Opinions, opinions and opinions wanted.

[Wallythacker]

As most know I proudly have two 5MT Mirages, my '17 with about 50 KMs, and my '14 with 239 kms.

I love the look of our Mirages with aftermarket rims and tires. I love the amazing improvements with aftermarket suspension components such as springs and sway bars. Now my dilemma.

It's going to cost me about $1500 to upgrade one Mirage to the way I would like. I figure about $500 for tires, $500 for Konig rims, likely $400 for front and rear sway bars, and about $100 for VW springs and Moog camber bolts. I can't say I have an issue dropping that kind of money on my '17, but, oh boy, let me say that $1500 is not too far from the total purchase price of my '14.

If I don't update both cars I might not enjoy, or worse, hate driving the '14 as it wobbles around. I might cheap out on the '14 with different tires and rims, possibly cutting their cost to $500 for both, but add the suspension upgrades I'm still looking at $1000. My last option is to run the OEM alloys and Enasaves and just upgrade the '14 suspension for $500.

What options would you chose if you had both my Mirages and wanted to do some upgrades?

[Dirk Diggler]

Id update the shift knob.

[Powershiftmatt]

Depends. What are you trying to do with the car?
For serious handling, don’t buy heavy wheels. Kosei sells affordable lightweight wheels. Increasing weight there with wider tires isn’t what you want. Buy a lightweight wheel with a wider tire and break even. The OEM 14” with a 165 weighs 25 pounds for reference. That’s with a tire.

Rear sway bar had a profound effect on my car. I’ll be doing our front sway bar this weekend. Sway bars are a great way to start. Keeping the chassis composed is the name of the game. Doing so while keeping weight down is optimal. That’s the whole theme of my build.

[Dirk Diggler]

Joking aside I wouldnt dump to much $ in our beloved sh!tboxes, but thats just me. Well, 14" Konigs would be cool.

[Mirageman38]

If you want to get rid of it for 1500 I would be interested

[Wallythacker]

Depends. What are you trying to do with the car?
For serious handling, don’t buy heavy wheels. Kosei sells affordable lightweight wheels. Increasing weight there with wider tires isn’t what you want. Buy a lightweight wheel with a wider tire and break even. The OEM 14” with a 165 weighs 25 pounds for reference. That’s with a tire.

Rear sway bar had a profound effect on my car. I’ll be doing our front sway bar this weekend. Sway bars are a great way to start. Keeping the chassis composed is the name of the game. Doing so while keeping weight down is optimal. That’s the whole theme of my build.

Yep, 15" Konigs and Ecopia 422 + will weigh 25.5 lbs. Pretty darn good IMO.

The more I ponder it, the more that suspension upgrades are a 100% necessity.

[Loren]

I figure about $500 for tires, $500 for Konig rims, likely $400 for front and rear sway bars, and about $100 for VW springs and Moog camber bolts. I can't say I have an issue dropping that kind of money on my '17, but, oh boy, let me say that $1500 is not too far from the total purchase price of my '14.

If you're not competing and in need of ultimate grip, there's probably not much reason to spend more than about $75/tire for this car. And there should be reasonable $50 tire options. That's $200, not $500.

Wheels... on your budget car, look at some cheap OE take-offs that are lightweight. 90-2005 Miatas are 4x100. 14" wheels will weigh 11-12 pounds. 15's more like 13. 16's 14-15. And there are 17's available, too. Like any other car, all the cool kids are buying aftermarket wheels, and the stockers are available for cheap. MINI Coopers and a lot of older Hondas also have some decent wheel options. You can easily get a set for under $200... rather than $500.

Rear swaybar. Don't bother with the front. You could design your own bar if you have access to a welder, or know someone who welds. I made one out of steel tubing and some heavy angle. Less than $50 in materials.

Not sure you'll get springs much cheaper than you're already talking.

Camber bolts? Get yourself a 3/8" Carbide Burr, chuck it into your drill, and instead of fitting a smaller diameter BOLT to secure your strut, just slot the bolt holes in the strut. You can get the same adjustment by slotting those holes by about 1/8". Use the stock bolts. Be sure they're properly torqued. Cost will be about $15 total.

There you go. I just cut your $1500 suspension budget down to $465.

The bigger question is: Why aren't shocks on your list? Especially for the 2014. (caveat: Idunno what kind of shocks are available for this car... but, shocks are always a major suspension upgrade.)

If you want to have real fun, one of the coolest things I did to my Mirage to help it handle better was custom lower control arms that allowed me to fit taller ball joints and lower the roll center. Again, if you've can weld, or know someone who can... not all that difficult to do. Lowering the roll center effectively makes the forces that cause body roll DO less. It doesn't make the car stiffer, but it does magically make it roll less and FEEL more responsive. If you start with your existing control arms (I bought a spare set for $100), you're looking at something like $80 in parts, as I recall.

If you're lowering the car, that's changing the control arm angle, raising the roll center, and screwing up the suspension geometry. (which is actually pretty GOOD at stock ride height, it does what it's supposed to do) Fitting taller ball joints compensates for the lower ride height and brings the control arm angle back to normal. More of your turning energy goes into TURNING the car, less of it goes into creating body roll.

Messing with roll centers is something I never did before I got into the Mirage. It's mind-altering stuff!

