Progress RF Springs
2016-2024 · RF
Good-Win Racing Exclusive....Get RF Heights Right!
PART NUMBER: 61-1847RF
DESCRIPTION
The BEST RF Springs, the EASY way to lower your MX5 RF correctly! These springs result in about 1 inch of lowering, rates are about 20% stiffer than stock. These are made exclusively for Good-Win Racing for the RF version of the ND Miata to work with stock shocks and have heights and stance work out correct for the RF version (most OTHER springs not calibrated for higher rear weight of RF end up with rear settling too low eventually and ugly reverse rake jokingly known in the forums as the 'speedboat' look). Rates are specific to the RF version, adding a little more rear spring rate to balance the car correctly with the extra rear weight of the RF version. Detailed specs below:
Ride Height
Stock heights on our ND were 14.25 to 14.75. Lowered heights with these springs approximately 13.5 inches front, and generally a bit over 13.5+ inches rear (measured car empty center of wheel up to fender lip, car levels once people are added since driver and passenger are almost sitting on rear suspension). RF Springs shown here with our 17x7 Storm Wheels
Note if you add our KONI SPORT shocks they are much lower pressure because of twin tube design as compared with factory monotube and result with KONI shocks will be ANOTHER half inch lower than what we list here. Your results will vary depending on which shock you use and the age of the shocks, as shock pressure declines over time the car will settle lower.
The engineering staff at Progress has decades of experience in the design and tuning of performance suspension systems, including CART/Indy Cars, IMSA, SCCA, NASA, and SCORE competitors. These MX5 springs reflect their ability to develop a successful blend of appearance, handling capability, and ride quality. Our team works with Progress on each Miata application spring, and with nearly a decade of working with Progress we know the result will show the quality and consistent performance that we feel raises the cornering joy level of the ND platform to a new level.
Spring Rate
STOCK spring rates are 156 front for all models, and 80 to 100 rear.
Progress RF Spring rates 185 Front, 135 rear.
These MX5 RF springs feature increased spring rates for upgraded handling capabilities. These springs are designed to work with OEM shocks and bumpstops but will benefit further from using high performance shocks such as Koni Sport shocks. Progress specifies only certified high-tensile SAE spring wire materials. Their MX5 springs are cold-wound on modern CNC coiling machines, then stress relieved, pre-set, and shot-peened for maximum durability.
-All spring kits are powdercoated metallic gray.
-Drop amount varies by 0.25" depending on shocks used.
BRIAN'S APPLICATION NOTES: These are a great choice for those who want to replace the soggy factory springs to take out some of the crazy factory body roll, and improve handling, without dropping the car a lot. Lean on them in the turns and you will find the car is flatter and faster because the tires stay flatter to the ground instead of rolling onto the sidewalls as happens with the soggy factory springs. For those who want MORE DROP than the the springs provide, combine these springs with our KONI SPORT shocks. For those who want the car even more flat in the turns, combine these with our Sway Bar Upgrades. I recommend our SHORT BUMPSTOP KIT (item 61-3050 on this site) with these springs.
Shown below on our own 2017 RF on factory standard shocks and Progress Sways AND our short bumpstops.
INSTALL NOTES: As with the NC, so it also important with similar ND to not lock down the bolts to the suspension after install while the car is suspended in the air with the suspension fully extended. Bounce it on the ground, then give it a drive around the block with the bolts just snug so you get it to settle before you torque everything ON THE GROUND. Many shops will NOT know to do this...SMART CUSTOMERS PRINT ALL THIS PAGE FOR THE INSTALLER! See details in our forum installation section from NC application, thread is titled: "Spring Installation, Mazda Workshop Manual Notes" and factory TSB notes below. Once you do it right, drive it 500 miles and then do it again (which usually results in another quarter inch or more of lowering)....and then do the alignment. ROCKY'S TIPS: Our head mechanic Rocky has his own method that seems to work even better than the factory TSB. Once he finishes install at each corner he jacks up just that corner with BOTH UPPER AND LOWER LINKs loose, so the full weight of the car is compressing just that corner, then he torques the bolts...and he finds car will still settle with 500 miles but usually only another 1/8th inch.
Below is NC service manual notes, but design with ND is so similar that same rules apply.
ALIGNMENT:
Alignment depends much on what you do with the car, there is no one set of numbers that works for everyone, the starting numbers below are what we consider minimum for getting the fun from this car. Assuming no autocross or track use, for pure street driving my suggestion is:
Front Camber -1.8
Toe IN 1/32nd per side (some shops call this 1/16th 'total' toe in).
