Just Some Random ADD Thoughts/ Tire Recommendation

Hi All,

I haven’t been as active on this site as the last one, and even then I was not the most active person. I have had my Speed for about 7 years. She has been paid off, retired to racecar duty, and I am sure there are others on here that are in the same situation as I was/am.

I have been toying around with the idea of selling it for a couple years now. I just lost the love for the car that I once had. Its been the best car I have owned. No repairs needed except a thermostat and clutch due to the increased power. Currently at 127,000 miles near the top of max hp/tq that the stock block can handle. I am an idiot and got a Jeep as my daily. I swear to God that I am constantly fixing that POS.

A buddy invited me to go to the Tail of the Dragon with him and his brother for a guys trip/ circle jerk. Being neglected for a couple years, I had to do some maintenance and freshen up the suspension. So I swapped out the Corksport springs/struts/shocks for Bilstein B14’s. Threw on some EBC Blues up front which are paired to G-LOC’s in the rear. Changed out the brake fluid to ATP type 200, and changed the Caitlyn Jenner fluid to Redline MTL (definitely switching back to FoMoCo as I was grinding 2nd to 3rd harder than a middle school kid at a dance(not me grinding the kids, the kids grinding(maybe this isnt the best analogy))). To top it all off, wrapped the Me-too special Enkei RPF1’s in 255/40/17 Maxxis Victra RC-1’s (more about those later).

Holy shit is this car a different beast. The Corksport setup is not a terrible set up, but with the Bilstein’s on there, I almost want to say its near perfect. The suspension is noticeably a shit ton firmer, but not harsh at all. Very minimal body roll in the twisties, and all-in-all a great set up. I was hesitant on getting coilovers due to it being my daily driver. “Back in the day” I heard stories of coilovers breaking and leaving drivers stranded. Of course this is around the time they first started hitting the market mainstream in the 90’s. Yes I know they were invented in the 60’s, but talking about mainstream here.

As for the tires… I have never had a tire that was able to put all the power down. These fucking things are beasts. I was actually about to get some Yoko Advan’s, but these popped up on my radar again. If you are like me, and the Speed is not your daily, do yourself a favor and pick these up. Dry grip is phenomenal. They put the power down without spinning in 2nd. When at the Dragon, I did not understeer once. Driving 2,500 miles, wear has been minimal. Definitely not bad for a 100w tire. I have not had them for their entire life cycle, but reviews are that they do not heat cycle out like others in the same bracket. Would I drive with them if the car was my daily? Probably not. All the dry performance comes at the cost of wet grip. I got caught in the rain once, and my bung-hole did not pucker up once. Of course you have to slow down, but they are manageable.

So to wrap it all up; If the love is not there like it used to be, freshen up what you can. Perform some maintenance. Go take the car out and beat the ever-loving-piss out of it. And also change out your shifter. And paint those raggedy-ass calipers.

Also want to give Matt@DM a shout out. This guy went above and beyond with me after the purchases. His customer service is as good as his products. Thank you kind sir.

 

These look like slicks? Of course you're hooking like mad in 2nd. I'm on Comp 2 A/Ss and they actually hook amazingly well for what they are from 2nd gear on up at around 280whp.

My '12 has been paid off since 2016. Still enjoy every minute behind the wheel, even as it's no longer a daily (got a CX-30 for that). I do miss the culture that these cars once had around them - I'm in need of a clutch soon at 118k miles and instead of being able to bang it out with some NATOR guys on a Saturday like in the old days, I'm staring down a $2,000 repair bill. The reality of getting older, you have more money, but less time for fun stuff like fixing an old Speed due to work/kid/life obligations.

 

Glad you're enjoying the car again, amazing what a refresh can do. If you're not liking the redline mtl trans fluid which I didn't either I reccomend tribodyn, it's become the go to fluid around here over Ford fluid, got a price tag to it but it's shifts and sounds great. https://mazdaspeeds.org/index.php?threads/transmission-fluid.10324/

 

Yeah definitely changed. The Nator facebook page is basically dead. Yeah they’re technically DOT approved slicks. Highly recommend.

Awesome. I will check that out, thank you.