Author Archives: Maxime Lacroix

REV9 Autosport 2016 Clubman ND Shop Car

Here is the full information about our ND demo car called the REV9 Clubman Shop Car! This is the first time we take a brand new car and transform it into a demo car to showcase our high quality JDM products.

This build is currently ongoing and the page will be updated as we add more parts to it. You can read the whole documentation by reading all posts in our REV9 ND Shop Car category.

Modification List

Exterior :

– REV9 Black Chrome Emblems

– TUCKIN99 Short Antenna Ver1

– ZOOM Wide Blue Mirrors

Interior :

– Autowear Seat Covers

– Mazdaspeed Aluminum Pedals

– ZOOM Phone Holder

– Zero Diamond-Pattern Floor Mats

Engine :

– Odula Air Filter

– ARC Radiator Cap

– Integral Kobe N-Zero Exhaust

Chassis Bracing :

– Nielex Pro-Spec Knuckle Support

Suspension & Wheels :

– Cusco Street Zero Coilovers

– Advan RZ 17×8 +35 Wheels

– 326POWER Lug Nuts 50MM

We also tried fitting 16×7/16×8 Work Meister Wheels on the car, unfortunately, they didn’t clear the brakes, but they looked pretty neat!

REV9 Autosport 1999 NB Shop Car

Here is the story about the second REV9 Autosport Shop Car. As the company grew, we were now able to have a newer shop car and I always was a fan of the NB chassis styling.

We built this car to be more of a street car that would turn heads but still stay very classy and driveable.

Modification List

Exterior :

– REV9 OE-Style Front Lip

– RS Factory Stage Rear Lip

– ZOOM Wide Blue Mirrors

– Garage Vary Eye Lids

Interior :

– Nakamae Quilted Seat Covers

– Nakamae Quilted Console Lid Cover

– Nakamae Quilted Hardtop Headliner

– Beatrush Hardtop Side Latches

– Zeromotive Large Pattern Floor Mats

– RS Products Meter Panel

– AWD Gauge Faces

– Nielex Short Shift Kit

– Beatrush Shifter Bushing

– R-Magic Heavyweight Shift Knob

– ZOOM Blue Wide Angle Rear View Mirror

– REV9 OE-Style 1002 Pedal Kit

Engine :

– Maxim Works Header

– Arrive Intake Chamber

– Nielex 1002 Oil Filler Cap

– RS Factory Stage N-Zero2 Exhaust

– Koyo Aluminum 36mm Radiator

Chassis Bracing :

– Nielex Knuckle Support

Suspension & Wheels :

– Tein Flex Coilovers

– Work Meister 16×7 +42 Front / 16×8 +30 Rear

Well, we gotta say that the design of the Work Meister is legendary and sure fits perfectly the NB styling.

REV9 Autosport 1993 Limited Edition NA Shop Car

I always thought that one of our nicest build we did should be shown on the website. This was the first ever REV9 Autosport Shop Car and it was a big restoration project back then. We wanted to build a nice car with subtle mods that wouldn’t make the car too flashy.

This was our first ever build with only JDM parts. The car became exactly like we hoped for! It was just a much better Miata. Lots of work went into it.

Modification List

Exterior :

– REV9 Exterior Package

– REV9 Stickers

– ZOOM Wide Blue Mirrors

– Garage Vary Headlight Lid

Interior :

– Zeromotive Reupholstery Seat Kit

– Zeromotive Small Pattern Checkered Floor Mats

– Nardi Gara3 Type-3 Steering Wheel

– Daikei Boss Hub Kit

– RS Products Meter Panel

– RS Products Type-MG Gauge Faces

– KG Works Ventilation Balls

– RS Products Classic Switches

– Zeromotive Power Window Switches (Prototype)

– RS Products AC Panel Type-1

– RS Products AC Dials & Knobs

– Nielex Short Shift Kit

– Beatrush Shifter Bushing

– Nardi Evolution Shift Knob

– RS Products Rear View Mirror

– ZOOM Push Start Button

– REV9 OE-Style 1002 Pedal Kit

Engine :

– 1.8L Rebuilt BP Engine

– Maxim Works Header

– ARC Intake Chamber

– A’PEXi Cone Air Filter

– Nielex 1002 Oil Filler Cap

– RS*R x Indivia Exhaust

Chassis Bracing :

– Carbing 3 Point Strut Tower Bar

– Carbing Rear Strut Bar

– Nielex Knuckle Support

Suspension & Wheels :

– Tein Basic Coilovers

– Work VS-XX 15×7 +30 Front & +29 Rear

Oh, and let’s not forget the other awesome look the car had at one point:

This was when I was running 14x6.5 +14.5 RS Watanabe B-Type Wheels.

