You've arrived at a good place to learn plenty about what happens when you lift your NA/NB Miata.  We have plenty of experience and have tried just about everything to figure out what works and what doesn't.

First of all, let's start with WHY we want to lift our Miata!  Maybe it seems obvious, but there are more than a couple reasons to do it, and those reasons differ enough that it's important to ask the question before you go crazy modifying things.  Let's make sure we're making the proper mods so the car can do what we expect for whatever type of driving we're doing, and we don't go making unnecessary mods that cost additional money or become a detriment to what we're trying to achieve.

Here's a list of reasons you might want to lift your Miata, and then we can discuss what modifications make sense to get there, and which ones probably aren't necessary or are important to avoid.

1. I think lifted Miatas looks so cool and unique, I want my Miata to look like that too, though I probably won't take it offroad.
2. I have this salvage-title Miata that's very rusty but it won't stop running no matter how much I beat on it, plus I live on a farm.
3. I plan to participate in Rallycross competition.
4. I can't wait to full-send this bad boy off some sweet jumps.
5. I want to drive/play in the snow with my lifted Miata during the winter, then I want to drop it back down for the good weather months.
6. My old Miata that I have loved so much for so long is getting tired so I bought a new one, and now I just want to embarrass my Jeep buddies with the old one.
7. I'm getting older and I have a lot of trouble getting in and out of my Miata, but I still want to enjoy it - HELP!

First of all, just FYI, the first Miata we ever lifted was a 1994 turbocharged, street-able track car.  It was starting to get cold outside and we bought some cheap, oversized snow tires and developed the first "3 inch lift" spacer kit and had a blast that winter.  So reason #5 was the nexus of this lifted Miata madness we have today!  After people lost their minds on the internet about a lifted Miata, it eventually became the Offroadster (more on that later) and hasn't had less than 10 inches of ground clearance since!

Whether you have a lifted Miata already or are just making plans to, you probably fit into that list somewhere.  Since our "3 inch lift" started it all, let's begin with that kit and discuss what it can do and what happens to the suspension and drivetrain components when you add it to your Miata.

Our 3 inch lift kit consists of four steel fabricated brackets that are installed where the bottom each of the four shock absorbers normally mount into the lower control arm at each corner.  Basically, you unbolt the shock bottom from the control arm, and bolt these spacer brackets in between the two components.  Pretty simple right?  Well it is, and that simplicity does a great job giving you additional ground clearance and the ability to run larger diameter tires, AND look cool while doing it, AND it's a relatively inexpensive and reversible modification.  Job done, right?  Well, sorta, especially if you're from the #2 reason camp.  Yes, now we have additional lift, but the wheel alignment is WAY off, my sweet new all-terrain tires are rubbing the springs in the back and my CV joints are clicking!  Yes, these are all possible and probable things that happen when you simply throw on the 3 inch lift kit.  The first thing to address is the wheel alignment.  Without any other modifications, once your NA/NB Miata is lifted the front camber, which is normally around 1 degree negative, is now going to be something like 1 degree positive, or maybe worse.  In the rear, it's the opposite.  As you go up in lift, the camber starts going WAY negative, and depending on your new wheel/tire specs, you might even be rubbing the inside of the tire on your coil springs at full droop (the point where your suspension is fully extended just before the wheel lifts off the ground).  To fix this, you can simply make wheel alignment adjustments with the factory eccentric bolts to help the situation, but the range of adjustment available from the chassis will only be enough to get to something like zero camber in the front and around 2 degrees negative in the rear.  Of course, you'll need to adjust the toe settings as well, but those can be dialed in to normal specs (around 1/32" TOE-IN TOTAL for both axles) after doing the lift.  While you're at it, it's a good idea to maximize the amount of caster in front with the eccentric bolt adjustments.

