I’ve had several people ask me about this and thought I would just share some thoughts.
I would recommend driving the car bone stock from the factory at least once. Not only does this familiarize yourself with the car, but gives you a baseline of what each modification changes and what you want to change as far as the handling of the car is concerned.
This is how I set up my 2000 and can apply through the 2002 years since they use the same wheel sizes. The 03 and up use the 16x7 rear wheel, and the 04 and up have the lsd option and some additional bracing, so setting those up may have its differences, but the basics are the same.
If I had to place modifications in order this is how I would do it:
1. Crash bolts/alignment
2. Front Swaybar
3. Cat-back exhaust
4. Shocks
Now, you can throw in a panel air filter pretty much anywhere, but I would throw in R-compound tires in after the front swaybar.
2-Dot front factory crash bolts. The bolts will have 2 dots on the head of the bolt (whereas the stock ones have not dots on them)
(4) Bolt – pn:90105-14147
(4) Washer – pn:90201-14005
(4) Nuts – pn:90179-15006
You will use 2 on each side, one lower and one upper. The bolts have a smaller shaft diameter allowing the hub to have an increased angle in relation to the strut. Max them out when installing by pulling the lower part of the bracket towards you and the upper towards the inside of the car, giving you max camber (around -2.5°).
The rears you cannot replace (legally), but there is some slop in there, max those out the same way.
Time for an alignment. Here is where personal preference/set up begins. I personally run zero total toe in the front and zero total toe in the rear. I have not found any ill effects on tire wear, but if you are concerned, add a little total toe-in (1/16”) in the front/rear to account for the drag.
More total toe-out in the front will give you a crisper turn-in, and I wouldn’t go more than 1/8” total toe-out. Much more and you get into weird wear patterns and instability. More total toe-out in the rear will make the car rotate more. More total toe-in for the rear makes it more stable. The stock suspension, under compression (acceleration) the rear will toe-in some, so that is why you find people running zero total toe to even some total toe-out to compensate. Again, tweak to your driving style. The added front negative camber will dramatically increase the front grip, so be careful on the street. I would highly recommend staggering your tire width front to rear to help keep from swapping ends. R-compounds are a lot stickier so they take a much more aggressive alignment. Just because the car handles a certain way with the same size R-compounds front and rear doesn’t mean you get the same characteristics from street tires. Be careful.
Front sway bar. The popular choice is the Saner Performance front bar. There are 2 flavors, 1” and 1-1/8” thick, both are 3-way adjustable. The holes towards the front of the car (end of the swaybar arm) are the softer settings, the holes closer to the rear of the car (closer to the main bar) are the stiffest. I use the 1-1/8” bar in the middle setting. The front swaybar will help to aid in turn-in, controlling body roll and camber loss in MacStrut suspensions, and increase more front stiffness to inhibit some of the inside wheelspin you will encounter on sweepers/corner exit. Swaybars act by reducing grip, so going too stiff may result in understeer or the front of the car “skating”. You cannot change/modify the rear swaybar. You can also make a Schoeder (NASCAR) style 3-piece bar as well. Endlinks are open, and swaybar bushings are open as well. Be aware that weld reinforcing of the swaybar bracket is recommended (and legal) as the larger swaybars have been known to tear these brackets away from the frame. Also, when installing your Saner swaybar, be sure to install it with the holes closest to the top so that the bar doesn’t get in the way of the strut and potentially the compression adjustment knob (if you have double adjustable) for your shocks (see below).
Cat-back exhaust. The stock unit is very heavy and very restrictive. You have to make sure you find one that exits the same side as stock (left/driver) side. You cannot cut the underbody plastics to allow another exhaust to work, like the Team Moon. I personally made mine from a DynoMax muffler and cannibalized the stock pipe that goes from the catalytic converter and the exhaust tip, so it looks stock. Che and TRD work as well.
Benefits of the cat-back. Not only reducing a lot of weight behind the wheels, you free up some horsepower up top, and throttle response is improved dramatically. Also, it allows you to be able to hear the motor better for shifting, and where you may be in the powerband.
