vara411

You sir, have a GORGEOUS 427. I'd been meaning to tell you...

LS WON

Is the suspension on a factory Miata hard riding like a 5.0 Fox Mustang? or worse?

DigitalWidgets

Hmmmm....I must be an exception here. I flip back and forth between Tour and Sport constantly....like paddle shifting almost. Around just about any turn or corner, Sport mode. Cruising on the freeway: Tour mode. Cloverleaf on/off ramp, Sport mode. Uneven pavement our lousy road surface, Tour mode. And it's never just "set and forget"....I'll be in Tour, identify a turn up ahead, flip the switch to Sport right before starting to brake and back to Tour once I've completed the turn and am back to cruising.

Either mode provides the advantages outlined in the "airborne over a bump" videos. The differences in the two modes are most apparent to me in situations where you want to extract better handling from the car. Situations where braking and lateral G forces on the car cause weight transfer handling issues.

While a rookie and absolutely horrible at autocross, the difference between Tour and Sport on an autocross course is about 1.5 seconds for me. I discovered this over the summer. Did a number of runs in the morning and was finally getting some consistent times and feeling comfortable around the course. Left the track and went to lunch and my first 3 runs after were all about 1.5 secs slower....until I realized that I had forgotten to switch the F55 back to Sport after lunch. I was surprised that there was that much performance difference between the two modes. The difference is all about body roll through the slaloms and other places where weight transfer unsettles the car.

For those that can't feel the difference, find a deserted piece of road and try some slalom turns in Tour, then in Sport. I'm not talking about little S turns, real slalom type of turns throwing the car back and forth....the difference in body roll will immediately become apparent.

vara411

... with everything you just said. It's pretty much how I use it, though I wonder to myself if it's because the car is new to me. The difference is definitely perceptible to me, so I don't see why I wouldn't stop using it in this way.

... you don't suppose using it this way would lead to premature wear?

LS WON

Wouldn't that wear out the F-55 ****?

DigitalWidgets

Well....I've got 47K miles on my 2011. I flip that switch numerous times every daily drive trip. I often find myself reaching down and tweaking it pretty hard when it's already in Sport mode, and I'm just making sure it's really there (that little bit of rubber for grip on the **** allows me to tweak it much harder than I probably should). I can say that so far, my switch operates just like it was new.

Doing little math: 47000 miles/25 miles (one leg of the to/from work commute) = 1880 legs (assuming I only count my work commute). I'd say at a bare minimum, I flip the switch 8-10 times on one of those legs (Sport in neighborhood, Tour on feeder streets...a couple of rough bridges, 2 turns...two clicks each pre and post, 2 clicks for freeway on ramp...one click pre, one click post, 2 for freeway off ramp). Add that up and I've clicked my switch 18,800 times so far....if it was going to break, it probably would have by now!

Honestly, that's a heck of a lot of clicking and I find I tweak kinda hard, just to be sure, every fun turn I see ahead. Works like it was new.

vara411

Great! Just eh... no need to twist so hard. She told me to tell you.

LSD 2005

Since I installed Z51 sways on my '05 coupe...Tour mode gets turned on when on the interstate, cruising and bumpy roads.

c6vette142dude

Sport most of the time.

vara411

Absolutely... Z51 sway bars are a huge plus with the F55 setup. Inexpensive upgrade that's well worth it.

DigitalWidgets

SenseiDave

I've kept mine in TOUR except for a few times playing to feel the difference. But now I'm motivated to try the SPORT setting for a week or two.

vara411

I tried keeping mine in Sport based on what I read here. Unfortunately my commute didn't allow for that and I'm back to Tour most of the time... but still switching to Sport rather frequently.

Slare

The setting on mine pretty much correlates with the legality of my driving. Tour mode almost always.

Comp mode -> sport setting -> go.

There are a few occasions on specific highways where I will use sport to take away what I can only describe as jitteriness.

CorvetteSparky

I've left it in Sport since buying the car other than trying Tour to see if I could tell the difference. I couldn't tell any difference until on a really bad road... I haven't been on that road since!