Caster 6.5
Rear Camber -1.2
Toe IN 1/32nd per side
Racers will take much more camber and zero toe all corners (and usually full coilovers instead of just these very mild street springs). Autocross customers will toe OUT the front, track users usually toe ZERO front and rear.
Pictures ABOVE are on stock shocks, picture BELOW is what you get when you add our KONI SPORT Shocks. Stock shocks are monotubes, the Koni Sport shocks are lower pressure twin tubes, result is the car settles lower than before, now about 13 inches front and about 13.25 rear (about half an inch below what we were with our RF springs on stock shocks).
Picture Below Courtesy Customer Derek Howard. Also featuring our CarbonMiata Grille and Konig Hypergram 17x8 Wheels:
CUSTOMERS WHO BOUGHT THIS ITEM ALSO BOUGHT
TEAM RECOMMENDATIONS
Customer Reviews
Progress RF Springs
These springs are worth it. Installed them with Bilstein B8 shocks and GWR White/Red bumpstops, polyurethane tophat bushings.
In one word, the car is PLANTED. Gone is the wallow and clunk of the factory setup, this has the poise of a jungle cat. Certainly more taut, not harsh though. Bigger hits slam with serious force, but there is zero after-shake. Comfortable on the turnpike, literally cannot be unsettled by anything I have thrown at them.
These springs and shocks finally make my Miata feel like a real sports car.
With the Bilsteins it's not radically lower, but looks more levelled. It's only been two days, so it should settle more over time.
I bought my MX5 ND2 GTMT for its good performance rating and a fun top down driving experience.
After driving in a spirited manner on twisty roads for a while I felt I needed to overcome what I thought was excessive body sway. Mazda built the feature into the car for driver experience, some what like the induction sound enhancer you'll find in the ND2 generation car that pipes sounds from the intake to the passenger cabin. Two experiences I could live without.
I purchased from GWR upgraded sway bars for the ND and the car performance was much better but I still had a little too much body sway for my driving style so I consulted with Rocky Murphy at Rocky's Miatomotive. I thought I would add a rear shock tower but Rocky recommended the Progress Springs built specifically for my NDRF. The springs and shock bar where comparable in cost. Based on literally years of Miata experience I followed his suggestion and installed the Progress Springs with Comfort Bump Stops.
WOW! Thanks GWR and Rocky.
The new springs with the factory Bilstein shocks are a perfect match. Gone is the spongy bouncy feel and excessive sway. The springs are shorter and a little stiffer so when I hit my first set of rail road tracks I was surprised to find less shock to the suspension. Now the car sits about 1 inch lower, looks much better and is like slipping into a glove in the twisties. Recommend!
This lowered my Miata's front by about 0.75 inch and rear by 0.5 inch from stock. It doesn't sound like much, but it does make the fender gap look a lot better without lowering ride height to a point where I have to worry about scraping everywhere I go. Dive, squat and roll are all reduced a bit, but the ride quality is proportionately stiffer. It's a bit of a tradeoff, but I think it's worth it overall. Highly recommended.
It took almost all of one day to complete the installation, but could have been done in half a day if I knew what I was doing. There weren't any useful install instructions that came with the Progress springs, but I found instructions online that were helpful.
Just amazing, how well these Progress RF springs work with the stock Bilstein shocks...the bouncy-ness has been replaced with a confident firmness that's equally more capable AND comfortable at the same time. I'm not giving all credit to Progress, Bilstein deserves credit too, they just needed a spring more closely matched to their valving. With Enkei PFM1 8.5" wheels, 245/40 Firehawks & a big hollow swaybar, this thing is a cornering beast! I understand some will want a track-oriented setup, but for the street, this is damn near unbeatable, IMO. To think $240 takes you from bouncy stock to seriously competent is money well spent. I've heard some complaints about bottoming on the forums, but no, I TRIED to make the car bottom and couldn't do it. Not sure what's going on with those cars that are bottoming. Very glad I tried the springs before dumping $$$ on a suspension setup; nothing wrong with coil overs, just happy with the results I've gotten.
How are these not the springs that come with the car? All I can say is just buy them. This one change transforms all the general ride flaws. The car is better in every way for having these. Great job on the design. True no-brainer upgrade. I did it early on this MX5. In the past I waited 10-20K miles before changing out suspension components. This time, I had 1200 miles on the car. So glad I didn't wait! The smile this ND2 gives me just got much broader.
I had these Progress RF Springs installed along with the RoadsterSport ND Sway Bar Combo about a month after purchasing the car. As the other reviews mention, they drop the car about an inch. Prior to install my drivers side rear measured about a quarter inch or so lower than the front, and that didn't seem to change after the drop. No biggie.
