Mirage Track and Sports Thread - Cornering and Performance

[CANautocross951]

Hey everyone,

Looking for help with a number of things:

What can be done to make the Mirage handle as well as possible? I really like the handling of the Mirage for being lightweight and simple, however I am disappointed by a few things. Looking to improve on Mitsubishi's design for a more sports-oriented, capable car.


A few handling questions:

1. Can we fit 205s under any circumstances, without raising ride height, on lowered cars?
2. Does anyone still make sway bars and sway bar upgrades in 2023?
3. Does anyone have suggestions about alignment specs that are particularly good for increasing G-forces or cornering speeds?

And a bonus question:

Siam Body Kits create some pretty smart looking body kits for 2022+ Mirage but do not ship to Canada. Is there any way around this?

[Fummins]

I keep my turd unpolished.

A rear sway bar seems to be a relatively common bolt-on.

One member used to autocross his Mirage. Search "autocross"

https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...ssing-a-Mirage
https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...-of-the-Mirage

[CANautocross951]

I keep my turd unpolished.

A rear sway bar seems to be a relatively common bolt-on.

One member used to autocross his Mirage. Search "autocross"

https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...ssing-a-Mirage
https://mirageforum.com/forum/showth...-of-the-Mirage

Thanks. I had found that thread and lurked thoroughly. Just seeing if there's anyone else with advice. Looks like he was able to fit the 205s up front with some creative engineering. I might go that route.

Still keen to see what other members say!

[Wallythacker]

Hey everyone,

Looking for help with a number of things:

What can be done to make the Mirage handle as well as possible? I really like the handling of the Mirage for being lightweight and simple, however I am disappointed by a few things. Looking to improve on Mitsubishi's design for a more sports-oriented, capable car.


A few handling questions:

1. Can we fit 205s under any circumstances, without raising ride height, on lowered cars?
2. Does anyone still make sway bars and sway bar upgrades in 2023?
3. Does anyone have suggestions about alignment specs that are particularly good for increasing G-forces or cornering speeds?

And a bonus question:

Siam Body Kits create some pretty smart looking body kits for 2022+ Mirage but do not ship to Canada. Is there any way around this?

If they ship to America find someone who lives close to the border who will use their American post office box, get that person to ship your order from where they live to you. If you get cheap or free shipping on the original item to America the hit shipping it to you from Canada to Canada isn't too bad. But.....shipping charges can get out of hand and drive your item price into the stratosphere.

[CANautocross951]

If they ship to America find someone who lives close to the border who will use their American post office box, get that person to ship your order from where they live to you. If you get cheap or free shipping on the original item to America the hit shipping it to you from Canada to Canada isn't too bad. But.....shipping charges can get out of hand and drive your item price into the stratosphere.

Yeah, cheers - but I don't think that the Thai company ships to USA either.

Hopefully someone knows. I emailed them to ask if there was any way I could get them and no, they didn't even bother to reply.

[Loren]

Opinion: Your thread title is about performance and you ended with some BS about body kits. Body kits are not related to performance. Just a thought.

Anyhow, I've been probably about as far down this path as anyone has with a Mirage. Pack a lunch, then go start reading:
http://dagroj.com/viewtopic.php?t=2932

Yes, 205's will fit the front if your wheel offset it right. Might rub the inner fender liners in the front. And you WILL have to roll and maybe pull the rear fenders to fit 195's... 205's would take even more work. I forget the specifics, but if you had unlimited budget, you'd actually want slightly different offset wheels in the front vs. the rear to be able to go as wide as possible. (rears get all into the fender, fronts hit the inside first)

Simpler would be to run 195's front and 185's rear. That's a fairly easy fit. And if you're not in actual competition, that's more than enough tire for this car. (I've been driving mine with 155's on it for the past 2 years on the street, how much grip do you need for street driving?) Or even just 185's or 195's all-around. Again, wheel offset is a factor, and check your clearances.

185's on a typical 15x6.5" 35-40mm offset wheel will very easily fit if you want the "easy answer". 15x7's probably also fit, but be very aware of offset AND weight.

