want to try fitting them to see what fitment is like. No, I'm not selling them.

Getting input on fitment is hit or miss (mostly miss) from forums since you have the Hella Flush peeps and other guys who consider rubbing tires on body work normal.

mazdeuce wrote: Max, I might be asking you for some measurements and such when you get those RB springs in. Stuff like number of free coils and the like. I have some ideas. Other stuff, I took the rear shocks apart this weekend for some experiments. They're pretty simple little shocks. After I took the first one apart, the second one went very fast. I took it off, disassembled it, mucked with the bump stops and put it back together in less than 10 minutes. Easy peasy. I took a few pictures of the top mount which is a pretty neat piece. It's cast aluminum and has a groovy little rubber thing in it to allow the shock to flex. Also presumably to reduce harshness of small hits. The cup itself doesn't support the shock at all, it just supports the rubber thing and the cup holds the bump stop in place. I like the fact that you can remove the shock from the outside of the car and don't have to take apart the interior to get to the top nut. I'm sure it's just an assembly thing for Mazda, but it makes my life simpler too.

I'll probably do them on Sunday, no problem getting measurements and stuff.

In reply to amg_rx7:

Thanks, I might get in touch about that.

I did find somebody running the C1Ms and they look like a pretty good bet. People on H&R springs are having no rubbing trouble with the +25 Koseis, and this guy had no trouble with the C1Ms until he slammed the car, and apparently it's still not too bad. I'm not lowering the car by much so I think it'll be OK.

EvanB wrote:

MEATS!!!

Just needs to go a hair lower, but damn, does that look fantastic.

OK, let's talk about tire sizing.

I'm having a ton of trouble figuring out what to go with. Wheels will almost certainly be 15x7 TRMotorsport C1Ms. Tires will almost certainly be Star Specs. So the size is where the issue is. I know that testing has shown that 195 is the best width for performance on our cars, and it'd mean that I wouldn't have to worry as much about fender clearance as with 205/50/15s. The issue is that 195/55 is like a 1.7% larger diameter, and 195/50 is like 1.5% smaller. I'm worried that this might be enough to create a difference in acceleration or fuel economy, whichever way I go. 205/20s would be almost exactly the same outside diameter, but will add weight, might add cost, and might be a fender clearance problem.

Mazdeuce, how are those 195/50s doing as daily driver tires? Has there been any hit to your mileage from the extra rotations? Is the diameter difference even tangible vs the stock tires? Do you think it might be worth considering 195/55s instead, since the car is 90% a commuter, and the 195/55s are on closeout on TR for $99 a pop?

Oh, I've got the springs and will be putting them in on Sunday, by the way. Need anything measured before they go on the car?

In other news, I finally found a shift knob I like. It's from Garage Star, who's local to me and who specializes in Miata and AE86 stuff.

P1010025.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr

P1010009.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr

What's cool is that it's got a really nice spun metal finish, but is so finely machined that it feels like polished chrome in the hand. What I'm thinking would be really awesome is to get one of the 2.75" extensions he sells, and then a short shifter (when they come out) to make up for the extra throw length.

The guy who runs Garage Star is open to making some Mazda2 stuff if anybody can think of anything useful. He mostly does stuff that's cut and bent out of sheet metal, so various kinds of brackets and stuff. If anybody has any ideas for stuff he could make, I'll pass them on.

The 195 50's have been a great tire. Did mileage go down? It might have, I just don't have an extensive enough record to be sure. I got 35 mpg on my last tank taking it pretty easy, but probably still driving quicker than I would with my mother in law in the car. If it's reduced mileage, it's not by a lot. Having said that, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the 55's if they're cheaper and you're not worried about autocross times. I don't think you'll notice any difference from the drivers seat and, well, cheaper. If you could measure free length of the springs and take a picture (for coil counting) before putting them on, with them on the struts, and with them at ride height it would be cool. I can't guarantee that the information will be useful, but if for some reason it is, it will be nice to have it archived in this thread. I'm going to do the same with the stock springs when I muck about with bump stops in a few weeks. I really want to take apart the plastics around the shifter and see if it would be possible to cut and weld and move the whole thing up 4 inches or so. I really love the shifter feel, but having it higher would be spectacular. I can't think of anything to cut and bend out of sheet metal with the exception of some sort of block off/cold air feed for the Corksport air filter kit. I want one, but I really dislike that it's sitting right in the flow of hot air from the radiator. It needs to have that blocked off and have something scooping air from right down by the air dam and funneling it up.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Cool, I think I'll go with the 55s then. It'd be nice to be competitive at AutoX but I'm not going to have the rest of the mods necessary to be a front-runner in STF so I'm just gonna have fun. I figure that considering they're Star Specs my sidewalls should still be plenty stiff for occasional performance driving.