10 Gifts Under $100 For The MX-5 Miata Owner (Lover)

You own a Miata or your beloved owns one and you are not sure what to ask or give for Christmas? We have a list of cool items that will please any Roadster fanatic and won’t break the bank (all under $100)!

All the gift shown in the list below are not in particular order and after the listing, we show the application. Applications are as follows:

NA : MX-5 Miata (1989-1997)

NB : MX-5 Miata (1998-2005)

NC : MX-5 Miata (2006-2015)

ND : MX-5 Miata (2016+)

And here are the top 10 gifts under $100 we offer at REV9 Autosport!

Mazda Roadster Emblem

This is the Japanese (imported) emblem. Any connoisseur will love to change his Miata or MX-5 emblem for a nice JDM “Roadster” emblem.
Applications : NA, NB, NC & ND

S2-Racing Serial Plate

This is an awesome gift to offer. It’s a nice plate from famous tuner S2 Racing that is funny with “Engrish” language on it. It’s a fun gift to offer and looks pretty cool when stuck on the car’s dashboard.
Applications : NA, NB, NC & ND

Bow’s Roadster Days 2017 Calendar

This is a beautiful calendar made by famous artist Bow’s from Japan. It contains pictures of all 4 generations Miatas and is very nice to look at. It’s a very popular choice during holidays and it’s collectible.
Application : NA, NB, NC & ND

Ken Auto Door Cup (Bushing)

This is a very popular item amongst tuners this year. It’s popular especially for NA & NB applications, but will also work with NC & ND. It helps bring more rigidity to the chassis of the vehicle and makes the vehicle feel like a new one.
Application : NA, NB, NC & ND

ACRE Super Fighter Brake Pads

This is a gift that’s easy to notice. Better braking power! Just putting front brake pads will make a difference on your car, and all corners is totally worth it (even if more than $100).
Applications : NA, NB, NC & ND

ARC Radiator Cap

This is a very rare re-run of a discontinued radiator cap. It’s a “fancy” item that not many actually afford. It’s gives a beautiful unique touch to the engine bay.
Applications : NA, NB, NC & ND

JoyFast Shift Knob

This is the most loved shift knob on the Miata market. It has a perfect shape and is heavy weight, it’s a must-have for anyone who enjoy driving his vehicle and want a little exotic item in the interior of his/her car.
Applications : NA, NB, NC & ND

Beatrush Shifter Collar

This one is a nice little maintenance item that all enthusiasts will enjoy having in their car. It makes the shifting more crisp/easier and it’s basically an item ther they will never need to replace for the lifetime of the car!
Applications : NA, NB & NC

ZOOM Ventilation Phone Holder
This item is a great way to keep your phone at a place that’s easy to reach and also easy to view. Perfect for those who use the WAZE app or want a clear view of their build-in GPS while driving!
Applications : ND

TUCKIN99 Shorty Antenna

This one is for NC & ND owners. The cars came with long and ugly antennas. The TUCKIN99 Short Antenna gives a more sporty look for the vehicle and makes it look much cleaner.
Applications : NC & ND

If you are not sure what to offer, there’s always the easy choice of offering our beautiful REV9 Autosport Gift Cards! They are sent electronically, so no need to worry about receiving them on time.

Carbing permanent price drop

To continue with our goal of becoming the #1 online source for high quality Miata parts, we’ve now updated ALL our prices for Carbing Product. It affects all products : front strut tower bars, tow hooks, shift knobs, etc! We’ve priced them as low and as competitive as possible with discounts ranging around $50-$175, that all customers can now benefit.

We also want to inform everyone that any customer who placed an order for Carbing item in the last 6 months have been contacted and sent a gift card for the price difference of the products.

