100 rear shocks have arrived at Mazda from Bilstein. 140 Bilstein front shocks and an additional 80 rear shocks are in route to Mazda’s distribution center located in Ontario, CA. ETA is July 9 from a distributor in Germany. And more are close behind. But due to the current limited supply, please only order what is needed of the rear shocks. You are encouraged to place your orders for fronts now to hold your place in line.
Bilstein has been the supplier for shocks in the most popular race class in the world – Spec Miata. When it announced a global supply outage due to delays in production in Germany, the Spec Miata community was forced to weather the storm for many months. It is times like these that enable the motorsport community to demonstrate its commitment, passion, and unity to the sport and to one another. Mazda is proud of so many of its racers.
“For many months, we have been in communication with Bilstein to source shocks for our racers and teams,” said David Cook, Mazda Motorsports’ business development manager. “Once Bilstein got production back running, the North American market was set to receive its supply after the European market. While we implored Bilstein to move up our market, the German HQ did not fulfill. But we hedged this effort by pursuing sources elsewhere around the globe.
“After much due diligence, we located a distributor in Germany that would be one of the first to get Bilstein shocks, if not the first, once Bilstein’s production began again. We called this distributor but had language barrier challenges as some of their representatives in key roles didn’t speak English. So, we asked Andreas Boehm from PAGID Racing, who is German and who has been a superb partner to Mazda, to help us on the phone. Andreas, John Doonan, Scott Kaluza and I all made multiple calls together to this company, and then Andreas took it from there with a couple follow-up calls. In the end, we arranged a deal with this company to airfreight us 140 front shocks and 80 rear shocks, which represented approximately double of what was on back-order as of last week and at the time. While we will be receiving more shocks than back-ordered, we expect to move all of them swiftly once we receive them. We anticipate receiving the 220 shocks (140 fronts and 80 rears) from the distributor based in Germany no later than July 9th, but they do have to go through customs and more.
“While these 220 are on the way, we got more good news this week. Bilstein’s German plant completed a first run of rear shocks for our market, and we were able to claim 100, which we had airfreighted to us, and just received them. We expect them to start shipping today from our distribution center in California.
“We are told that the front shocks, for which we have 175 on order from Bilstein directly, are schedule to be produced in Germany by July 17. This date has been pushed back before, but we are optimistic as the date is closing in. If we need to have those airfreighted, we will. And if we need to order more, and have those airfreighted too, we will.”
More than just sourcing shocks once available, Mazda is going above and beyond in another way. All the additional costs – the higher price of the shocks from the German distributor, the airfreight, and other fees – Mazda is absorbing. Everyone will be able to purchase the front shocks from Mazda at the standard racer price of $99.75, and the rear shocks for $97.75 each, plus tax. If your order exceeds $1,000 in ground shipping, Mazda will even waive the shipping, as it has all year long. For those who have ordered, you have the opportunity to change the shipping method, if desired. Please call 800.435.2508 to speak with a Mazda Motorsports representative.