parlez-vous francais? Oui, je parle francais. Tres un peu. french fry, spaghetti, french toast

 

Baseballgenius c'etait horrible! Starsky on peut parler mauvais des autres en francais! Premierement Terrets, il est fou quand il coinduit!

 

Hey Starsky...isn't spaghetti Italian?

 

you got me. two out of three ain't bad.

 

when did we start speaking frog on this thread?

 

cough*RIBBIT*cough....since one got stuck in my throat. Honestly, all that french went right over my head.

 

Wow... I've been gone for a while! This week as been hell.

It was definitely good seeing the guys Saturday night. It's never a dull moment when your waittress is a busty diver!

Now... back to Mr.Fisher's question. Yes I drove modena's 8 with the tein basics. I personally wouldn't recommend spending your money on it. All you get is the ride height adjustment and some increased spring rate with that setup. If you're looking for a lowered stance AND increased performance (for the same approx. money) you're better off going with an adjustable shock and a matched set of springs with an increased rate. Combining that with a set of sway bars to suit your style and you've got a great setup for daily driving, adjustable for race day, and a good looking stance to boot.

Now, if you're looking for the ultimate suspension setup your best bet is to go with a more adjustable set of coilovers or a DA (dual adjustable) shock. But this is when you start spending real bucks on suspension and a LOT of time getting it setup correctly.

Hope this helps.

 

What Waterlogged........no french. Baseballgenius fixed his suspenstion by putting a heavy sub in his trunk.

 

I got your french right here... I can't spell it but you know where I'm going w/ it.

 

Like Chico said, just put 500 lbs. worth of audio system in your trunk...that'll do the trick.

 

menage-a-trois my friends, menage-a-trois

 

Alright Bill thanks for the response. I think I'm between a Koni and H-tech combo ($695), and a mazdaspeed shock/ms spring combo ($636). Clearly the konis are adjustable and will have a softer ride. However the ms stuff keeps my suspension warranty, and is a bit more aggressive, which I'm not opposed to. If is did MS I'd probably add the ms sways with time. Opinions?

 

Konis can go from a slightly stiffer-than-stock feel to a bladder-bouncing ride. I've got my rears set to 3/4 full stiff and the fronts at 1/2 for daily driving. When it comes to race day I usually either match the front to the rear or go a little stiffer up front for some understeer while allowing for some throttle steering. I'm sure the Tokico D-specs are the same.

If you're not concerned with adjustment perhaps the mazdaspeed setup might be the way for you to go. But if you commute to work on a daily basis or have a girlfriend that likes to complain I'd highly recommend something that adjusts.

As far as warranty... so far the dealer hasn't said anything about mine. Plus if you install the mazdaspeed parts yourself or have someone other than the dealer do it I doubt they'll cover it. Although... when I took my car in for the recall I had the dealer check out an endlink for me that was loose and was going to have them tighten it for me. Come to find out it was hosed and they replaced it "under warranty" for me. Another note on warranty: Koni has a lifetime warranty on all their dampers. They hold to the warranty, also. On my other car I had a shock blow out up front and they replaced both for me at no charge.

 

Yeah I have heard good things about Koni and warranty. The thing I like about the MS stuff is mainly that they were designed to work together, and I have some faith that the mazda engineers put thought into the whole ms suspension as a whole (incl. sways and strut bars). With the other setup I'd probably have Koni struts, Tein springs and RB sways.

The word is that the MS stuff is stiff, but not unbearable. I drive for work sometimes, but don't commute to work everyday. That said I do drive a lot.

As far as warranty, the stealer would have slightly less reason to deny me w/ ms.

 

I hear ya. I went with the RB springs & sways and Koni shocks setup mainly because I trust Racing Beat's thorough testing of this setup. I personally required tuning of the car for racing because I came from the world of FWD and wanted to be able to tune the car to my learning to drive it. In your case you're wanting Mazda to do that work for you, which is a great idea as long as you don't change your mind how you want the car balanced.

Whichever way you decide to go you'll most certainly be satisfied. Just the addition of stiffer sway bars is enough an improvement on the way the 8 feels, let alone a complete suspension upgrade.

