Mazdarian

So, since both my rear shocks turned out to be well past their prime, I dipped on a set of Tein Mono Sport coilovers.
While some of these kits come with front sway bar end links, mine didn't. One of my OEM's has the allen head stripped
by the PO, so re-using them is out of the question. Meaning I'm in the market for new end links, and there's a LOT of options..

Anything I should pay extra attention to?

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Why do you believe you need to replace them?

Mazdarian

Because one allen head's stripped, both fronts pretty badly rusted, and one rear link has a torn dust boot.. I mean, they 'could' be re-used, but i'd rather just replace the lot

Loki

iTrader: (1)

So you get adjustable endlinks if you expect to corner balance your car (set left and right coilovers slightly differently so that weight of car + driver is evenly distributed). Given that you're just starting to track your car, you're probably a ways from that. If you were lowering your car a lot, adjustable are also a good idea, but I don't recommend you do that. Maybe half an inch. There is nothing to be gained by going lower and you want compliance and room for error at this stage, not the last 5% of performance potential.

So all that in mind, getting another set of stock ones wouldn't be terrible, but if you want to plan for the future, there's really no wrong answer. Racing Beat are great, Agency Power, Whiteline, all good. Good-Win has a sale on Racing Beat right now https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazd...uspension.html

I dig into this a bit because I see people (younger me included) get adjustable everything, and then not know how to adjust it all to work together well, or which adjustment made the car feel better or worse. Since you're starting out, go slow and focus on learning the car as it is.
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Mazdarian

@Loki Thanks for that

You're right about the all adjustable everything pitfall often biting people, I'm careful enough to avoid it but thanks for pointing it out either way!

I don't know how much the car will drop, but I do wanna go as low as possible (without sacrificing suspension stroke). It really does make a difference, as long as the rest of the suspension geometry can be maintained. That's why I'm looking at adjustable links

A lot of aftermarket/adjustable links have open spherical bearings though.. Good for a racecar, but since the car's mostly driven on the street I'd rather get a good set with rubber dust boots and not worry about fouling/binding/excessive wear

Loki

iTrader: (1)

You're missing a few concepts here or applying concepts from other cars. With coilovers lowering within their design range doesn't change the suspension stroke. Lowering an RX8 as far as possible is counterproductive. You have 1.5 inches, maybe 2, of useful lowering before you start scraping everywhere and undoing the tuning Mazda built into the chassis. This isn't a Civic built on compromises, the suspension geometry is built to control the wheel through its normal range of motion at stock ride height, there's nothing to be gained by venturing outside of that.

Mazdarian

I thought it was a pretty simple concept tbh; lower equals better, as long as you don't bottom out everywhere. Lower means your wheels have less overhead clearance so your usable (bump) stroke becomes shorter? That's what I meant.

Now if going that low means you're messing up the designed geometry of the vehicle before you're starting to drag the frame rails across the track, said geometry can be modified to work as intended at the new, lower, ride height. Enter adjustable end links, tie rods, maybe roll center correction kits etc. Although I did read something about the RX8 dragging frame rails way before the roll center becoming problematic?

Thanks for schooling me either way, I'm just here to learn 🙏

Edit: I absolutely believe you in the 8 having about a 1.5/2" max drop before issues arise, but that's already a substantial drop for any race car!
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