Hi all,

Been doing a bit of research on here and would appreciate some opinions.

I'm looking to "sharpen up" my MY99 a bit prior to increasing the power. What I'd like first and foremost is a bit less body roll, so that my nice Scott Lowe Mudflap don't get acquainted with the floor during enthusiastic cornering! So, I was thinking a Whiteline Rear adjustable ARB and some solid droplinks front and rear for a start. Would this do the job regarding the body roll? Does anyone have a "ball park" estimate for the costs?

I don't feel too strongly about understeer at present I kinda like it there as an indication of sensible limits for the road. That said, I've heard great things about the Prodrive geomety settings. My question is, would having this done in conjunction with the above mods detract from the cars "friendliness" I like a bit of throttle adjustability, but appreciate how forgiving the car is -particularly in the wet - and don't want to loose that.

I was thinking of getting this done at Elite in Essex (anyone know if they have a website). Any views on them?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Regards,

NS04

 

IMHO:

Fit Whiteline roll bars FRONT and BACK
Get the alignment done really well (ie Power Station, or Power Engineering closer to you.

You will have a very nice daily driver.

911

 

Id buy the solid rear drop links and rear whiteline adjustable ARB and fit them yourself. Really is an easy job and there is info on here if you need it. Those mods go a long way to improving the cars handling... You'll wonder why Subaru didnt fit similar parts in the 1st place.
See how you get on with that and then get your gemoetety sorted. Always nice to see which changes make the difference in m opinion.
Rear arb is about £80-90 I think... I bought the powerflex rear droplinks...About £60+ if memory serves.
Not tried an uprated front ARB... But 911 knows what he is talking about !!

 

Thanks 911 and Jim,

I did wonder about the front one as well. If I understand correctly, the effect of increasing front roll stiffness in addition to rear roll stiffness would be to balance out the oversteer that may be induced by the rear ARB alone, so essentially, you're left with a Scooby with familiar handling characteristics, but less roll.

911- when you said get the allignment done, did you mean just get it restored to the factory settings- assuming the alignment is out slightly (would have thought so after 5 years) or have the prodrive settings dialed in? I take it the latter will reduce understeer without making the car too nervous. Are the droplinks a lesser priority for now? I should say that the car has only done 18k so the std ones are unlikely to be past their best yet I guess.

All the best.

NS04

 

Anti lift / Castor kit, £125.00
22mm front anti roll bar £80.00
24mm adjustable rear anti roll bar, £100
Drop links front and rear £76,00 (£38, each)
Heavy duty rear roll bar mounts. £58.00

£518.00 inc vat not including fitting.
Above prices subject to change as I have pulled them off my own receipt from back in 2002 lol.

Along with the above I'd recommend the bumpsteer and Prodrive geometary / 4 wheel lazer alignment £125 I think....

Strut brace and wishbone support bars also available if you "really" want to stiffen things up..

None of the above will really change the overall NVH of the vehicle either, will still ride the bumps and humps as quiet and as smooth as it does now.
all the above comes into play in the twisties.

Andy

 

I think Fuzz is right.

When i suggested someone who 'knows' to align the car I meant a set-up well away from the Subaru Dealer job, ie the PowerStation set-up.

If you do as Fuzz says you will ask why Subaru did not do these mods as standard.

The car will be so much quicker from A to B down a cross country route preferably!

As a matter of interest, I have seen a P1 hill climb and sprint with stock plastic drop links to great effect. Solid links are worth the extra if you are doing all of Fuzz's mods.

911

 

Should add:

The above mods are an excellent basis for more serious mods to really squeeze the Impreza chassis, but such extra additions beyond the above will compromise the NVH of the car.

You will have a great summer!

Start saving then for the AST struts, the rest of the Whiteline catalogue, MRT top mounts, demon tyres.
Then 400 bhp because you will feel you are a natural born driver....

Enjoy!

911

 

LOL me? unlikely! I'd love to take scooby on a track and see what he can really do though! Thought I should get to work sorting a few of the details first though, e.g. suspension, brakes etc.... I can see that the cars std set up would understeer too much on the track, but it does make it a very safe and friendly car on the road, especially when the conditions are bad, but you still want to make a little progress. All I wanted to do initially is just cancel out some of the body roll. However, the Revised geometery sounds good and power engineering aren't far away from me, but maybe I should accept a longer drive to Powerstation and get the bumpsteer too, decisions, decisions!! I've heard mixed reviews about the antilift kit, so maybe I should do some more homework on that.

I don't want to compromise the NVH of the car as it's my only car and the idea is to strike a nice balance between ability and everyday practicality. That said, it's nice to know I have options with the above set up! After that i think I'll go down the Decat and Tek 3 route!

Thanks for your help 911!

