I have read good and bad reviews about these things but I thought it was something my roadster would benefit from as I do a fair amount of B-road blasting and the occasional track day so I spent some money.

Fitting

Fitting was easy; One plate bolts to the head in the threaded holes for the engine lifting eyes and the other to the shock tower. This may cause some issues if you are running a strut brace but it fitted fine for me, even with the stock air box. The damper then bolts between the plates and can be adjusted to the correct tension. All the fixings were provided in the kit I bought and it took about 15 mins to fit from bonnet up to bonnet down.

Driving Impressions

Traffic driving seemed to be a lot smoother when you are on and off the clutch. High RPM shifts are a lot crisper and it kills that millisecond dip as you drop the clutch for the next cog. Coming down the box fast and double-de-clutching is also slicker. The car feels generally more solid with the damper fitted.

The only downside is there is a small amount of vibration transmitted into the cabin, but if you are fitting one of these for performance reasons, this won’t bother you.

OK, so the above improvement could just be a symptom of the standard engine mounts (it’s worth mentioning that mine are in good condition) so chances are if you are running Mazdaspeed mounts this won’t make a lot of difference.

Overall rating

7/10 - Reasonably cheap, easy to install mod that looks good and will improve the feel of the car under performance driving.

Where can I get one?

Mine came of Ebay, yeah I know, I’m not JDM tite but it looks good and works well.

If you are a brand whore check out Weapon R. They also dome some seriously sexy bracing, sus and engine parts.