Go ahead and get a drop-in replacement panel air filter (K&N, etc). I tried a Green Air Filter, and like them a lot, but they do not fit properly in the stock air box. No CAI, or modifying the stock air box/piping allowed. Don’t forget to clean your MAF sensor (see spring cleaning).
Shocks. Koni Sport shocks are the popular choice.
(2) Front – pn: 8641-1420 SPORT
(2) Rear – pn: 8641-1422 SPORT
The Koni Sport off the shelf (OTS) shocks are an insert that you have to modify the stock struts to insert them. They are rebound adjustable only. You can send them back to Koni for a re-valve and/or to make them double-adjustable (rebound and compression). The rebound adjustment is at the top of the unit accessed from the frunk and the compression will be adjustable from below the strut.
What do shocks/struts do for our stock class cars?
They will make the car react quicker to your inputs. The beauty of them is, that they allow you a way to adjust the setup for the car depending on the characteristics the car is exhibiting that day. I say that because the Spyder does have a moving "window" of ideal setup per event, usually. I have talked to several past and present Spyder pilots and shock settings vary greatly. Some run full stiff all around, stiff front/soft rear, soft front/stiff rear, middle all around. It really is going to depend on the rest of your setup and driving style. I don't mess with tire pressures at an event, I find their best operating temp with a pyrometer and let them be, I use the shocks to change the balance of the car.
I pretty much leave the fronts at 1/8 turn off full stiff, and adjust the rears as needed, starting them at about 1/4 turn off full soft. More rear shock will get the car to rotate (oversteer) more in both entry and corner exit. I have found that as the rear tire temps go up and they grip better I have to increase the rear shock to get the car to rotate and "dance" better. I haven't found the fronts to "wash-out" with understeer with the front shock settings where I have them, but if that changes I can make the adjustments between runs.
“rocwandrer” posted a very good write-up (with info that he got from “Zauskycop”) on adjusting your shocks so I will link it here.<edit: posted inline below>
Wheels/tires. You must use the same diameter and same width as stock. You may go ¼”/6mm difference in offset from stock. Many aftermarket wheels will come in a 40mm offset and those are legal.
00-02
Front – 15x6, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
Rear – 15x6.5, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
03-05
Front – 15x6, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
Rear – 16x7, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
The 99 Miata Sport wheels (5-spoke) are a popular choice for the fronts as they are 15x6 with a 40mm offset and the same hub bore (no hub ring required) and are fairly light. There are a few high dollar front sized wheels out there that are available from Volk and others, but many are too low an offset so you would have to machine them to the correct offset to be legal.
For the rears (00-02), Rota Slipstreams fit (barely) and come in the correct offset and are light. Konig Heliums are available as well and are just as light. Both require hub rings as they are not hub centric. You will also have to get new lug nuts for any of these wheels (Miata included) as the stock lug nuts do not work (unless you get the wheels machined). I know that Rota makes some 16x7 wheels, but I do not know much about other available wheels in that size/offset.
Tires. 225-50/45-15 will fit on the wheels/car with no problem, you just have to find a competent tire-mounter willing to do it. I think that the Hoosier A6 225-45-15 tires are really close/rub the springs in the front with the camber maxed out, so you may have to adjust your crash bolts for them to not rub. Hankook Z-214 225-45-15 fit in the front with a few mm to spare, YMMV.
At the event. Remove your spare, floor mats and any loose items in the car. Be sure your numbers and class letters are the appropriate size and stroke width. 8” high, 1.25” stroke width for numbers; 4” high, .75” stroke width for letters (these are minimums). Make sure they are a high contrast color to your car and nothing really fancy, course workers and T&S will greatly appreciate it. Take out your emergency kit (jack/tools) as well.
Run with as little gas as your car will let you. Some cars can run with the fuel light on, others need a half-tank so they don’t fuel starve in corners. You’ll just have to see how your car is.