 

The Whiteline products are available on the group buy forum. 15% discount.
I have paid £218 delivered for 22mm front and rear adjustable ARB and front and rear drop links.
They will also do the Eibach pro kit springs for £161....a massive improvement.

 

The anti lift kit isn't "JUST" anti lift..
It also adds more castor which will give the car more "feel" through the steering wheel.
It'll give more dynamic camber on turns which will improve front end grip in the twisties.
It will also add a little "weight" to the standard "featherlight" steering (IMO a good thing as scoob steering is far too light to start with)

Andy

 

I found adding the front uprated bar ( after the metal drop links and PU bushes, and a/r bar chassis bar mounts all round but ignoring the h/d rear a/r bar to chassis mountings) brought back the understeer, and I have the rear bar set on hardest setting to loose a little grip at the rear and lessen understeer..... so maybe 21 mm bar at front would be good ... really thinking of going back to std front a/r bar with PU mounts ... * metal drop links/pu bushes to see.

Not sure of benefit of anti lift kit .. I noticed little change after buying and having it fitted ... nose still lifts on acceleration, dips a lot on braking, doesn't feel much heavier but does maintain a good straight ahead with "hands off" ... so the extra castor is useful.

Bump steer mod seems good buy, but best effect is proper settings for camber and 4 wheel tracking ... especially when the PU bushes you fitted already really help maintain the desired alignment during driving!

 

can someone post a picture or link of the whiteline rear drop links?

 

Adam,

Whiteline do two versions. Replacement steel ones about £70 for front and rear and heavy duty ones (about twice that cost).

Normal Ones


Heavy Duty Version


Stefan

 

thanks ozzy, that was just what i was after.

 

911

sorry for hijacking

ive just fitted whiteline droplinks all round and rear 22mm arb,along with kyb adjustable and eibachs .
also got alk to be fitted by powerstation friday along with geometry etc

i was thinking of getting the front arb as well but alot of peeps have told me not to bother without giving me a reason that i could understand ?
so,is the front arb really worth doing ?

 

if you want to stick with the 22mm rear, probably not.

Dam, done PS out of a sale now

Andy

 

ps really did sort out the handeling on my 02 wrx... they will transform the car worth the trip

 

righty ho,,cheers bud

got it from DT anyway . lol

but PS are fitting it ;-)
looking forward to seeing there new premises,me m8 went there the other day and says its awesome,,gonna take me cam...

 

Here's what they look like on the car.

 

He's right, it looks really nice.

 

I admit that I have only had my car with the front and rear bars, never driven it with a rear uprated only.

Although the bars will affect the 'understeer' characteristic by making the rear more loose if set that way, the bars are really there to reduce roll!

I feel this is where the set-up plays it's role, and where the adjustability range in the stock suspension is very limited.

It is all $$$ and time, but if the car is being set-up by experts like P/S I would have camber bolts fitted while they have everything loose. Allows them to tweek the settings further towards an optimum.

Either way, i am sure you will be very pleased with the mild but very effective mod you are doing, and will be back for more!

A fully sorted chassis is worth a stack of bhp.(even if you are drag racing).

Good luck.

Graham (911)

 

I have front and rear uprated ARBs on the Type R. I changed an exhaust this week by reversing the RHS of the car up a high sloped curb in the car park at work (so I could get underneath), I had 2 wheels off the ground (RHS front and LHS rear) at one point as there's so little roll.

I did the same thing in my P1 last year and it didn't do that, as it had standard ARB's and droplinks.

Since having the ARBs and links done, I haven't experienced ANY understeer even though my front tyres are close to needing replacing. It doesn't seem any more understeery either now, just well set up.

 

I have a MY00 with:

Eibachs
Whiteline Rear ARB
Whiteline droplinks
Bumpsteer mod
Powerstation geometry
18" OX superl's

I drove a friends standard MY99 last week and couldn't believe the difference. I knew I had got used to my car and was actually a little nervous about driving the std car, fearing I may notice little difference - totally wrong.

The car felt so much more confident and planted. The lessened roll on mine was obvious and I was surprised to find much more steeing feel too. I could carry much more speed through all corners. In every area the handling felt improved without any real NVH penalties.

I should add that my car is running approx 270bhp/lb ft and the most obvious difference between mine and the std MY99 was the massive improvement in handling.

I'd always advise people to sort the handling and stopping before power.

 

After having the ALK nearly two years now, I want to add that the ALK (well; on my MY00 car) does cause the car to exhibit more tendency to 'dive' under heavy braking..
BUT the fact you can see where you are going under WOT (ie: no bonnet rising to the sky!) helps a lot
Bear in mind neither my power levels or brakes are standard.

 

what is nvh ??

and which rear arb is the one to go for ? 22 or 24mm

 

Sorry.
Noise
Vibration
Harshness

22mm adjustable is the most widely recomended.

 

thanks