Along with 17x8 +45 Advanti Storm rims, sways on stiff, a little track camber, and 225/45 Falken 660 tires, I took the car to Buttonwillow Raceway and ran the standard CW13 configuration. The brakes underperformed so I wasn't able to go quicker than 2:05, running mostly 2:06 to 2:08 through the day, but there were no issues with the handling at those lap times. I doubt there would be any problems going a few seconds quicker.
There was no rubbing into the on-camber corners like Off-ramp or through Riverside, and no floating on the slight off-camber Cotton Corners and over Phill Hill. I ride the rumble stripes and hop curbs through Cotton Corners, Bus Stop, and the Esses, and the car never got unsettled. It transitioned very well, loaded smoothly, and leaned only enough to give you a sense of the corner.
I'm sure Koni's would provide less roll than the stock Bilstein shocks, but the ride to and from the track was great. Stiffer than stock but forgiving, especially when back on the stock wheels and tires. These springs work well for a RF that should only see 2-3 fun, non-competitive track days a year. They provide a great middle ground between the squishy stock ride and a harsh race-car ride.
Just get these. Best bang for my buck improvement to my 2020 RF GT with the stock bilsteins. Ride and handling much improved with literally no drawbacks. Dropped one inch.
After I installed GWR compete street exhaust combo, I was emboldened to take on this install myself and it went great. Took all day but half of the time was fiddling with the spring compressor to figure out how to use it properly. Get the harbor freight nicer one piece compressor. Still cheap and was easy to use once I figured it out.
I did manage to strip one of the studs on a front top hat using a cheap torque wrench. Get a decent one.
I had already added anti-sway bars to minimize the (atrocious) body roll that I never expected to have to deal with in a Mazda MX5. After the improvement with stiffer bars, I decided to try to go a conservative (further) upgrade with these springs after also considering the more competitive offerings for autocross. At the same time, considering doing the work myself, I decided to take advantage of the price reduction of the Koni Sport shocks and add them to the upgrade rather than risk a much more aggressive spring change. This was a change mentioned as an option on the write up with Brian's notes. Koni Sport shocks include instructions that are easily misinterpreted- suffice it to say that their note about using the TOP setting for the height adjustment being used when adding LOWERING springs resulted in just what they said- normal ride height after installation- even though the Progress Springs write up IMPLIED a drop of about 1 inch. The mistake I made resulted in having to REPEAT the entire job a second time- this time(after talking to a Koni Rep)I was told that the change in shock pressure from the factory shock was accounted for by using POSITION 2. All my fault, two different products and confusing instructions led to a delay and a repeat of the work.AFTER correcting this mistake, I achieved the same drop and results. It looks great, feels VERY firm and makes me think the 20% spring rate increase is augmented by the very much stiffer Koni shock so that I would have regretted going with any stiffer springs.
WOW...
The height drop is not that much, it does look better, BUT when you drive it.
Car should have come with these springs from the factory.
This should absolutely, no doubt be the first thing you do to the car.
The ride is firm but not harsh, and the grip and the feel are massive gains.
Just put these springs on yesterday and it lowered my car about an inch. Such a huge improvement in looks. I haven't had a chance to test the ride thoroughly but what little I have it seems to be sticking better to the road (not sure how much of that is a placebo effect). But the change in ride height is worth it alone.
I had the Progress Technology Springs for the RF installed last week with the alignment completed just the other day. I wanted to reduce the wheel gap and reduce the amount of body roll. The ride height changed from 14"-14.5" to 13.25"-13.5". The change in feel was immediate. The car felt more planted and the body roll and front-end wandering was noticeably reduced. The impact on ride quality was modest. There is a bit more harshness and impact shocks from broken pavement. The ride quality is still excellent for such a small car.
The alignment really brought everything together. The car tracks straight and feels so much more planted now versus new. I was so cautious about changing the suspension on a new car. While originally driven by wanting to improve the aesthetics for getting new wheels, the improvement in driving dynamics was much more significant than I expected.
Just had these installed @ Rocky's Miatamotive. Great Guy, really knows his Miatas. I'm pushing 50 & really didn't want a harsher ride than stock. The Miata GTS is soft/smooth over bumps & imperfections and while that's fine for touring, in harder driving it really got unsettled. "Sloshy" is a word I'd use for twisty road manners. The Progress Springs combined with the GWR Bump Stops have nicely settled the car down. Road imperfections ARE slightly "sharper" but not harsh or unsettling. The car now sits right & feels much tighter. When we picked it up from Rocky's my wife commented "Yup, its lower" and my butt actually noticed the difference in the drop into the driver's seat:) This car is a treat to begin with & these springs really are icing on the cake. Good Stuff!!!!
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