I called Racing Beat

[02ProtegeES]

Some people on this board say that the MP3 does not have the Racing Beat springs and it is only 0.2" lower than the ES so I decided to call Racing Beat. They said that the MP3 does have their springs. I do not know who to believe know. Anyone one knows?

 

[PatProtegeGT]

I have the Racing Beat coil spring on my car and they are from an MP3.

1 inch of drop.

 

[tritonheat1]

Springs

Regular Protege's Height: 55.5inches

Protege MP3 Height: 55.3inches yes so it's only 0.2inches difference.

 

[cfbjr]

That heigh difference is not necessarily from the springs.

 

[Korey Chaos]

Is a 1 inch drop enuff of a drop to be noticed?I guess it depends on the rims and tires too but come on, what size should u have on to notice a drop with Racing Beat springs? Just asking because my friend said thats its real noticable. Yall tell me.

 

[JcsMP3]

Put your mp3 beside a P5 and you will see the front end is lower on the P5.

Our springs are OEM Mazda... not Racing beat...

Jc

 

[cfbjr]

Actually our springs are Racing Beat performance springs. They are 16% stiffer in the front and 19% stiffer in the rear than the stock springs.

 

[JcsMP3]

Right on the page of Racing beat.

Springs

Racing Beat designed and supplied a set of lowering springs on the Protege that was delivered to Mazda. The springs that are equipped on the production run of the Protege MP3 were manufactured by a Mazda OEM supplier. Racing Beat will be offering suspension springs for selected Protege sedan and Protege 5 models.

Jc....

btw here is the link to their site for the MP3 Look under Project parts

http://www.racingbeat.com/FRprotege.htm

 

[02ProtegeES]

some dude I know with a black ES bought the Racing beat springs, Tokico shocks, Racing beat muffler, racing Beat sway bars in other words he did a complete MP3 change over to his ES including the Racing Hart rims. His car still has a big fenderwell gap above the rims. He wished he would have bought the Eibach springs like I did. I have about 1.5" gap.

 

[70]

Why did you post this question twice???

Here is what I put in the other thread on the same topic:

SEARCH PEOPLE!!!

This has been covered a number of times.

Here is the deal. Mazda went to Racing Beat and said, "Make the Protege handle better."

Racing Beat did that with Tockico shocks and using their own springs. They also tried to make a little more power but had to scrap those ideas because of lack of time.

Mazda took the Prototype MP3 and scrapped most of the stuff for more power. They then took the specs of the Racing Beat springs and had their OEM supplier make springs that are proportionally the same (as far as spring rates are concerned) as the Racing Beat springs with a slightly higher but still less than stock ride height. This also probably saved MAzda a bunch of cash.

For all tense and purposes the springs in the MP3 are Racing Beat springs, complete with the red powder coating and the same spring rates (proportionately) that Racing Beat gave them.

The springs that Racing Beat sells on their web-site are basically the same, they just lower the Protege a little more.

That is why there is a difference in ride height between the MP3 and the Racing Beat springs and the percentage of stiffness between the two springs.

 

[JcsMP3]

OK well you're saying they are the same BUT different....

Different ride height and different spring rate, therefore they are not Racing Beat springs. They are knock offs and a bad replication at that if they couldn't get the same ride height and spring rate.

Conclusion... They are different, they lower the car more and they are stiffer.... maybe not by much but they are....

Jc

 

[BondoBob]

Correct. I wonder why Mazda would have Racing Beat spec the spring, then Mazda clones it down to the red powercoating. Why bother, they could have just gotten a deal on the correct spring from Racing Beat and lined their "unofficial" tuning house pockets with a couple more bucks.

Unless, RB spec'd the spring but couldn't make ramp-up to production to suit Mazda's timetable. 1500x4=6000 springs.

 

[Gyre]

The ride height might be the big thing. Driveways are steep around here. A .875 inch drop would cause me a few problems.

 

[70]

I would suspect that Mazda didn't want to drop the car as much as Racing Beat did because of ground clearance issues and to make it easier for the stealerships to do maintenance with out having to go and buy a but load a specialty equipment to deal with maybe one or two cars.

And who is to say Mazda didn't line their pockets on the deal. They get their OEM supplier to make some spirngs, Mazda gets a huge break on price because they already have a contract with them. Mazda probably didn't want to pay the extra money to have Racing Beat go to RB's supplier to make the springs. That would cost more. Time table factors were also present.

So they (Mazda) get a cheaper (cost wise) spring deal with springs that are basically the same as what Racing Beat gave them and slapped Racing Beat's name on the car. Hence, money for Mazda, pay less for the spring and charge the same as if it were made by Racing Beat's spring supplier.

Like I say, for all tense and purposes the MP3 has Racing Beat springs. The rates are proportionately the same. When the ride height is slightly different you don't need as stiff springs if the car sits relativley close to stock. Drop the car more, you need stiffer springs to deal with less suspension travel.

If you think we don't have RB springs it really doesn't matter. Go buy what ever you want. It's rediculous to argue over something this minute. It is my opinion however, if you own an MP3 and buy the springs that Racing Beat offers, you just wasted your money because you just bought something you already had.

If you don't have Racing Beat springs, they might be a worthy investment because they spent some serious development time making the Protege handle better. I can't say that for Eibach, H&R, etc...

AWR would be my next choice for a suspension set up.