Ok so now we're running around on the farm, no worries, having a blast with our lifted Miata, and we want to drive into town and show off our muddy beast, but our wheel alignment still isn't ideal for paved roads.  Good news!  There's supporting mods for this!  In front, you can add our Extended Lower Ball Joints which will add around 3 degrees of negative camber so you can now make eccentric bolt adjustments to get back to a reasonable range, around 0.5 to 1.5 degrees of negative camber.  In the rear, you can install our Adjustable Upper Rear Control Arms to correct the camber there and get to something like 1 to 2 degrees negative (NOTE: Most Miatas are happiest with around 0.5 degrees MORE negative in the rear, compared to the front camber setting).  Not only does the corrected camber in the rear help with the overall wheel alignment, it can help prevent outer CV joint damage, which can result in needing to replace axles.  You see, the combination of too much negative camber, combined with the lifted ride height puts the outer CV joints into an extreme angle that's outside of the normal operating range.  Getting the camber back to a reasonable level reduces this extreme CV joint angle, which will lengthen the life of the joint/axle.  In our experience, there are two things that kill CV joints - extreme angles and general abuse.  The combination of these will QUICKLY kill your CV joints, so let's get that camber corrected and maybe don't be at full throttle bouncing off the rev limiter when you finally land that sweet jump, K?  Final note on these supporting mods, they are available as a bundled package along with the 3 inch lift kit.  Check out Combo A and Combo B to save some cash when you're ready to pull the trigger on the 3 inch lift kit.

Before we move on, sometimes people ask why we decided on 3 inches to be the height of our lift kit.  It's a fair question!  The answer is pretty simple...  3 inches is the MINIMUM lift height possible with the design of these spacer brackets.  The design of the rear bracket dictates the 3" height, so we designed the front bracket to match the lift of the rear one.  And before you ask, NO you CANNOT stack 3 inch lift brackets to get 6" of lift.  It just doesn't work like that, and those of you that have tried to make mods to go even higher while retaining the factory control arms have figured out how things start to go terribly wrong above 3 inches of lift.  One more thing to note about the 3 inch lift kit, it only provides additional ride height, it does not change the amount of wheel travel available, so whatever shocks/springs/coilovers you have on the car, the ride and handling characteristics will be mostly unchanged.  If you have a lowered Miata on stiff springs/coilovers, we HIGHLY recommend going back to a softer spring rate like what comes on the car from the factory with the 3 inch lift.  Offroad suspension performance is about softer spring rates which allow the wheel to move freely so the tire stays in contact with the rugged terrain as much as possible.  

Ok, so now I'm having even more fun with my newly lifted Miata, the experience is living up to the hype, and I want even more performance!  Say less!  After we developed and began offering the 3 inch lift kit, we knew we needed to address the issue of limited wheel travel, particularly in the rear.  These Miatas already have VERY little bump travel in the rear.  Even from the factory, with two people riding and a little bit of gear in the trunk, the rear suspension is getting into the bump stops on a regular basis and is never far from bottoming out.  Enter our Rallycross Coilover Kit.  The purpose of developing this kit was simple.  Source and produce a group of quality, durable components which allow the MAXIMUM amount of wheel travel possible while retaining the factory control arms, AND provide ride height adjustment at each corner.  We did just that - we crammed as much shock absorber as we could fit into the space available to take advantage of the amount of wheel travel untapped by the factory length shocks.  We had to employ a few tricks here and there to make it happen, like flipping the rear shock upside down and engineering custom bracketry to mount it all.  What we ended up with performs so well, is very durable and suited to a wide range of off-road AND on-road driving.  Because we're still using the factory control arms, the same camber-correcting components discussed above with the 3 inch lift kit are beneficial here as well to get the alignment in check.  The entire package is called our Rallycross MEGA Kit, and truly includes everything you need except big wheels and tires.

Speaking of... now would be a good place to talk about wheels and tires!  We get tons of questions about what tires to use, what sizes to buy, what type to buy, etc.  It is probably the most loaded question regarding lifted Miatas, and there are way more than just a few correct answers.  ANY time you're setting up a vehicle's suspension for any sort of performance driving, the wheel/tire package should be the first consideration, and your plans for other components and modifications should follow.  So how to pick a tire?  Start with the type.  Miatas are lightweight compared to other vehicles that are purpose-made to go offroading, so a standard all-terrain or mud tire for a truck/SUV is a bit overkill in the durability department, and that means a heavier carcass, which means weight hanging out at each corner that will kill your performance.  Don't ignore this detail unless you don't care about handling, ride quality, or acceleration.  While we're talking about weight, that should be considered when choosing your wheels also.  Factory Miata wheels are our favorite because they're all lightweight, inexpensive, and you're most likely running a taller sidewall tire than stock, so they're better protected.  There are plenty of aftermarket wheels that work just fine, and you have more options for a lower offset than factory.  A lower offset will push the wheels further outward, which can help with clearance issues in some cases, and can be a lighter and stronger option than running wheel spacers. There are some cheap snow tires out there that work really well on lifted Miatas.  They typically have deep grooves and work well in the dirt, and are made with a lighter construction, which helps with handling AND acceleration.  True gravel tires made for performance rally are awesome, durable, super cool, and pretty darn expensive.  Great for serious rally work, not necessary for general goofing-off in the dirt.  That's enough about types, now let's talk diameter. 