 

I forgot to add... if you wait until early Spring of next year to upgrade I might have a set of RB springs and sways up for sale.

 

Well some of this will probably be a gift coming up, so I doubt I'll put it off that long. Thanks for the help. The MS does sound good, but it'll probably be a closer to Christmas anyway, so there's still time to decide.

On another note, I had the car at Lou Fusz in Olive today. I had a screw in the tire, which it turned out hadn't gone all the way through, but apparently the other one in the tire (i had no idea there were 2!) did go through, but was patchable. Also, they replaced my front rotors cause they were warped and caused shuttering during high speed braking. Finally they resealed my tail lights cause they were getting moisture in them. All in all it cost $11.02. Not bad. Nice dealership.

 

Ok that's good to know I need my tail light resealed.
Also Fish you can drive my car and see how you like the suspension and or the way it drives. I have the MS sways and unique suspension tuning with thicker 14mm damper shafts (up from 12mm) (SHINKA).

 

Well friday night in the rain I got rear ended . It isn't bad though. Some guy in a mercedes. It just left a paint scuff about 2-3" in diameter to the left of the license plate and you can see some stress marks where the plastic part of the bumper flexed.
Here's what happened - I was gonna make a U turn while I had a left turn light, but a car was turning right (going the direction I was trying to go), so I stopped for him to go, and I got rear-ended. As I understand it he's fully liable since he rear ended me. Right? I was about to make a U-turn, but I don't think that makes me liable. I'm gonna get it appraised, but it shouldn't be bad. I suspect he'lll give me cash. Most people probably wouldn't even get this fixed, but clearly I love my car.

 

Fish, I uderstand that in the State of Mo, the rear-ender rule pretty much always holds up.
I had a little rip in my rear bumper cover fixed at one point, they said they had to paint the whole part...it was $575 or something like that. It wasn't my fault, I was backing up in my driveway, and my friend's Jeep Liberty jumped backward into the back of my car, with its engine off, and they keys in his pocket in the house.
It sounds like you'll be OK...assuming you weren't in Illinois, going over to visit BBgenius, or to a place where the ladies dance or nothin' like that.

 

WARNING legal mumbo jumbo follows:
It all depends if the U-turn was legal. If the u-turn was not legal it would make you per se negligent for the accident. I don't know what the rear end rule is for sure, but I would assume that it only applies to traffic heading in the same direction. Your u-turn (assuming that it was legal) may fall under a failure to yield theory.

If you want a further explanation give me a call sometime. Did you get a police report? If so, was anyone cited? Was the other car speeding? a lot goes into these things.

That sucks either way and at least everyone's all right and your car didn't get beat up more.

On a happier note, I made it to the second round of oral arguments for moot court! That means my paper and argument was in the top 1/4 of the class. If I make it past this next round (tomorrow) which eliminates half of those people, I'll be on moot court which is a pretty big deal in law school.

 

We took off after having been stopped at a light. A cop did show up by chance, and told me U turns are illegal at all electronic lights, no matter if there's a sign or not. He didn't cite me. In fact, I never pulled a U turn because I got rear ended before I got a chance to. Seeing that, I didn't do anything illegal, so I don't see how I could have any liability. He should have had given himself the necessary distance to stop. He has to control his car. Apparently he agrees cause he apologized many times.

 

I'm not sure how the law works, but an apology to a girl (to stop the nagging ) usually means admission of guilt.

 

I think as long as your police report does not state that you were making an illeagal u-turn your ok. If there was no police report because he agreed to pay for damages make sure you go and get one anyway ( if you don't trust him). Even if you do not plan to contact insurance companies. Many times after speaking to a spouse, attorney, friend etc. some people get the idea that they could possibly get paid and file a police report themselves stating different facts (because you are not there). If the person seems cool and you trust them then get them the estimate and have them give you the cash or cashiers check - no personal checks. Make sure you get 3 estimates - give them the most expensive one. That covers you in case there are any hidden costs. Wow I sound like my dad.

 

Oh .........and I believe Terets will represent you in court.