This car has been about 6-7 years in the making, you can catch up here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/2011-mazda2-not-so-srs-bzns-stf-build/100748/page1/ In a nutshell it started out for autocross, then I discovered track days, wrecked the car on my way to work and ditched it for a Miata, didn't like that, so sold it and threw money at this car again, and just recently have gotten more serious and have put now the third set of coilovers I've bought/built for this car... Could have had MCSs by now 
Anyways here is the current relevant info:
-Redshift Motorsports 11k/10k digressive valved shocks, the rears are a prototype with the large 46mm body vs the BC basic kit 36mm bodies. The start out as BC racing shocks and then get revalved by Chris at Redshift Motorsports for a highly digressive curve. Makes them VERY comfortable even over rough pavement.
-No front bar, DDMWorks *and* Mazdaspeed B Spec rear sway bar cranked down to give zero rear toe. I have some White line sway bar end links to play with the front bar at some point.
-15x9 et35 and 15x7.5 et35 Konig Dekagrams reverse staggered with 225/45 and 195/50R15 Hankook RS4s
-DDMWorks short ram intake, Racing Beat muffler, Dynotronics tune - it put down 97whp a few years ago around 90k miles... It hit 170k miles on my way to Summit Point in the above photo. Also has a DDMWorks short shifter and bushings
Here's a clip of it's maiden track day since all the changes at Summit Point on the Shenandoah Circuit:
Big thanks to www.joer.photo for the pics from Summit Point!
My fiancee had so much fun driving it on track last October, that we picked her up her own car for daily/track fun. It is known as Blueboy.. It'll get its own build thread eventually but for now you can follow progress of both cars on Instagram at www instagram.com/dropped.deuces if you really want.
Anyways... Back to Tot: it got the name from my son. We were driving one day and he asked me the cars name... I didn't have an answer so he laughed and said, "It's called Tot because it's a tiny car." 
With the BCs, cut strut towers for more camber, light fender roll/pull, and a 3mm spacer for clearance it tucks the tire nicely into the fender. Zero problems rubbing on track.
Username and car looks familiar. You weren't on Mazdas247 back in the day, were you?
Another car I have been eyeing. I am super interested.
hooray b-spec-ish / SundaeCup, etc
please continue
love these little cars. they really feel like a modern version of a first gen GTI.
the name is great too. our neighbors have an endearing, square little nugget of a dog named Tater, or Tater Tot if they want to call him his full name. this 2 feels like it has the same little nugget shape and goes with the friendly demeanor.
its interesting you dumped the miata to come back to this. was it driving dynamics that you just preferred or maybe some of the practicality as well? seems really capable in your hands. 170k miles of this kind of treatment is nothing to gloss over either, that's awesome.
This is Wedge. I'm interested in the changes you've made. Following along.
infernosg - yes I was on M247. I had a thread there and also mirrored here on the GRM forum. The original build is HERE
ScottyB - I agree about these feeling like a modern early GTI.
Re: its interesting you dumped the miata to come back to this. was it driving dynamics that you just preferred or maybe some of the practicality as well? seems really capable in your hands. 170k miles of this kind of treatment is nothing to gloss over either, that's awesome.
I can't really say. I've driven very well set up Miatas, Corvettes, etc... And I still come back to liking this stupid little car. I think it's mostly the simplicity, reliability, low cost of everything, and the fact that not a TON of people drive them like this. Everyone expects a Miata to be fast. They don't know wtf this thing is in their rear view mirror as they point me by
And thanks everyone else for the kind words! I've got some silly plans for this car once the suspension is 100% sorted and I get some more seat time. Goal #1 is to hit up a few new tracks in 2021 to sort it out and get more experience myself then go under the knife before the 2022 season.
Right now the Redshift Motorsports coilovers are GREAT, the ONLY gripe is them over large bumps on the highway, get a "falling" feeling when it does get bounced upward. I suspect the high rates vs unsprung weight (450lb avg rear corner weight with 560lb rear springs for reference) means I'm running out of droop travel so gravity is what I'm feeling with <1in downtravel. Some may also be shock tuning so I'm constantly fiddling with stuff on my way and from work, making it better little by little.
I'm currently entertaining the idea of running a double spring setup with some ~100-150lb tender springs that would be blocked at ride height, but give some additional downtravel so the body isn't free falling back to the ground. *IF* this is the issue. I am using my GoPro to watch the wheels/body with every change in making too.
To be clear it rides WAY better than the 6k/5k regular BCs ever did though.
NCCAR last year on Hoosier SM7s and 15x7.5s square on the old 6k/5k setup.
This is WITH my 200lb self in it. And some stuff still in the car because laziness.