We’re happy to say that our new pricing are now pretty much the best available online (especially with our FAST worldwide shipping) and we’re happier than ever to offer Carbing products at REV9 Autosport. We hope that our customers will continue to trust us with their Miata & MX-5 parts purchases.

We work hard bringing new parts to the market and it happens that some items added a while ago pass under the radar for price drop and we’d like to apologize for the time it took us to react.

Sincerely,

-Maxime Lacroix

Cusco Coilovers & Advan RZ for my 2016+ ND Miata

After I ordered my 2016 ND MX-5 Shop Car, I immediately knew that I would change the suspension on it because I didn’t like the huge wheel gap from factory.

As much as it was easy to drive it everywhere and not care about clearance over bumps and driving fast over bad roads, I just thought it looked bad.

It became even worse when I installed my 17×8 Advan RZ coupled with 215/40R17 tires :

(I only took one picture right after the installation. I didn’t take other as it just looked goofy.)

Installing coilovers on the 2016 ND Roadster is really a piece of cake. Get a friend who has power tools, follow these instructions and you’ll be done within a few hours. Adjustment takes a bit longer, but that depends on everyone. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of my OEM wheels with the lowered suspension, but it’s easy to imagine. The wheels won’t stick out and will be very narrow inside the fenders; not the look I was aiming for.

After installing the Cusco Street Zero Coilovers, everyone who saw my car first and then were just AMAZED. Holy moly, they couldn’t believe how great the car was looking now!

(I can’t believe how aggressive the car now looks!)

I was also pretty happy to notice that the 17×8 +35 Advan RZ & Yokohama S.Drive 215/40R17 don’t have any stretch and don’t even rub inside the fenders or anywhere during hard cornering! The wheels also sit perfectly flush with the fenders:

(It did not require any fender work, it just sits within a safe distance of the inner fender and fender “lip”.)

The car now looks much less narrow than it was :

Before:

After:(I gotta love the wide tires look with no stretch and low rear end.)

Also, I parked it next to my neighbor 2010 911 Carrera and you can see that I’m now a bit lower than he is;

As for the front, it just looks super aggressive now.

The Cusco Street Coilovers, after install, felt perfect for this car. They did lower the car a lot after we changed the ride height to our needs. After a test ride, the car felt SO MUCH more comfortable than with the previous Bilstein setup. Car now feels very nice, and less stiff suspension-wise. How is that a good thing? The car is my daily driver and the Bilstein shocks combined with the 215/40R17 tires just felt horrible. I could feel all the bumps in the road and on long-range driving, it would have been hell. The Cusco Street Coilovers really hold their name well, they are made for street mainly and will help you obtain the look you are aiming for. I really would not use the Cusco Street Coilover is I was racing my car often; I would opt for the damping adjustable Cusco Street Zero A Coilover or any other coilover that offer more adjustability! These coilovers suit my needs for now as I am not really racing the car at all and the springs that comes with the suspension are quite soft and comfortable. It’s perfect for a daily driver or week-end cruiser, but not suitable for racers.

(The look just is incredible. Everyone looks at the car and gives thumbs up now!)

The OEM Bilstein Suspension weighted 4.3KG in the front and 4.5KG in the back while the Cusco Coilovers weighted 4.5KG in the front and 4.2KG in the rear. So, the whole adjustable Cusco suspension is 0.2KG lighter than OEM. Not much, but at least it’s not heavier.

As for the wheels & tires, I was not able to weight them, unfortunately, but I know that the Advan RZ 17×8 wheel weights only 7.5KG (16.5 lbs) and it’s a super strong forged wheel with semi-concave spokes. The look of it just made my car look much better:

(The semi-concave spokes really fit well with the aggressive look of the ND Roadster.)

Since the wheels are wider and about the same weight as OEM wheels, the contact patch to the ground is much better which provides a better handling. Also, due to the lightness of the wheels, absolutely no loss of performance due to unsprung weight is felt!

After a few days of driving, I have to give advices to those thinking of upgrading coilovers!

Advice 1 : Buy the Cusco Headlight Levelizer Adjustment Rod

Your headlights, after being lowered, will aim much lower than they are supposed to and this means you will lose most of your visibility. If you don’t get the Levelizer Adjustment Rod, your headlights will pretty much light up to ~20-30 feet away from the car which is SUPER close and DANGEROUS as you can’t see anything on the road after that distance:

(As you can see, the beam now shoots to the floor really close to the vehicle and it’s not recommended to drive with such a low beam pattern.)