[Wallythacker]

If you're not competing and in need of ultimate grip, there's probably not much reason to spend more than about $75/tire for this car. And there should be reasonable $50 tire options. That's $200, not $500.

Wheels... on your budget car, look at some cheap OE take-offs that are lightweight. 90-2005 Miatas are 4x100. 14" wheels will weigh 11-12 pounds. 15's more like 13. 16's 14-15. And there are 17's available, too. Like any other car, all the cool kids are buying aftermarket wheels, and the stockers are available for cheap. MINI Coopers and a lot of older Hondas also have some decent wheel options. You can easily get a set for under $200... rather than $500.

Rear swaybar. Don't bother with the front. You could design your own bar if you have access to a welder, or know someone who welds. I made one out of steel tubing and some heavy angle. Less than $50 in materials.

Not sure you'll get springs much cheaper than you're already talking.

Camber bolts? Get yourself a 3/8" Carbide Burr, chuck it into your drill, and instead of fitting a smaller diameter BOLT to secure your strut, just slot the bolt holes in the strut. You can get the same adjustment by slotting those holes by about 1/8". Use the stock bolts. Be sure they're properly torqued. Cost will be about $15 total.

There you go. I just cut your $1500 suspension budget down to $465.

The bigger question is: Why aren't shocks on your list? Especially for the 2014. (caveat: Idunno what kind of shocks are available for this car... but, shocks are always a major suspension upgrade.)

If you want to have real fun, one of the coolest things I did to my Mirage to help it handle better was custom lower control arms that allowed me to fit taller ball joints and lower the roll center. Again, if you've can weld, or know someone who can... not all that difficult to do. Lowering the roll center effectively makes the forces that cause body roll DO less. It doesn't make the car stiffer, but it does magically make it roll less and FEEL more responsive. If you start with your existing control arms (I bought a spare set for $100), you're looking at something like $80 in parts, as I recall.

If you're lowering the car, that's changing the control arm angle, raising the roll center, and screwing up the suspension geometry. (which is actually pretty GOOD at stock ride height, it does what it's supposed to do) Fitting taller ball joints compensates for the lower ride height and brings the control arm angle back to normal. More of your turning energy goes into TURNING the car, less of it goes into creating body roll.

Messing with roll centers is something I never did before I got into the Mirage. It's mind-altering stuff!

Thank you for an amazing reply! Incredibly helpful.

I'd love to find used 15 Konig but there are like hens teeth. Very scarce. Just tonight I went looking for used alloy is various sizes and there's a really attractive set from a Kia, 15x5.5, offset 38. The will it fit website leaves me confused. the wheels will stick out 21 mm more and I don't know if that will cause interference. this is with 185/55/15 Encopia 422+. Cost of Kia wheels. Maybe $125.

As for tires Loren, yes, there are lots of 185/55/15 to choose from. But I have my heart set on LRR tires. I bought my little Mirage to do two things. 1. Give me great gas mileage. 2. Look pretty cool while I'm at it. The 422+ run about $130 here unless there is a promotion going on. So my tire cost is pretty much fixed @$520. I'm completely open to alternate LRR tires from other mfgs.

I can weld, I have a Lincoln 220v 180a MIG, a 230a, 220v stick, an inverter 180a TIG and assorted gasses. Plus an oxy-acet rig. I built a welded frame helicopter, two gasser rail chassis and a multitude of baja style buggies. I never to weld myself a sway bar. If it works out it will cost next to nothing. There's probably enough chrome ally and plate to whip one up. However, this may sound idiotic but buying one that someone in our community has engineered and offered to us for a reasonable price is attractive to me because it feels like I'm really helping to contribute to further development of cool stuff.

As for the front end and lowering, I dunno. I think if the car gets springs, $100, wheels, $125, tires, $520 and a self made sway bar, $0, that will give me the looks and handling that's missing now.

Total cost $745.

That's a long way from $1500 and not an excessive jump from $465. But shocks are an outlier. I've no idea what would be good. Or their cost.

[Wallythacker]

If you want to get rid of it for 1500 I would be interested

Ya, I bet. I suspect there would be a lineup if I decided to offer it up for $1500!

[Loren]

At least I got you thinking outside the box.

The pitfall of a car like the Mirage is that the aftermarket is slim. If you can weld, and you're not afraid of doing a little research, math and experimentation... there's nothing you can't do.

You can even solve the lack of good aftermarket shocks problem that exists by retrofitting a "similar" shock to fit. Particularly easy with the rear shocks (there are probably some standard shocks that will bolt up without modification). The fronts might require a little fabrication of brackets. With a bit of creativity, you could probably fit a set of Koni, Bilstein, Tokiko or similar performance shocks. Adjustable if you wanted it. Of course "good shocks" are going to cost you probably $400-600 for a set. Plus the modification. And that's why I opted for the $600 Godspeed coilover kit that is readily available. It was the easy button.

But, it all depends on your goals. "Good handling" can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. If you're just talking "make the car FEEL better" vs. "make the car go around a corner faster than it has any right to and leave Porsche owners wondering what just happened", that's a little easier to achieve!

If you've got time and want to bake your brain, you can read more about my custom lower control arm / roll center correction project.
http://drivefast.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3064

And pretty much everything I did to my Mirage is documented here:
http://drivefast.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2932