Testing for clearance. I ended up needing to add a 3mm spacer to be safe because of everything flexing under load and just barely scraping the strut. This is with camber bolts installed/maxed, and I also have camber+caster added at the top hat by cutting the center hole larger on the body to allow the BC plates to not be centered.
Few more photos from Summit Point
Tire wear was impressively even for a strut FWD car which is really one of the highest priorities with this thing(after generally just feeling good on track). This is after ~100mi on track.
I wish i would have the balls to go with high rates like that in my Fiesta ST. Im on some lowering springs and Bilstein B8s and the body roll is nuts.
How much camber are you running? I see you cut the shock tower. Do you adjust before/after each event or set and forget?
kevinatfms said:
I wish i would have the balls to go with high rates like that in my Fiesta ST. Im on some lowering springs and Bilstein B8s and the body roll is nuts.
How much camber are you running? I see you cut the shock tower. Do you adjust before/after each event or set and forget?
I just drive it the same all the time. I do have the benefit of owning tire machines in my garage so I can flip and rotate as necessary. When you're running zero toe it doesn't have a huge effect unless you're putting nothing but highway miles on the car. I run about -3 deg camber btw. I also plan on getting another set of tires to put on my old TRM C1 wheels for daily use to keep wear off of the dedicated track tires. Probably some Conti ECS like on Blueboy, They are so nice.
I know the car has a ton of miles, but I'm not putting 100 miles a day on it anymore like I used to. It sees about 500-800mi per month now.
Higher spring rates are really not so bad, you have to have the shocks to control them though. Honestly, I'm a little curious as to how it would feel with 6K / 7K or 6K / 8K with front and rear sway bars. I really liked the way that it felt when it had a bit of body roll on the 6/5k setup, They just needed a little more rear spring rate and of course better shocks.
I will say that my 11k/10k on the red shift motorsports shocks are way better than the 6K/5K BC setup.
In reply to flatlander937 :
Awesome! I knew the username and car were familiar. I was pretty regular there as well. Had a turbocharged Protege5 for a while then got into RX7s. Had a red FC. Broke that at Mid-Ohio then built another FC that's now orange. I used to live in SW Ohio but I've been back in VA for the past 4.5 years or so. We're probably not too far from each other now. One of these days I'll get up to Summit Point and out to VIR. I just started tracking the orange FC this year and have been almost exclusively going to Dominion Raceway.
In reply to infernosg :
Where in Ohio? I lived between Dayton and Cincinnati from 2010-2015 before moving back to this area. I forgot to update my info, I actually live in Newport News now, so we're only about an hour and a half from each other. I plan on hitting the other Summit tracks, VIR, and maybe Dominion (I've heard that it's not exactly worth going to... crappy pavement, walls everywhere, questionable tirewalls). My fiancee has family in Fredericksburg that we visit/stay with frequently and Dominion is only 20 min away so I'll probably go to see for myself at some point.
Add me on Facebook and let me know if you plan on going, would be fun to meet up. https://www.facebook.com/tony.mester
I've recently thought hard about getting one of these to replace my FRS, but the idea of starting all over without running one around a track first keeps that from happening.
In reply to flatlander937 :
Done! Oh man, we were right next to each other! I lived in West Chester from June '08 through 2015. Now I'm in Chesterfield. I've been to Dominion several times. It's not a top-tier course like Mid-Ohio or VIR but it's better than nothing. The surface is really only bad in one spot - the last corner before the front straight. Since it's under the bridge into the infield it looks like it sees a lot of water runoff when it rains. There's a lot of wall in the 1st half of the track. The sketchiest part is probably turn 1, which has literally no runoff and is right off the main straight where I can hit over 120 mi/hr. I've never been to Summit Point. I'm hoping for a weekend event in the future since it looks to take me ~3 hours to get there. I'm ~2 hrs from VIR and I've been there several times to watch races but I've never been on track.
infernosg said:
I'm ~2 hrs from VIR and I've been there several times to watch races but I've never been on track.
man...its so worth it to drive that one. what a great track, no matter what course setup they're running. billiard pavement and good runoff in most places.
infernosg said:
In reply to flatlander937 :
Done! Oh man, we were right next to each other! I lived in West Chester from June '08 through 2015. Now I'm in Chesterfield. I've been to Dominion several times. It's not a top-tier course like Mid-Ohio or VIR but it's better than nothing. The surface is really only bad in one spot - the last corner before the front straight. Since it's under the bridge into the infield it looks like it sees a lot of water runoff when it rains. There's a lot of wall in the 1st half of the track. The sketchiest part is probably turn 1, which has literally no runoff and is right off the main straight where I can hit over 120 mi/hr. I've never been to Summit Point. I'm hoping for a weekend event in the future since it looks to take me ~3 hours to get there. I'm ~2 hrs from VIR and I've been there several times to watch races but I've never been on track.
