i've been wanting to post about this for a while.

what is Flat Ride?
"Flat Ride" is not a new concept by any means - ZHPs/ZSPs came with it from the factory - and it is a means to a nice, 'harmonized' ride, where the front and rear suspension frequencies work together to cancel out bucking and pitching of the suspension. in our case, these frequencies were determined and selected by BMW; not all manufacturers seem to care about this. this is why stock springs and nice dampers really work well for these cars.

why should you care?
the obvious benefit is a smooth ride, but further benefits are: increased control, and greater comfort - think about how much your body is affected by a poorly-riding/bucking/pitching car - well, you probably haven't thought about it, but hopefully now you will. it can affect your mood, too.

why am i being a jerk and posting about this?
for lack of a less clichéd term... i care. i found out about this after researching why my bilstein PSS coilovers were so... weird. the car was bobbing in the front, and i could not figure out why. and my research lead me to shaikh @ FCM (Fat Cat Motorsport), who is the author of the videos i've included below (he cares too). but back to my issue - i found out that the bilstein PSS for my car didn't have flat ride. the rear springs were way too soft. and a lot of aftermarket spring manufacturers (i'm going to pick on H&R here because i'm 99% sure they provided the springs to bilstein for the PSS kits) are creating lowering spring sets without flat ride; no wonder they usually ride like crap! aftermarket coilover manufacturers do the same (i will admit that the MFactory coilovers of recent memory were designed with correct F/R frequencies in mind).

so?
i just wanted to put this out here. hopefully folks use it and benefit from it. i am currently rebuilding my bilstein PSS coilovers into a linear-spring, flat ride setup. i'm pumped to see how they do and i will definitely post here about it.


if you're still reading, awesome. here's more info to nerd out on - bump stop tuning, sway bars, etc:

but first... a funny video from shaikh:




and now... Flat Ride description, bump stop tuning, etc... total nerdfest:




EDIT: more reading... flat ride comments from an S2000 owner:

https://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost....6&postcount=28