We're not going to mention actual tire sizes because different tire types have different ways to call out the size, and there's no one or two sizes that work for every scenario.  So, we like to decide on what diameter tire we want and start shopping from there.  Major online tire retailers usually list all the specs for a tire, so it's easy to compare apples to oranges when they give you lots of numbers like tread width, what range of rim widths a particular tire fits, overall weight, etc.  OK, so how do we decide on tire diameter?  Let's assume we want to put the biggest tire we can fit that won't rub on any part of the body, and we don't want to cut or trim ANYTHING.  On most Miatas you're going to be limited to about 25.5-26" diameter tire.  The factory diameter is around 22", so there's still some fun to be had with a mild setup like that.  Wanna go bigger?  Start trimming the mostly non-structural areas which are in the way.  Doing some mild "shaping" with a hammer or a cutoff wheel can get you into the 27" diameter range, and even further mods can accommodate 28" and even 29" - these are pretty serious body modifications at this level.  Now, just because you can fit these huge tires in the wheel wells with no rubbing while it's sitting still, You will quickly realize that as soon as you hit a bump or turn the steering wheel, all sorts of rubbing is going on.  So, our best piece of advice when selecting tire diameter:  Remove the coil springs from whatever suspension you have and leave the shocks installed.  Now push the hub upward into the wheel well until the bump stop is compressed.  Now measure from the center of the hub upward on the body, and you can anticipate where the top of your tire will be in that situation.  Now you can see what modifications are needed to provide clearance for any given tire.  Remember that part of your total lift amount comes from how much taller the new tire is compared to stock.  So if you have a 27" diameter tire, that's 5 inches more than stock, so 2.5 inches of your lift comes from the tire itself, and in the case of the 3" lift kit, you'd be a total of 5.5 inches over stock.  Also, its VERY important to note that the bigger the diameter of your tire, the more you are changing the overall gear ratio, which will rob you of engine torque - very noticeable off the line, and your speedometer will read lower than your actual speed.  A GPS speed app on your phone is handy to check how much difference between actual and indicated speed.  Power adders like turbos and superchargers are popular for restoring lost torque due to large diameter tires, but our favorite way to address this is to install our 5.38:1 ring and pinion gearset. 

This modification fits 94-2005 Miatas (except Mazdaspeed), and is the shortest gear ratio available for these differentials.  You CAN swap this differential into the 90-93 Miata as long as you bring the driveshaft and axles from the 94-05 Miata. This is a significant change in gear ratio, and basically reverses the effect of the taller diameter tire... AND THEN SOME. Like, nearly a 25% reduction in gear ratio.  For instance, our Offroadster shop car (again, more on that beast later) has 31" diameter tires.  When we swapped in the 5.38:1 gears, the acceleration was restored and the speedometer was reading correctly again.  So a smaller tire than 31" with this mod will actually have potentially quicker acceleration than before bigger tires were added - at the expense of 25% higher revs on the highway.  Finally, tire width is also something to consider, but in general it's good to stay on the narrow side of what's available, to keep the weight down.  Wide tires are good to prevent sinking down in loose, loamy, muddier conditions but narrow tires do a better job of cutting into dry terrain, snow, and can be less likely to hydroplane. 

What about Swaybars?  Should I keep them on my car?  What do I need to know?  Swaybars present a classic compromise for offroad vehicles.  They are used to reduce the amount of body roll during cornering, but they also limit wheel travel in rough terrain.  So, if you do mostly street driving and only occasional, light offroading, you'll want to keep them installed.  BUT, we only recommend using factory swaybars which are not nearly as stiff as aftermarket ones.  Once lifted, the factory rear swaybar links aren't long enough to allow free motion of the suspension.  They will physically "fit", but they will limit wheel travel quite a lot.  We offer extended length swaybar links which will allow full motion of the rear suspension. 