I move the rear-view mirror up and out of the way during runs so I am not tempted to look to see if I hit a cone. You can also rotate your side mirrors out as well, not only for the same reason, but some people have said that the sun has hit them just right and had a shot of the sun before, again YMMV, and it’s personal preference.
Move the seat forward and upright so that you can control the pedals and that your wrists rest comfortably on the steering wheel with your arms straight out, this is just a reference. If you find yourself sliding around in the seat too much you can twist the seatbelt a few times before latching it and move the seat forward, this will keep it from loosening. You can also use a CG-Lock which is very effective. I use a lap-harness that mounts to the stock anchor points and not the stock belt. They tuck away for commuting.
Keep your hands at 9 and 3 as much as possible. Do not grip the wheel so that your knuckles turn white. Use your palms to push the wheel up while cornering, don’t pull the wheel down, you get less control and feedback, and if you need to make an adjustment it isn’t as precise. Keep your finger tips light on the back of the steering wheel, they are very sensitive and will give you a lot of information about what the car is doing. Granted, there will be times that you need to “shuffle-steer”, and that’s fine, but try to get your hands back quickly.
See the sticky at the top of the forum for "Andy's Top Ten Tips".
Being smooth in your steering inputs is very important. This does not mean you can’t be fast AND smooth. Do not over brake. The Spyder has awesome brakes and a low polar moment of inertia. You can change out pads if you like, but I have had success with the stock pads. In the dry, treat the ABS like a lockup and back off if they engage, learn to threshold brake. You may get to experience “Ice-mode” where if a tire is off the ground (from a bump for example) while the ABS is engaged, they will release all brake pressure, fun. Use it in the wet, it’s faster.
Often, you will find that a well placed throttle lift instead of braking will be faster. The Spyder can generate a lot of lateral grip, trust it, it will stick. It takes some getting used to, but can pay big dividends in times.
If you drive the Spyder right, you should come back from your runs with your hands shaking. It takes a lot more attention to drive it 10/10ths than many other stock class cars, so you have to really be on your toes, but is one of the most rewarding cars I’ve driven in stock class.
I would recommend driving the car bone stock from the factory at least once. Not only does this familiarize yourself with the car, but gives you a baseline of what each modification changes and what you want to change as far as the handling of the car is concerned.
This is how I set up my 2000 and can apply through the 2002 years since they use the same wheel sizes. The 03 and up use the 16x7 rear wheel, and the 04 and up have the lsd option and some additional bracing, so setting those up may have its differences, but the basics are the same.
If I had to place modifications in order this is how I would do it:
1. Crash bolts/alignment
2. Front Swaybar
3. Cat-back exhaust
4. Shocks
Now, you can throw in a panel air filter pretty much anywhere, but I would throw in R-compound tires in after the front swaybar.
2-Dot front factory crash bolts. The bolts will have 2 dots on the head of the bolt (whereas the stock ones have not dots on them)
(4) Bolt – pn:90105-14147
(4) Washer – pn:90201-14005
(4) Nuts – pn:90179-15006
You will use 2 on each side, one lower and one upper. The bolts have a smaller shaft diameter allowing the hub to have an increased angle in relation to the strut. Max them out when installing by pulling the lower part of the bracket towards you and the upper towards the inside of the car, giving you max camber (around -2.5°).
The rears you cannot replace (legally), but there is some slop in there, max those out the same way.
Time for an alignment. Here is where personal preference/set up begins. I personally run zero total toe in the front and zero total toe in the rear. I have not found any ill effects on tire wear, but if you are concerned, add a little total toe-in (1/16”) in the front/rear to account for the drag.
More total toe-out in the front will give you a crisper turn-in, and I wouldn’t go more than 1/8” total toe-out. Much more and you get into weird wear patterns and instability. More total toe-out in the rear will make the car rotate more. More total toe-in for the rear makes it more stable. The stock suspension, under compression (acceleration) the rear will toe-in some, so that is why you find people running zero total toe to even some total toe-out to compensate. Again, tweak to your driving style. The added front negative camber will dramatically increase the front grip, so be careful on the street. I would highly recommend staggering your tire width front to rear to help keep from swapping ends. R-compounds are a lot stickier so they take a much more aggressive alignment. Just because the car handles a certain way with the same size R-compounds front and rear doesn’t mean you get the same characteristics from street tires. Be careful.
