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Another Megan EZ Street review.

8K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  miatapasta 
#1 · (Edited)
TLDR at the bottom. I'm so considerate :woolery:

Here's some quick info before I start.

Wheels/tires: stock 1990 daisies on some shitty Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums (185/60/14)
Type of driving: monthly auto-x and daily driving. Not looking for superl0w, more or less function over form.

At the time of this review, I've been riding on these for about a week.

First impressions
Well they arrived and the first thing I noticed was the garbage instructions they included written in the worst Engrish I've ever read. However, the product itself was in good shape and packaged very well. Even the girlfriend was impressed ("oh my god they're such a pretty color" :fp::lol:)

Install
Swapping them out went very smoothly. They are shorter than the OEM suspension so putting them in was easier than taking the older & taller ones out and over the UCA. Once the car was taken off of the jack stands, we had to use the OEM jack to raise the car up so we could get the hydraulic jack out from underneath. These things go pretty damn low.

Adjusting the ride height is a PITA now that you have to use two jacks to lift the car just so you can make adjustments up to 1/16th of an inch. Speaking of adjusting the ride height, I wound up having the front as low as it would go and the rear as high as it could and still couldn't get an exact 12"/12.5" stance. I settled for something close to 12.5" all around give or take an eighth or an inch or so. I think the front is like 1/4th of an inch higher on one side, but I'll address that problem when I put on new wheels and tires on later in the future.

That said, when I took the car in for an alignment it took some..."ingenuity" to get the car up on the ramp. I had to remove my Trap lip and three guys lifted up the rear while another guy had to drive it up slowly so the frame wouldn't scrape. The alignment numbers were incredibly out of whack (go figure) and they had a field day trying to get it aligned to STOCK numbers :fp:. (Tires Plus, by the way). I had to pull up Icehawk's numbers and explain to them why I did't need a goddamn camber kit. Finally we got the toe set up so it doesn't look like a cockeyed hooker and the camber at an acceptable number where the tires won't wear unevenly.

Daily Driving
Unfortunately, these things seem a little softer than what I was expecting. Still an improvement over stock though. I'm still playing with the damper adjustments (15-way) and to my surprise, they actually do a significant difference with only two or three clicks in one direction. I had them on full stiff all around for a few days, and my girlfriend made the note that it feels more solid, it's not as violent in the turns (shaking/weight transfer/body roll etc) and her boobs bounce alot more :winky: Now it's about 7-8 clicks from full stiff in the rear and full stiff in the front.

Like I said, I'm at roughly 12.5" all around and I can still clear speedbumps with ease (yet takes some caution). And when I say speedbumps, I mean the 7" speed mountains that my apartment complex has in the parking lot spaced at about 20 feet apart. The Trap lip hasn't scraped yet, and even driving on my GF's dirt road (yes, I took the car out on a potholey ass dirt road) wasn't the nightmare I had imagined it to be.

Auto-x racing
I took the car out for it's first autox with these coilovers today and placed 3rd place in a class of 3 people. However, the other two Miatas were running 15x7 6uls and RPF1s with Kumho Ecsta XS and Direzzas, respectfully. I, however, was running stock daisies on some shitty 600 treadwear/all-season/Ecsta LS Platinums. My friend Chris (running a Miata with KYB/AGX-RPF1s-Direzzas) said that the car looked in the past like it was about to eat the wheels alive with all the body roll, but today it was flatter in the turns than a 14 year old girl. Also, my average time for the 3 autox races I had on OEM shocks in the past was 89 seconds. Today on the Megans, my times improved by a full 3-5 seconds with my fastest time being an 86.8 (for reference, my friend Chris was running high 70's and placed 2nd). Finally, the weight transition of the car on "violent" parts of the course (slaloms, etc) was a hell of a lot calmer. It didn't throw itself from side to side.

I would like to note that when I was looking at overall times, a stock Miata and even a new (stock) Charger had me beat by a couple seconds. Probably either the shitty tires, or my shitty driving skillz. Most likely my "floor it through every goddamn turn" approach did me in at the end.

Overall/tl;dr
For the once-per-month autox event and daily driving (some being spirited), I'd say these are a good buy for $700. The car is flatter in the turns, is less violent, and seems happier with these. The 15 way adjustability is both easy and convenient, with as little as 2-3 clicks making a sizeable difference in handling (3 clicks in the rear to the softer side and it solved my understeer problems at the autox today). It still slides around quite a bit, but I attribute that to the skinny/shitty tires I have that are harder than me on a drunken Saturday night. But as for the coilovers doing their job, they're doing it well. I recommend them if you're broke as fuq like me, but would like a much better ride than your blown out 21 year old shocks.
 
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#3 ·
oh dude! I saw you race today at the Henderson Stadium in Macon, you did really well.
 
#5 ·
I wasn't participating today, just watching. I drive a dark blue NB, parked at the church parking lot. I was talking to John Holliday, he sold his red NA to someone who drove today. He has a style bar with checkered out front and rear lip
 
#7 ·
lol yea i can't remember how many times i've heard the same story but after they go for a ride, they instantly want one. but good job yesterday. the coilovers seemed to really help. next are tires right? you ever go down upper river road? that's a good road to really test them
 
#8 ·
I'll have to go check out that road, I haven't been living in Macon long so I don't know much about where the good roads are. As far as tires go, the next thing I plan on getting are some friggin' sweet 15x7 wheels and grippy tires so that should really help out a ton.
 
#9 ·
It's one of the better ones here, but they didn't do a good job repaving so its bumpy but with a lot of great corners. there's another one that branches off that's really cool too and the road is a lot smoother, at least for the first section. Its right off grey highway and shurling drive. maybe we can go for a drive there sometime.

I'm saving up for 15x8 6ULs and possibly some new wheels for moar grip. New wheels and tires will help out so much, it'll prob take away another second. What settings did you set the dampers at the auto-x?
 
#16 ·
No to threadjack, but I also have a pair of Megan Ez Streets and your review is pretty accurate to my experience as well. A little softer then expected, but the adjustment knobs to make a considerable difference in the ride. I noticed very big gains on track days going from stock suspension with lowering springs to the Megan's. I have done approximately 6 track days on the Megans, and 10,000kms, and they are still working great. I would recommend these to anyone who just has a weekend warrior Miata.
 
#21 ·
Update:
Well I've noticed some faint creaking sounds in the rear, and the occasional clunk when the pass rear's springs get compressed. Other than that they still handle well and feel sturdy. Any thoughts?
 
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