Swaybars: What's your goal? Improve cornering performance or reduce body roll? Both ideas are not necessarily the same. The primary function of a swaybar is to shift the handling balance of the car to the front or rear. Body roll should primarily be controlled by springs and shocks.

The Mirage is a FWD car, which inherently understeers at the limit. Understeer is the enemy of cornering performance. I did every trick in the book (several books) to try to combat that understeer with ample success! You don't actually want a bigger front swaybar. (in fact, I removed my front swaybar... but, I also fit significantly stiffer front springs to make up for it) Adding a rear swaybar (or reinforcement of the twist beam axle) is what you want if you're playing with swaybars. You can also fit a coilover kit and tinker with spring rates (making the rear rates stiffer will help reduce understeer). And you can fit wider front tires to give the front more grip, thus reducing understeer. Lowering the car as far as you can get away with also helps to lower the CG AND the roll center, which this car desperately needs. It's very top heavy, and that's the one thing you really CAN'T fix about it... that was ultimately the brick wall that I hit. (I didn't want to start removing glass and headliner and other things to make the car less streetable)

^^^ The reason I removed the front swaybar was that the car was very much lifting a front tire on very hard cornering, and I was doing everything I could to try to NOT lift the inside front tire. It helped a little, but not enough.

Huge word of caution: It's WAY, WAY easier to make a suspension worse than it is to make it better. Do your homework and be ready to experiment with different settings.

Alignment: Easy. You want as much negative camber as you can stand in the front. Rear alignment is not adjustable (without actually bending the rear axle, which you could). For street use, most people don't want more than about 2 degrees of negative camber. I was running a little over 3 degrees when I was autocrossing regularly. Camber by itself doesn't cause huge tire wear issues unless you exclusively do a ton of straight-line highway driving. Lots of camber combined with EXCESSIVE TOE will chew up a set of tires in a hurry!

You can play with the front toe settings to improve the car's turn-in characteristics. Usually for performance, you want a little bit of front toe-out (and rear toe-in for stability). I found that the Mirage feels REALLY twitchy with any toe out at all. I didn't even like it with zero toe. I tiny bit of toe-in (like 1/16" total toe in) was where I ended up.

You can go farther than the basic coilover kit and swaybar stuff if you're adventurous. I built a set of custom lower control arms and a bump-steer correction kit. They're actually for sale here on the forum.

You can read about the custom control arm stuff here:
http://dagroj.com/viewtopic.php?t=3064

That's a fun rabbit hole to go down if you like geeking on suspension stuff.

Have fun! Just keep in mind that ones you REALLY start maximizing the grip of this car, IF you're driving the snot out of it to make use of that grip, the possibility of putting it on its roof is far greater than it is with less grip. (less grip, it will slide... more grip, the tire just says "okay!" and the weight does its thing)

[Basic]

You really wanna get into the weeds, google a fella by the name of Dick Shine and read what he learned about the MacPherson Strut suspension and handling... prepare to have your mind blown...

[88coltturbo]

Thanks. I had found that thread and lurked thoroughly. Just seeing if there's anyone else with advice. Looks like he was able to fit the 205s up front with some creative engineering. I might go that route.

Still keen to see what other members say!

I think you could fit 205s as long as the offset of the rim was right. You might have to adjust your ride height. I met a local owner whose 195's rub, but I couldn't understand why since I have 185/55 on my (MINI Cooper) 15s with plenty of clearance for 195/50 that I'm planning on down the road. Then I saw his rims - offset was such that even a 175 would rub!

[Wallythacker]

I think you could fit 205s as long as the offset of the rim was right. You might have to adjust your ride height. I met a local owner whose 195's rub, but I couldn't understand why since I have 185/55 on my (MINI Cooper) 15s with plenty of clearance for 195/50 that I'm planning on down the road. Then I saw his rims - offset was such that even a 175 would rub!

I'm really curious when I see a car going down the road with the wheels canted out at the bottom. What the hell is that all about? Is it even remotely safe?

[7milesout]

I'm really curious when I see a car going down the road with the wheels canted out at the bottom. What the hell is that all about? Is it even remotely safe?

It's just a trend thing, because it's sooooo coooool. A little camber might help in a racecar depending the car and the racing circumstances. But just for street use, it's just a (silly) trend.