Hi everyone! Didnt even know Miras existed until a few days ago but I’m already in love with them.
I got a bone stock 1996 Daihatsu Handivan with an EF-GL. I already have some big plans for the car but as of now I want to focus on getting wheels and lowering it. I have a pretty good idea of what wheel size I should go for but not a clue about suspension with these things. How should I go about lowering it a decent amount?
This also isn’t going to be my daily driver it is simply going to be a fun car to take to car meets.
Hey, welcome The EFGL is a unicorn engine, not many kicking about.
Wheels that fit are hard to find also so japan is the best option being 4x110.
Suspension you can get coilovers for roughly 700 from ebay, they share the same as L200.
But please keep in mind these cars don’t enjoy going low low.
There are two directions you can go with lowering. A) Slam it down low for vanity and have it understeer like a dog and ride like a horse and cart, caring stuff all about spring rate and having it sit on bump stops. or B). Keep the std spring rate (do not be tempted to alter or put in “whatever”. Std rate is about 110-120lb/in. While I would not condone cutting springs for “road use”, you can take perhaps one coil without losing all bump travel. The rear needs the rate increased two or three times std rate. About 450-500 lb/in should do. Custom springs are expensive. Depending on how handy you are a coil-over type spring in 2.125" or 2.5" diameter will work and you can use base adjusters to set height and corner weight. Can’t remember what length, I might have a pair (Mr Evil has a set the right length that I put in his car). Really to lower a decent amount you need a shorter front strut. Here’s one of a pair I shortened for Frankenstein’s Mira (it’s not welded yet)
note how short it is. This allows bump travel. The chrome shaft also gets machined down, I made new bronze bushes for the top and we went up in shock oil to about a 15wt instead of what was prob 2.5-5wt. All a bit of a stab in the dark from experience, but it was the right direction and did improve braking and handling. See my build thread for the Koni I shortened. I’ve done a lot now but have not bothered to document the process of shortening. Have a rear set to do next week. Note that rears to suit can come from Hyundai Excel with some good options available from the Australian Excel race series being a reason for manufactures bother making high end items.
You choose: have some joy driving it; or, build a static display.
What would you suggest would be the best option? I definitely don’t have the money to do some crazy custom stuff but I’m happy to save up to get something somewhat decent. I primarily want to get rid of all if not majority of the wheel gap when I get new wheels.
To save up for decent then L700 coilover from BC Racing as a minimum. The BC info sucks and the Australian reps provide almost zero help. The coils in them will be too stiff. But the base diameter and free length will be common and off the shelf 120in/lb will be really inexpensive compared to custom coils. The rear needs either custom coils or some fab work to get a 2.5" or 2.25" base circle diameter spring in to fit. Again an inexpensive spring. The spring seat on the body gets cut off and one with a smaller diameter attached. It’s not what I’d call a hard fab job. Look through the thread “not quite track”. I think there is some early info on this, ignore the latter more complex adjustable bases where I cut the back up quite a lot. I’d put a set of Excel Hyundai Koni red in the back and wind them up firm (or Koni yellow [sport] would be a bit better again). The front needs to be soft in rate so the wheels follow the ground. The back needs to be stiff so weight ends up being transferred to the front. Watch any top front wheel drive race or rally car and you’ll see the inner rear wheel lifting up in corners. Weight travels diagonally in corner loads. Getting the rates right will put a smile on your face. No matter what you do the rear end will ride rough. Some people attempt to dial out understeer with big sway bars, this is a poor solution and does not help straight-line traction, you just smoke the wheels in first gear as the car squats and the front tires struggle to follow the road.
welcome to the forum, sounds like you have been bitten by the Dai bug if you don’t mind standard looking wheels, get some from an early Mazda RX7, they should be about +25 offset but will need the centrebores sized a little larger to fit. be careful of other cars wheels, ie early corrolla’s or other Mazda’s as the wheels are more likely to be about 0 offset and will stick out a good 50mm from your guards meaning you have to find flares and might have hassles with police etc, standard offset for mira’s is around +45 to +50
thanks for all the help! I’ve been looking around at different eBay coilovers as I am still in high school so I don’t quite have the money for BC ones (don’t really wanna go over $1,000). Main brands I’m finding are Zerone, Gab, and Mines. Is one better than the other or is it all just the same eBay quality?
Ebay coilovers, DON’T. Just burn you cash instead. Might as well remove the springs and weld the whole unit up. Do it properly or don’t do it at all. Leave the thing std. I deal with this sort of thing regularly. I’ve just had two yr12 students ignore my advice slamming their cars low, both have written them off loosing control (one hit a tree the other launched into the air off of a curb and landing so badly it is totalled). Save, do it properly. Keep your $1000 to maintain it and pay bills.
definitely wont go for those then. I figured they would end up being shocking quality. What about lowering springs? are there any options to remove majority of wheel gap? Or do they all only lower a little bit?
If not are there any other options I could go for in my price range or should I just play it safe and lower it a little bit now then save up for the BC ones for the future?
I run normal 30mm lowering springs with new shocks all round. It rides pretty good for a lowered mira, it is my daily and only car.
Sitting on 14x5+45 with 155/55 tyres.
You wont remove the wheel gap in the front without issues with driveshaft and steering binding issues but the rear you can get sitting pretty nice with shorter shocks and lowering spings.
that looks really good! Yeah if its gonna create problems going that low in the front then I wont mind having a little bit of wheel gap. What springs are you using and where did you get them? And how would I go about getting shorter shocks?
Thanks a bunch! would I have to do springs and shocks at the same or can I do springs then shocks later?
Sorry for bombarding you with questions I just don’t know too much about this stuff.
The EFGL is a unicorn engine, not many kicking about.
if you don’t mind standard looking wheels, get some from an early Mazda RX7, they should be about +25 offset but will need the centrebores sized a little larger to fit. be careful of other cars wheels, ie early corrolla’s or other Mazda’s as the wheels are more likely to be about 0 offset and will stick out a good 50mm from your guards meaning you have to find flares and might have hassles with police etc, standard offset for mira’s is around +45 to +50