Splan8

Hi all:
When I bought my RX8 last year, I didn't like the stance or body roll and so I purchased and installed the Racing Beat suspension kit.

Now, I am very happy with this kit. But... I realize I made this purchase without any self education, just trusting in the "lower is better" and "stiffer is better" approach.

Recently I also purchased a 94 miata for runnig in CSP (Autocross) and have some suspension work to do with it. In my quest to understand the miatas suspension, I came to realize that I will never just take a package deal again, instead I really should understand what the products I am buying will do, both positively and negatively to my handling in each scenario (race track, street, autocross).

So...
Here are some books I came across and am considering buying. I would really like your opinions or additional recommendations...

• Milliken's 'Race Car Vehicle Dynamics'
• Fred Puhn's How To Make Your Car Handle
• Henry Watts' Secrets of Solo Racing
• Carroll Smith's Tune to Win & Engineer to Win & Prepare To Win
• High-Performance Handling Handbook (Powerpro) by Don Alexander
• The Racing and High Performance Tire by Paul Haney

Gord96BRG

Additional recommendation - start hanging out at the Miata.net forums, http://forum.miata.net/ . There are suspension forums and track/competition forums where the guys really know their stuff (a few National champions participate, etc.), there is a huge amount of knowledge to be gained from reading the existing forum threads!

Regards,
Gordon

Splan8

Agreed! There is some great knowledge there and specmiata.com as well...

I have been doing that for the last few weeks, trying to absorb "Roll Center" whether softer or harder sways for a given problem, limits of lowering and suspension geometry, Center of gravity versus roll ceneter, corner weighting, etc...

I will continue to use both of these forums for that, but I am also just looking for some sound reference material for suspension and tire mods that I can use as a guide to adjustments in the field.