Front sway bar. The popular choice is the Saner Performance front bar. There are 2 flavors, 1” and 1-1/8” thick, both are 3-way adjustable. The holes towards the front of the car (end of the swaybar arm) are the softer settings, the holes closer to the rear of the car (closer to the main bar) are the stiffest. I use the 1-1/8” bar in the middle setting. The front swaybar will help to aid in turn-in, controlling body roll and camber loss in MacStrut suspensions, and increase more front stiffness to inhibit some of the inside wheelspin you will encounter on sweepers/corner exit. Swaybars act by reducing grip, so going too stiff may result in understeer or the front of the car “skating”. You cannot change/modify the rear swaybar. You can also make a Schoeder (NASCAR) style 3-piece bar as well. Endlinks are open, and swaybar bushings are open as well. Be aware that weld reinforcing of the swaybar bracket is recommended (and legal) as the larger swaybars have been known to tear these brackets away from the frame. Also, when installing your Saner swaybar, be sure to install it with the holes closest to the top so that the bar doesn’t get in the way of the strut and potentially the compression adjustment knob (if you have double adjustable) for your shocks (see below).
Cat-back exhaust. The stock unit is very heavy and very restrictive. You have to make sure you find one that exits the same side as stock (left/driver) side. You cannot cut the underbody plastics to allow another exhaust to work, like the Team Moon. I personally made mine from a DynoMax muffler and cannibalized the stock pipe that goes from the catalytic converter and the exhaust tip, so it looks stock. Che and TRD work as well.
Benefits of the cat-back. Not only reducing a lot of weight behind the wheels, you free up some horsepower up top, and throttle response is improved dramatically. Also, it allows you to be able to hear the motor better for shifting, and where you may be in the powerband.
Go ahead and get a drop-in replacement panel air filter (K&N, etc). I tried a Green Air Filter, and like them a lot, but they do not fit properly in the stock air box. No CAI, or modifying the stock air box/piping allowed. Don’t forget to clean your MAF sensor (see spring cleaning).
Shocks. Koni Sport shocks are the popular choice.
(2) Front – pn: 8641-1420 SPORT
(2) Rear – pn: 8641-1422 SPORT
The Koni Sport off the shelf (OTS) shocks are an insert that you have to modify the stock struts to insert them. They are rebound adjustable only. You can send them back to Koni for a re-valve and/or to make them double-adjustable (rebound and compression). The rebound adjustment is at the top of the unit accessed from the frunk and the compression will be adjustable from below the strut.
What do shocks/struts do for our stock class cars?
They will make the car react quicker to your inputs. The beauty of them is, that they allow you a way to adjust the setup for the car depending on the characteristics the car is exhibiting that day. I say that because the Spyder does have a moving "window" of ideal setup per event, usually. I have talked to several past and present Spyder pilots and shock settings vary greatly. Some run full stiff all around, stiff front/soft rear, soft front/stiff rear, middle all around. It really is going to depend on the rest of your setup and driving style. I don't mess with tire pressures at an event, I find their best operating temp with a pyrometer and let them be, I use the shocks to change the balance of the car.
I pretty much leave the fronts at 1/8 turn off full stiff, and adjust the rears as needed, starting them at about 1/4 turn off full soft. More rear shock will get the car to rotate (oversteer) more in both entry and corner exit. I have found that as the rear tire temps go up and they grip better I have to increase the rear shock to get the car to rotate and "dance" better. I haven't found the fronts to "wash-out" with understeer with the front shock settings where I have them, but if that changes I can make the adjustments between runs.
“rocwandrer” posted a very good write-up (with info that he got from “Zauskycop”) on adjusting your shocks so I will link it here.<edit: posted inline below>
Wheels/tires. You must use the same diameter and same width as stock. You may go ¼”/6mm difference in offset from stock. Many aftermarket wheels will come in a 40mm offset and those are legal.