The front factory links are long enough to allow full suspension motion.  If you're going to be driving in rougher terrain frequently, you probably want to remove the swaybars and links completely, but be ready for some different handling dynamics during cornering.  The amount of body roll without swaybars on the street combined with soft springs can be dramatic, to say the least.

What's this I'm hearing about subframe drops?  Subframe drops have been done to some Miata builds in effort to lift the car without doing much to the suspension.  It's what we call a "body lift" rather than a "suspension lift".  They also don't add any ground clearance like a suspension lift can.  You can certainly make the car look like it has a bigger lift by dropping the subframes and adding a matching suspension lift, but you won't gain any offroad performance.  Finally, dropping the rear subframe isn't too difficult, but dropping the front to match is a different, complicated affair to deal with because of steering components and such that need to be extended/modified.

How do these Miatas hold up to offroading?  Are they durable?  Are they safe?  The short answer is - Yes, the first and second generation, and really all Miatas are built with enough durability to withstand a good amount of chassis abuse.  There ARE limits, don't sleep on that, but you can use a level of common sense and keep the car - AND yourself in one piece.  Speaking of which, a rollbar on a Miata is ALWAYS a good idea, street or trail, and they have a very nice side effect of stiffening and strengthening the chassis.  Just make sure it's a true rollbar designed for rollover protection, and not a weak "style" bar.  Additional mods can be made to strengthen and protect the chassis from damage, like a pair of framerail reinforcement channels and the famous "Butterfly" brace. 

Our Strong Arms frame horn reinforcements do a great job of strengthening the cantilevered front section of the chassis which carry the majority of the cornering and shock loads into the suspension.  Our "Oil Pan Armor" Skid Plate can protect your engine from catastrophic failure, should your oil pan meet an errant rock and decide to stop carrying oil around for you.

So what's the Offroadster??  We got so much response over our first lifted Miata, we knew we had to go even bigger with more offroading capability.  We geek out on suspension stuff as a hobby, so we fired up the CAD machine and took on a big project.  Like mentioned earlier, we began this endeavor by considering the tires first, and working inward from there.  We'd need to replace all eight control arms with longer ones to achieve the amount of wheel travel we wanted.  We decided to design our geometry around some VERY large tires...  Maybe too big?  31x10.50-15.  Not the biggest truck tire out there, but simply huge on a Miata.  We paired the tires with some aftermarket wheels with standard Miata fitment.  Once the wheel/tire combo was determined, we began modeling to see what it would take to make these tires actually work.  We had full freedom of suspension geometry to play with, and were only limited by the inner control arm pivot locations, or "hard points" as they're sometimes referred to.  We actually lengthened the wheelbase several inches by moving the front wheels forward and the rear wheels backward.  This not only helps offroad performance and stability, but it meant that we didn't need to do as much removing/modifying of the structural unibody at the rear of the front wheel well and the front of the rear wheel well for tire clearance...  Shew, say that a few times!  This suspension kit offers nearly a foot of wheel travel, and that was only possible by also widening the track width by 13 inches.  Yep, 13...  Its a LOT.  Moving the front axle forward meant we also have to relocate the steering rack, and extend the steering column.  Of course the wider track means extending the tie rods as well, and we have custom axles made to handle that in the rear.  We have AFCO custom make the shocks for us with our proven specs for damping.  What's it like to drive?  It's quite an experience to say the very least.  Not only does it perform offroad like nobody's business, it's actually a treat to drive on the street too, and the other portion of the experience is the wild reactions and intense curiosity from everyone who sees it.  Stops for fuel take longer than normal - lots of picture taking and questions from strangers who simply must know - what, why, how, and how much?  We've even witnessed a minor rear-ending accident at a stoplight because a guy was gooning at our car.  Sorry about that.  Bottom line, the Offroadster exists because it needed to happen, for science of course.  

Ok, so now we have a nice working knowledge of what it takes to lift your 1st or 2nd generation Miata, and lots of options of products available to fit any budget or build plan.  Whether you're new to this incredibly fun corner of Miatadom or a seasoned pro with multiple lifted Miatas, we hope you found some value in this writeup.  We love helping customers in planning and realizing their builds, and we're happy to help with any questions you might have about our products or whatever you and your Miata have planned next - on OR offroad.