Advice 2 : Check your lowest vehicle’s point
If you lower the car a lot, like I did, you might end up scraping a lot from the front. Don’t worry, it’s not from your front diffusers, but from some kind of front flap just in front of your tires:

(That small flap is about 1 inch lower than the front diffuser. It’s flexible, but will make noises if you scrape on it. I haven’t checked, but it might be possible to remove it.)

Well, I think I’ll probably raise my car about 1cm each corner to make it more “driveable”. Right now, just the small flap scraped on the ground so the clearance is actually pretty impressive considering how low the car sits. Also, if I want to add aero parts in front and side, it will be much safer to raise the car a bit, and I think I’ll still have zero wheel gap with 1 cm higher.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

You can follow our build on this blog using this link.

Instructions : Installing Coilovers in a 2016+ ND Miata

Installation time : around 2 hours plus any necessary adjustment
Installation difficulty : intermediate
Special tools needed : power tools (highly recommended), 10mm/14mm/17mm wrenches
Notes : Please note that you will need to have an alignment done after the suspension install to make sure your tires use evenly. It is not required to do it RIGHT after, but recommended as soon as you can.

The 2016 MX-5 has quite a bit of wheel gap due to safety regulations and low profile tires. Many people will run it as-is, but a lot of us will want a different look. Changing tires & wheels will definitely improve your car’s look, but without a lowered suspension, it will look goofy (see my coilover review). I wanted to have a more comfortable ride as well as 100% adjustable height, that is why I choose the Cusco Street Zero Coilover System. We also offer PLENTY of other coilover systems as well as springs for the 2016+ ND Miata!

I did not take pictures of the first steps as they are not necessary, but I’ll still explain them. We did not have access to a lift, so we used regular jack to do the whole job.

NEVER forget to set your handbrake when you are doing the suspension work, you wouldn’t want the car to roll down.

We first started by removing the whole trunk interior. It’s super easy, you just need to remove the plastic clips (we used our nails to do it). Spot them and remove the trunk liner. No need to remove the plastic part with the trunk light completely, just remove the plastic clips from it. Then, you’ll see a polished aluminum plate on the driver’s side (left hand drive vehicles), unbolt all the bolts (10mm) holding it remove the polished plate as it’s hiding the suspension top hat.

Then, you need to remove the top hat bolts 17mm (2 per suspension), the driver side is a bit more tricky, but overall it’s quite easy to remove. Keep the nuts as you’ll reuse them when installing your coilovers.

Passenger side (17mm x 2)

Driver side (17mm x 2)

Then, you will need to raise your car with a jack. We used our jack with a point in the middle of the car (near the differential) so we could raise both wheels at the same time. You don’t need to raise the car real high, as long as the wheels don’t touch the floor anymore. Next step; remove your rear wheels!

Once the wheels are removed, you’ll see your suspension assembly and the brakes. You need to remove the bolt at the bottom of the suspension (14mm). We suggest using power tools for this one as it’s pretty hard to remove.

Once this bolt is removed, just pull down the suspension arms, the suspension will move from its top mounting point and you just need to move it from the way, so that it won’t be attached to the car anymore. Do the inverse using your coilover system and bolt back everything firmly (please note that torque specs are usually included in your suspension instructions).

You can put back your rear wheels and check the ride height!

I am not going to go into adjusting your suspension ride height, but best is to install all 4 coilovers, measure your height from factory settings when all 4 wheels are installed and then you re-adjust to your preference.

So, no need to play with suspension adjustment now yet, let’s do the front suspension!

You can now lower the car to the ground. First, let’s open the hood and remove the bolts from the top hats. There are 3 of them per suspension and they are 17mm.

-If you have Mazda OEM Front Strut Bar, it’s a little more difficult to work on, but it is NOT necessary to remove the front strut bar! It’s made so you have access to all bolts using a wrench.
-If you have the intake sound enhancer, we recommend removing it as it’s in the way for the driver side suspension bolts.

Please note that the 3^rd bolt is hidden in this picture, it’s right under the strut bar.

So, once your nuts are removed, let’s do the hard part. Since you can’t really jack both wheels at the same time, the front takes a little more time as you need to jack each side.