00-02
Front – 15x6, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
Rear – 15x6.5, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
03-05
Front – 15x6, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
Rear – 16x7, 45mm offset (you can go to a 39mm legally)
The 99 Miata Sport wheels (5-spoke) are a popular choice for the fronts as they are 15x6 with a 40mm offset and the same hub bore (no hub ring required) and are fairly light. There are a few high dollar front sized wheels out there that are available from Volk and others, but many are too low an offset so you would have to machine them to the correct offset to be legal.
For the rears (00-02), Rota Slipstreams fit (barely) and come in the correct offset and are light. Konig Heliums are available as well and are just as light. Both require hub rings as they are not hub centric. You will also have to get new lug nuts for any of these wheels (Miata included) as the stock lug nuts do not work (unless you get the wheels machined). I know that Rota makes some 16x7 wheels, but I do not know much about other available wheels in that size/offset.
Tires. 225-50/45-15 will fit on the wheels/car with no problem, you just have to find a competent tire-mounter willing to do it. I think that the Hoosier A6 225-45-15 tires are really close/rub the springs in the front with the camber maxed out, so you may have to adjust your crash bolts for them to not rub. Hankook Z-214 225-45-15 fit in the front with a few mm to spare, YMMV.
At the event. Remove your spare, floor mats and any loose items in the car. Be sure your numbers and class letters are the appropriate size and stroke width. 8” high, 1.25” stroke width for numbers; 4” high, .75” stroke width for letters (these are minimums). Make sure they are a high contrast color to your car and nothing really fancy, course workers and T&S will greatly appreciate it. Take out your emergency kit (jack/tools) as well.
Run with as little gas as your car will let you. Some cars can run with the fuel light on, others need a half-tank so they don’t fuel starve in corners. You’ll just have to see how your car is.
I move the rear-view mirror up and out of the way during runs so I am not tempted to look to see if I hit a cone. You can also rotate your side mirrors out as well, not only for the same reason, but some people have said that the sun has hit them just right and had a shot of the sun before, again YMMV, and it’s personal preference.
Move the seat forward and upright so that you can control the pedals and that your wrists rest comfortably on the steering wheel with your arms straight out, this is just a reference. If you find yourself sliding around in the seat too much you can twist the seatbelt a few times before latching it and move the seat forward, this will keep it from loosening. You can also use a CG-Lock which is very effective. I use a lap-harness that mounts to the stock anchor points and not the stock belt. They tuck away for commuting.
Keep your hands at 9 and 3 as much as possible. Do not grip the wheel so that your knuckles turn white. Use your palms to push the wheel up while cornering, don’t pull the wheel down, you get less control and feedback, and if you need to make an adjustment it isn’t as precise. Keep your finger tips light on the back of the steering wheel, they are very sensitive and will give you a lot of information about what the car is doing. Granted, there will be times that you need to “shuffle-steer”, and that’s fine, but try to get your hands back quickly.
See the sticky at the top of the forum for "Andy's Top Ten Tips".
Being smooth in your steering inputs is very important. This does not mean you can’t be fast AND smooth. Do not over brake. The Spyder has awesome brakes and a low polar moment of inertia. You can change out pads if you like, but I have had success with the stock pads. In the dry, treat the ABS like a lockup and back off if they engage, learn to threshold brake. You may get to experience “Ice-mode” where if a tire is off the ground (from a bump for example) while the ABS is engaged, they will release all brake pressure, fun. Use it in the wet, it’s faster.
Often, you will find that a well placed throttle lift instead of braking will be faster. The Spyder can generate a lot of lateral grip, trust it, it will stick. It takes some getting used to, but can pay big dividends in times.
If you drive the Spyder right, you should come back from your runs with your hands shaking. It takes a lot more attention to drive it 10/10ths than many other stock class cars, so you have to really be on your toes, but is one of the most rewarding cars I’ve driven in stock class.