Ground clearance MS kit vs. stock (and maybe an additional question or 2!)
 

Hi All,

I live in Ottawa, Canada and am going over (for the millionth time in my head anyway) the specs for the 8 i am going to buy.

Sunlight silver.
GT with Nav

the big question at this point is the MS kit....
I feel that $40K + is a little expensive for a hot looking snow plow so i am wondering what the difference in ground clearance b/w the stock front end and side skirts etc and the MS front end etc.
i believe the stock has a clearance of 4.7 inches.....

the other question i have is an opinion one:

do you guys like the look of the sunlight silver with the MS Gun metal rims (umm...the darker ones....).


Thanks in advance for helping a noob out.

Well, did some more digging and found these specs. (see attached)
Does this seem right to those of you with the Mazdaspeed kit?

When i checked the specs for a stock rx-8 i found it has 4.7" ground clearance.

The specs for the kit from Japanparts were as follows:
5.1" clearance Front MS nose
4.7" clearance MS Side skirts
6.2" clearance MS rear skirt / diffuser...whatever!


so my new question is:

How is this possible? Is it that the sides are the lowest part on the stock rx-8 and the MS side skirts dont actually reduce ground clearance?


any help would be much appreciated.

thx

Anyone?
Anyone with the MS kit stock rims? really need to know ground clearance!
and the specs from mazda dont make sense, they are suggesting that the MS kit doesnt reduce ground clearance....

i would like to know the clearance too, those with the MS kit, do you have trouble going over speed bumps?

im pretty sure there are a couple guys that can give the info on this. the stock clearance is not 4.7 inches. maybe if you drop the car with s-techs or something...

let me help with the stock clearance,like NgoRX8 say - don't drop it :)

hmm, i maybe of help, clearence with the kit is great (w/o lowering it). Only time you'll scratch the floor is going up a steep driveway head on. other than that, you'll be able to make it over speed bumps just fine, though i still like to be a little careful. But i'll be lowering my ride soon so i'll let you know how that goes. But i bet there are a lot of people in the forum that can help you with this.

nice find, foo. i remembered it was around 6 inches.

you can find all the measurement stuff on japanparts.com. All those pictures are from japanparts i beleive or maybe mazda japan.

^ i'm here to serve better :lol2:

I had the appearance package before switching over to the MS setup. Front clearance was the same between the appearance package front lip and the MS front bumper, with the exception of the little grey pieces on the bottom edge of the bumper...this made the bumper lower in these areas...only hy the width of that grey addition...maybe 1/4 inch? Sides were the same clearance as the side flares...with that clearance going all the way front rear to front wheel well. Rear clearance...don't even worry. Your not going to do anything to your rear.