Wouldn't it be great to have a dialogue with the guys who designed our cars? I've been looking at upgrading my wheels to a 17" rim, but the ones I'm interested in weigh 23 pounds. Ok, so exactly how is that going to effect acceleration and ride? What range of wheel weight was the stock suspension originally designed for? How about flow parameters for our intake and exhaust systems? Maybe shed some insight into the ECU programming? Perhaps a little chat about our paint and transmissions? The Mazda engineers figured all this stuff out (or at least I hope they did.), but the public at large never has access to that specific information. Maybe the manufacturers are afraid of liability or revealing some proprietary secrets, but it sure would make the after-market tuner's life a lot easier... End of rant.

 

yes

 

Richard,

I agree with everything you wrote, however, I think you're missing my point. (Also, I've not had any problems with my transmission, and especially since I poured the Redline in it, though other drivers seem to have had their share of trouble.) I'd be more interested in the unpublished Mazda design specifications. For example: the stock springs and struts were designed for a certain amount of unsprung weight - what's the range? And my paint has held-up pretty well, though not as good as the lead-free cross-linked polymer based paint Nissan uses. Anyway, it would be nice to pick the brain of a Mazda engineer for some of the answers.