I thought about an airbox for the Corksport SRI as well, but Corksport is working on one of their own.

Here's a pic of the springs, I'll get back with measurements of them.

P1010033.jpg by maximstensel, on Flickr

Took delivery of a '12 black sport manual today. First AutoX will be Sunday.

pa11cub wrote: Took delivery of a '12 black sport manual today. First AutoX will be Sunday.

Nice, I think that makes six Mazda2s on GRM, counting the one the magazine has. (Which I think is actually one of the writers' personal car.)

In reply to Mazdeuce

OK, measurements.

I don't have a great way to measure these so I'm getting as close as I can.

Overall length uncompressed of the RB Springs seems to be about 12.5", front and rear.

The front spring has evenly spaced coils, around 2.5" apart.

The rear spring has coils about 1-7/8" spaced for the first 8" or so, and then spacing of about 7/8" for the last 2.5" or so.

(This is assuming the narrow springs are the rear ones which seems right from the suspension walkaround.)

I think we'll find that the stock front springs are longer than the stock rears, which would explain why these equal-length springs are 1/4" lower up front than in the rear.

On the RB site they have a video of the rear springs and you can see that most of those closer spaced coils are actually collapsed when on the car. They act more as a tender spring. Seems like an intelligent design.
Thanks for the pictures and measurements, it's much better than the typical Internet "I installed springs and now I can take the exit ramp at 58 instead of 52" review.

No problem, I agree about subjective reviews from random people being pretty much useless most of the time. I'm hoping that I'll actually be able to relate some useful stuff about the springs once I get them on, since I've got both tuning and racing experience to draw on and some level of experience with writing about cars.

What I find really interesting about these springs, and a lot of why I got them, is that Racing Beat went with exactly what I felt like the car needed. The first thing I said to my friend after driving his 2 in the canyons was "with 20% stiffer springs and between half an inch and an inch of drop, this thing would be amazing", and that's basically exactly what Racing Beat seems to have thought as well.

The RBs probably won't turn the most amazing lap times of any setup out there, but I'm thinking that they'll do well to sharpen the already-impressive dynamics in a way similar to what you'd get on a factory performance model.

So...

Drove a deuce today. Liked everything but the Autotragic.

Gonna drive a manual car on Monday. Dealer knocked off 2% from the MSRP with no struggle. Anybody got any idea what they will do just before I walk out the door?

TIA,

Rog

Max_Archer wrote: In other news, I finally found a shift knob I like. It's from Garage Star, who's local to me and who specializes in Miata and AE86 stuff. What's cool is that it's got a really nice spun metal finish, but is so finely machined that it feels like polished chrome in the hand. What I'm thinking would be really awesome is to get one of the 2.75" extensions he sells, and then a short shifter (when they come out) to make up for the extra throw length. The guy who runs Garage Star is open to making some Mazda2 stuff if anybody can think of anything useful. He mostly does stuff that's cut and bent out of sheet metal, so various kinds of brackets and stuff. If anybody has any ideas for stuff he could make, I'll pass them on.

Ken is a great guy that makes a GREAT product. I have a few of his parts for the Miata, and his shipping has always been insanely fast. I've used that knob, it's a nice piece of work.

I'll chime in here.

Just purchased a green 5-speed sport model. Will post pics soon. Love how this little thing drives! The green color is pretty cool and gets alot of attention. Also, 37 mpg is not bad.

ptmeyer84 wrote: I'll chime in here. Just purchased a green 5-speed sport model. Will post pics soon. Love how this little thing drives! The green color is pretty cool and gets alot of attention. Also, 37 mpg is not bad.

Not a fan of green but I like this car in green. The jccs show had a green one with white wheels. I thought it was sharp looking.