Nice! Yeah I was in West Carrollton on the border of Springboro.
So I've been throwing my GoPro on my car to watch the suspension and caught a pretty violent hit to the bumpstops which I thought was kind of cool to see .. the whole engine/trans shakes and you can also watch the rear wheel hop off the ground.
I suspect that incorporating tender springs (about 100-150lb/in) all around would be helpful in giving better ride over undulations like this in addition to either trimming or replacing the bump stops with something softer. I MAY go up to 650-700lb front springs with no bar, but also want to test out 450 + front bar before resorting to that. The 450s would not require tenders which would be nice.
So finally got around to fitting the 450 springs front and rear (7in front 6in rear). I also took the time to set the shock lengths perfect for bottoming out on the bump stops with clearance when turning. The video is with Ground Control soft strut bump stops installed, control arm pushed all the way up to a ~20.5in ride height.
The 11k(616lb) 7in spring was just a tad too long that I actually NEEDED to preload it a tad to keep a normal ride height at 23.5in ground to fender up front. I hate preloaded springs because that's downtravel you are giving up. With such high rates you want any you can get because it's next to nothing to begin with.
I set ride height at 23.125-23.25 up front, which means about 1in of travel before the bumps start engaging, and another 1.75in of a rate increase of roughly 200lb/in as per another Mazda2 cult member... Er... owner who has measured them. I think his name is DPS2004 or something on here?
For the record my 15x7.5 ET42 + 5mm spacer (so effectively ET37) with a 195 wide tire could actually go about 1/2 in further into the wheel well, time will tell but that may be worth pursuing, though I'd probably get a 15x8 ET35 Hypergram instead to keep the sidewall supported.
This is all in preparation for VIR February 6-7 with TSCC. We'll be running full course Saturday and North course Sunday. Super excited about that.
Also getting married in less than two weeks, and have a new job starting soon as an ADAS calibration technician, so stuff has been pretty exciting.
Oh I also got another Miata. It's temporary though, got it cheap to fix a few minor issues and flip for profit. There's a new Robbins heated glass top waiting to go on later this week when I have time. I took care of a bad wheel hub and radiator already, and it needs a knock sensor and leak detection pump then should be ready to sell.
Playing around with sway bars this week, I am robbing the 15x7 Advantis with Conti ECS off of Blueboy (and put some 15x7.5 TRM C1s on it with worn out 195 RS4s to hold it up in the meantime) in case Sunday rains and snows at VIR like is currently in the forecast.
Running VIR Full Course Saturday, North Course Sunday... Can't wait!
In reply to flatlander937 :
I used to run -2.5 on the Forte all summer long. With zero toe, there was some wear over 10k miles, but nothing that a flip on the wheel didn't cure. I'd still get 30k miles out of tires easily.
And I think we feel the same way with our vehicle choices. Cheap, fun and not common.
So, I certainly haven't had the multitude of cars that others on this forum have, but I've had a lot of cars setup differently- 8th gen SI, c5 z06, 6spd 2004 TL, and my first car was an old inherited cruising Buick. I loved them all in their own way, but the SI was my favorite to drive (fast but wouldn't be at instant death speeds in 2nd gear), and the Acura is the cheapest to run so far, which I really love.
All this is to say that a small car that is cheap to run but also fun to drive may be my sweet spot.
I love this so far, and I'll be watching!
I saw the Tail of the dragon photos in the last forum- how was tot in that environment?
In reply to russ_mill :
It was really good. Super fun car to drive on the street in anger. Even though in reality it's painfully slow, it makes good noises and give a good sensation of speed if nothing else.
Been playing around with data on the street to test sway bars and at least get a feel for adding them both back on before venturing to VIR.
Nothing concrete yet as it's impossible to have the exact same entry speed, weather conditions, etc plus the RS4s get grippier the more you drove them, etc. BUT driving impressions are with all springs it feels good and absorbs everything mid corner with bumps, etc. With the stock front and the B Spec rear bar cranked down to zero toe, it feels more on edge, but just wants to go faster and faster. No bars seems to be a bit faster after the apex, but again with changing conditions it's hard to make sense of the squiggly lines. Lateral Gs seems to be in the sway bars favor with about 1.1g vs 1.0g average.
On track corner exit speed will be a big factor in overall lap times, which is where no bars seems to make their speed. Oddly enough wheel spin isn't really noticeable with the bars though... So again... Maybe conditions and driver variance.
I think to get corner exit wheel spin you need more than 97hp 
Really have enjoyed following along on this one as I work to prep a '11 Fiesta for HPDE this year. Lot's of shared knowledge here that I can apply.
