BC Coilover and WIM Alignment Review

[Norton]

Right folks - time to write up the review on the BC coilovers I had fitted by WIM last week. You probably remember I've been asking many questions on here and other forums about the various options - lowering springs vs coilovers, makes (Meister / BC / GAZ etc) / spring rates / variances between them etc and conducted plenty of research and also spoke to various knowledgeable people - manufacturers and neutrals alike - in order to make an informed decision about what I wanted to fit.

 

So the background to my requirements:

 

Car is a 7 year old Mk3 Z Sport with 30k on the clock - purchased by me @ 5 weeks ago - completely standard when I bought it with the sport spec Bilstiens and OEM springs fitted.

 

Car is intended as primarily a weekend fun drive for me and the Mrs (kids are far to teenage now to want to spend any time with their parents - hence no need to cart round in the family bus at the weekends anymore). 

 

I also may track the car at some point in the future so an element of future proofing was also a consideration.

 

I did not want some rock hard track monster drive that would be unbearable to live with in the real world even for for weekends - considering that Mrs Norton and I are no longer spring chickens (note the comments on teenagers above)

 

I wanted to improve the looks of the car as well as the handling as the standard Billies / Springs gave the car a certain nervousness and skittishness which as a first time MX5 owner and having read all the hype about legendary handling etc - I was slightly disappointed with as I couldn't see what all the fuss was about on the standard set up.

 

So after due consideration I decided on the BC's and a spring rate of 6/4. Why I hear you ask? Well, i decided to skip lowering springs altogether as I wanted the future proofing element and from there it really came down to the fact that between the Meisters and BC's (which are virtually identical apart from some valving / dampner variation as far as I could ascertain) Meisters only do 7/5 spring rates while BC's offer 7/5 and 6/4 and after I had wrestled with the dilemma of would 6/4 be too soft or would 7/5 bee too hard - i felt the lower spring rate gave me a more suitable baseline and platform for my intended use with the option to firm up as and when via the dampening adjustment. Was this the right decision ? - time to find out.

 

So having booked in with Joe at WIM some days earlier I arrived at the duly allotted time and was warmly welcomed by the a fore said Joe who immediately got the car up onto the ramp ready for the off - First thing was to inspect the BCs;   first impressions - quality piece of kit. Superbly manufactured, solid build, quality finish, well packed and judging by the build quality, great value for money.

 

On checking each of the coilovers, each was labeled with the Dyno results showing that the fronts and rears were matched in terms of performance - yet more indication that these are quality manufactured.

 

So on to the fitting - Joe had the car up and proceeded to dismantle the back end / front end - remove the Bilstiens / springs (looked particularly inferior in quality / materials used to the BC's). Hats off to Joe who tolerated - no - actually made me welcome - to watch beside him as he worked and gladly answered all the questions I was asking him. So an hour or so later, all the BC's were in place and adjusted to a ride height of 340 all round as an initial starting point.

 

Then car down off the ramp and on to the Hunter alignment ramp - Joe then explained all the various 'alignment' options to me and we agreed that the fast road set up with the BC's set at 16 clicks front and 14 rear - would be a good base line starting point for me to get a couple of hundred miles under the belt and then back into Joe for a final check and a tweak here and there depending on my preferences and feedback. (all part of the WIM service by the way) So Alignment done and after Joe had given the car a quick road test and green light - it was time to see if this was money well spent or not.

 

If you've been to WIM you know there are some nice B roads between them and the M25 - unfortunately as this was Friday afternoon, there was little opportunity to fully experience the new coilovers and the M25 / M3 was it's usual car park round to Camberley but the difference in the feel of the car from driving to WIM and now leaving was startling - chalk and cheese - much firmer than the bilstiens and springs but still comfortable over bumps and very comfortable cruising on the M/way - so far so good.

 

So now one week later and 150 miles later I've had the chance to put them through their paces - Mrs Norton thinks I'm on something coz I can't wipe the grin off my face - I though all was good when going sedately down the road but now having had the chance to really throw the car down some lovely B roads etc - I can really appreciate where my money has gone. The car is transformed - much more planted to the road, steering far more direct and positive - increase the speed and the coilovers really get to work in dealing with the bumps and lumps keeping everything nicely firm and predictable - body roll is negligible even with extreme directional changes and the car just simply goes where you point it - no fuss, no nervousness or skittishness and no need for constant steering adjustments that were there before.

 

The weight and balance of the car remains predictable and pretty much in one place increasing my confidence in the cars ability - a good indication of this is I've now had to find and use the DSC OFF button as before the BC's I rarely, if ever had the DSC kick in when cornering, I found as my confidence in the transformed handling grew so did the frequency of the little yellow light on the dash flashing up saying 'Oh No You Dont'!!

 

So to surmise, for what I wanted to achieve in terms of the cars handling and looks (oh so much better by the way) and considering my personal preferences etc I can highly recommend not only the BC's but also WIM for their excellent and knowledgeable service.

 

If like me you were concerned that the 6/4's would perhaps be too soft - don't be. The difference between these and even the standard sport suspension I had is vast and as I have them set up at the moment - effectively half way on the adjustment settings - there seems to be plenty of range to firm things up a lot more if wanted / needed.

 

Apologies for the monster post and If you are in the same dilema I was some weeks ago on deciding which way to go on suspension, I hope this review helps - Thumbs up from me on the BC's and an even bigger thumbs up for WIM (Cheers Joe)

 

I now have the MX5 that I read about with the legendary handling and the smile inducing qualities every time you drive it and I'm loving every minute of it 

[Tony]

Superb write up Norton thank you for that.

 

Obviously i'm delighted your pleased with the BCR's and we knew you had done ( wisely ) much research on various platforms so we had to be absolutely confident what we advised was going to serve your needs.

 

As said in our emails and forum chatter "adjustability" is our best tool so the BCR's with independent dampening, height and coil pre-load plus the geometry calibration opens everything for us. Our only gray area is learning about you, the driver? It's for this reason we/ Joe prefer to have the owner there while the work is being done. The guys are trained to draw personality/ desire from the owner in order to image the overall final set-up. Reads a bit odd no doubt but some owners might say it's a daily drive and never goes on track, might go on the twisties now and then, whereas another owner might say "fast everything", non competitive track. Well as you can imagine each set-up would be miles apart.

 

Word of advice when and if you change the dampening do so sequentially meaning adjust the front or rear a click or two but don't adjust both at the same time. Reason i say that is if your unsure about a particular aspect in let's say loose corner out it might be just the front settings being a bit hard, or just the rear being a bit soft? You need to tune the balance to suit or you could end up perfecting the front but also destroying what was a perfect setting at the rear.  

[Delpel]

Nicely written review there Norton. I whole heartily agree with your comments as I am still grinning from ear to ear after having mine fitted a couple of weeks ago. I to have been pushing the car a little harder each time I go out. I managed to scare myself by getting the front end to skip out when going into a tight left hander a little to hot. Serves as reminder to remind you your on the public highway and not a race track.

 

Have you started twiddling yet? Have you got the standard Mazda front chassis strut fitted which covers the adjusting screws on the fronts. I brought some extenders for the rears and drilled a couple of holes in the plastic rear panels to adjust the rears.

 

Rodders set mine to 8 clicks from soft on the front and 6 clicks on the rear. I'll stick with this for a couple of hundred miles then take Tony's advice and twiddle with one end at a time.

 

TTFN

 

Derek