Am I right or wrong...?, control arm prices Options

[wannafbody]

Since I bought a Miata I've had to buy some parts. I did the mandatory shock and spring combo and in the process needed a couple control arms. I looked at a popular Miata shop and they sell 2 lower control arms with poly bushings for $700 or a set of 8 for $1795 ($225 each). Needless to say I bought stock parts for way, way, way less. After reading a thread hyping these control arms I posted pricing for comparable control arms for the fbody sold as sets of 2 for less than $400 as a reference and stated that $700 for 2 wasn't IMO realistic pricing. Well, 2 posters starting giving me sh-t. Do I deserve crap for pointing out a less than stellar deal?

BTW, this does make me realize that fbody guys have some very good vendor choices.

[trackbird]

There are probably far more people out there (just look at some of the other sites) buying anything to make their F-body quicker at the drag strip (it's true). Sadly, I'm betting that most miata drivers just drive them. So, if it's not legal for Spec Pinata or CS (they are in CS, right?), they probably don't sell many. So, I'm going to bet there is a premium on them due to far lower sales volume. I'm going to bet that we (as a set of car owners across the board) buy parts at a 30:1 ratio over the Miata crew. I could be wrong on the exact ratio, but I'm guessing it's not a small disparity.

[sgarnett]

I'll bet there's a lot more Miatas in the road. Even if a lower pecentage are modified, that's a small piece of a large pie. Fwiw, there was an adjustable Miata swaybar long before there was anything for the fbod except weld-i-y kits.

On the bright side, fuel and tire expenses arw much lower for the Miata, and that's a recurring benefit.

[wannafbody]

Well over 900,000 Miatas have been produced since they were introduced so the potential market is quite high since the arms are legal for SCCA autocross and HPDE. I doubt they are legal for Spec Miata.

This post has been edited by wannafbody: Aug 21 2009, 07:46 PM

[roostmeyer]

I think their overpriced as well, but I attribute that more to there being a lot of competition on the f-body market. I wouldn't mind picking up a set of upper rears, but at $410/pair I'll hold off.

IMO the lower a-arms aren't quite scary, but they suffer the same downfall as almost all the other aftermarket arms out there, not nearly enough moment of inertia around the spring/shock mount. For something marketed to road racers and autocrossers, the eccentric adjustment in the lower front a-arm does scare me though, thats a lot of brake torque being pushed through a 10mm bolt. I would probably buy a set of simple lightweight front upper a-arms with another degree of caster and another half to 3/4 degree of camber built in, I'm not sure anything more than that is necessary for a STS car. It really would not be that difficult to make fixturing that could do a built to order alignment for the customer...