Penske 8300 Coilovers
#1
Penske 8300 Coilovers
Is anyone using Penske 8300 Coilovers on their Miata? I am building my 2004 Miata for the track (with occasional street use) with 250whp-270whp goals. I have been racing it bone stock on street tires, and its time to upgrade wheels/tires, suspension, and cooling. I only want to spend the money once on the suspension that I can overhaul in the future. Having read a lot of posts, XIDA BGK seems to be the popular choice. Penske 8300 is one of the highest end kits money can buy, but no one mentions it. Is it worth the $5K+ price tag, by the time it is all said and done? Thanks!
#3
Being that they exceed the value of most Miata's is probably why no one uses them. I haven't been around Miata's very long yet but it seems that there's much better choices for way less money than that. Specifically if you aren't racing competitively,I'd imagine that is insanely overkill for an occasional track day car.
#10
I run Penske 8300 of my own design and measurements.
They perform better than any Miata I've ever driven, and I've driven a fair few.
Funny enough, this is with out of the box settings because I upgraded to the Penskes recently and have yet to do any serious turning of the ***** to get the most out of it.. I've done 3 days on them so far, but all three were just taking passengers for fun rides (one at BRP, two at MRLS).
If you're the kind of guy that would leave the settings alone after installation and / or initial setup, it's a waste of time.
But if you're like me, which at normal events I will play with the setup all the time to make the most out of it, it is hard to think of a better way to go.
FWIW, I previously had on the car DAs from a miata vendor that were performing reasonably well, the Penskes were a HUGE upgrade from those even with everything set to full soft.
I'm a believer.
Moti
They perform better than any Miata I've ever driven, and I've driven a fair few.
Funny enough, this is with out of the box settings because I upgraded to the Penskes recently and have yet to do any serious turning of the ***** to get the most out of it.. I've done 3 days on them so far, but all three were just taking passengers for fun rides (one at BRP, two at MRLS).
If you're the kind of guy that would leave the settings alone after installation and / or initial setup, it's a waste of time.
But if you're like me, which at normal events I will play with the setup all the time to make the most out of it, it is hard to think of a better way to go.
FWIW, I previously had on the car DAs from a miata vendor that were performing reasonably well, the Penskes were a HUGE upgrade from those even with everything set to full soft.
I'm a believer.
Moti
#11
I run Penske 8300 of my own design and measurements.
They perform better than any Miata I've ever driven, and I've driven a fair few.
Funny enough, this is with out of the box settings because I upgraded to the Penskes recently and have yet to do any serious turning of the ***** to get the most out of it.. I've done 3 days on them so far, but all three were just taking passengers for fun rides (one at BRP, two at MRLS).
If you're the kind of guy that would leave the settings alone after installation and / or initial setup, it's a waste of time.
But if you're like me, which at normal events I will play with the setup all the time to make the most out of it, it is hard to think of a better way to go.
FWIW, I previously had on the car DAs from a miata vendor that were performing reasonably well, the Penskes were a HUGE upgrade from those even with everything set to full soft.
I'm a believer.
Moti
They perform better than any Miata I've ever driven, and I've driven a fair few.
Funny enough, this is with out of the box settings because I upgraded to the Penskes recently and have yet to do any serious turning of the ***** to get the most out of it.. I've done 3 days on them so far, but all three were just taking passengers for fun rides (one at BRP, two at MRLS).
If you're the kind of guy that would leave the settings alone after installation and / or initial setup, it's a waste of time.
But if you're like me, which at normal events I will play with the setup all the time to make the most out of it, it is hard to think of a better way to go.
FWIW, I previously had on the car DAs from a miata vendor that were performing reasonably well, the Penskes were a HUGE upgrade from those even with everything set to full soft.
I'm a believer.
Moti
#12
I love mine and beyond that, I see no need to justify any of my purchases to anyone on some internet forum.
It's your car, buy whatever you want / makes you happy... who cares if you're racing competitively or just want to drive HPDE in a point-by run group?
I couldn't give two ***** if someone feels like I should spend my money differently
Note that the actual amount of people that have first hand experience with these shocks can probably be counted on a bomb squad guy's hand, so don't expect much useful input.
It's your car, buy whatever you want / makes you happy... who cares if you're racing competitively or just want to drive HPDE in a point-by run group?
I couldn't give two ***** if someone feels like I should spend my money differently
Note that the actual amount of people that have first hand experience with these shocks can probably be counted on a bomb squad guy's hand, so don't expect much useful input.
#16
We've got XIDAs on our CSP autocross car and love them.
We plan to upgrade to Penskes this winter because we want double-adjustability and because Penskes are user-serviceable (we're kinda nerds like that). But we're also pretty serious about trying to find a few tenths of a second on an autocross course.
As other people have said, if you're just doing HPDEs, a 1/2 second faster lap time means nothing. You don't need Penskes at all. XIDAs would probably still be overkill, really. Some Konis and a coilover kit would suit your needs just fine.
Neal Tovsen
We plan to upgrade to Penskes this winter because we want double-adjustability and because Penskes are user-serviceable (we're kinda nerds like that). But we're also pretty serious about trying to find a few tenths of a second on an autocross course.
As other people have said, if you're just doing HPDEs, a 1/2 second faster lap time means nothing. You don't need Penskes at all. XIDAs would probably still be overkill, really. Some Konis and a coilover kit would suit your needs just fine.
Neal Tovsen
#17
Is anyone using Penske 8300 Coilovers on their Miata? I am building my 2004 Miata for the track (with occasional street use) with 250whp-270whp goals. I have been racing it bone stock on street tires, and its time to upgrade wheels/tires, suspension, and cooling. I only want to spend the money once on the suspension that I can overhaul in the future. Having read a lot of posts, XIDA BGK seems to be the popular choice. Penske 8300 is one of the highest end kits money can buy, but no one mentions it. Is it worth the $5K+ price tag, by the time it is all said and done? Thanks!
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09-17-2015 09:20 PM