Jack one side of the car, remove the wheel and remove the same bottom bolt as you did for the suspension.

As there is less room to play with the front suspension, you need to remove 2 extra bolts so that you have enough room to move the arms and move the suspension out of the way. If it’s not enough, you might need to disconnect the front sway bar (1 bolt, not pictured, sorry!).

Then, it’s reverse engineering time, you just need to put back your coilover suspension system and bolt everything tightly.

Put back the wheels and check out your ride height. Measure how lower or higher you want to go and adjust your suspension accordingly! I suggest to drive a few miles and test the suspension (sharp turns) before modifying the factory settings as the suspension might “settle” a bit and make the car a bit lower than after the fresh install.

Last step; Enjoy your awesome looking ride!

Finally, a good looking lowered ND!

The title is just for fun, I know there are plenty of GREAT looking NDs already, but I think I’ve done a really good job with the wheel choice, ride height and colours. I’ll follow with a more extensive blog post tomorrow, but I’m just letting you enjoy the view for now 😉

Black Chrome Emblems for the 2016+ ND Miata

Another quick post about some small details that makes my 2016 ND Demo Car (The Project REV9 Clubman) a more unique build. I’ve wanted to change my “MX-5” emblem for a “Roadster” emblem, but also add a nice classy touch to my exterior, so I’ve got myself the REV9 Black Chrome Emblems.

Here are some before shots:

The OEM emblems all have pins that leave holes in the bumper if you remove them. You gotta take your time with a heatgun when removing OEM emblems. You end up with some holes in your bumper and lot of glue to remove. Total installation time was less than 1 hour.

Also, when removing the emblems, we broke most of the OEM pins. They are very fragile. That’s why the Black Chrome Emblems are nice to have since they are brand new and re-use OEM pins (REV9 on the left, OEM with broken pins on the right).

As you can see, the finish of the black chrome is very subtle (left), but has a nice deep and elegant tone:

Once cleaned, I recommend fixing scratches that the emblems might have caused during removal using a touch-up paint.

Then, you just need to remove the self-adhesive behind the REV9 Black Chrome Emblems and install them using the existing holes left on your bumper. They all match up, so it’s super easy to install. Here is the final result:

Pretty glad I did the change, it’s very subtle but real nice touch to the look of the car.

You can follow our build on this blog using this link.

Red Seat Covers for my 2016 ND Miata

When I ordered my 2016 ND MX-5 Shop Car, I knew I wanted to have a more unique look than what Mazda offered. I choose the Autowear Seat Covers because they are in synthetic leather and the color is pretty vivid!

(Although I have red stitching on my seats as an option, I wanted something different).

I was not a huge fan of the tan leather option and wanted a bit of contrast in my interior. That’s why I got myself some Autowear Seat Covers for 2016 ND. It was available in Black Leather & Red Stitching, but I wanted to try something more “punchy”!
(With windows closed, it’s still a bit noticeable).

Installation was super easy, took less than 1 hour to install BOTH seats. I’ve never installed something so easily on my car. You can read the installation instructions here.(The look is pretty nice, contrasts really well with the Ceramic Metallic color).

The look of the seats is really neat. For “not so expensive” seat covers, they look really great and don’t “cheap out” your interior at all.(As you can see, the covers go under the plastics from the seats which integrate them very well to the interior).

Depending on the lighting, they will show as super bright red or regular red.

(The red is very vivid, as you can see).

It really gives a cool look to the vehicle, making it much more unique than before.

When parked indoor, the small amount of light these seats will receive really do brighten the interior!

(I gotta love that “evil look” picture)!

Here are some other shots for viewing pleasure:

As far as seating position, these sure add a small amount of synthetic leather between the original seat and you, but the most drastic part is that the center part of the seat is now a bit tighter and the middle “floats” a bit over the original seat, making it a bit more comfortable at the same time. The material of the seat cover is non-slippery which is nice and it feels very tight on the seats. Also, the seats do not reduce the sound coming from the headrest speakers by much. I still can hear people clearly when talking over Bluetooth.

These Autowear Seat Covers are available for the ND (2016+) Miata, but also available for the NA (1989-1997) Miata as well as the NC (2006-2015) Miata.

You can follow our build on this blog using this link.