PetrolHeadKid

Hi all :-)
This is my first post here on SN, so I am hoping that someone (or more than one person) might be able to give me a few suggestions...

I own a Hawkeye WRX and am not happy with the Handling.

The car is running on Kumho Ecsta LE Sport tyres. These are hardly used, though they wouldn't have been what I would've purchased, but the guy I bought the car from knew that he was going to be selling the car and didn't want to buy premium boots.

Anyway, the front bits quite well in the bends, but the back end slides out far to easily. My local specialist is recommending that I have some STI shock absorbers fitted to sort out the problem.

I don't doubt his advice, but my question is whether it might be the that the tyres are the cause of some (most?) of the problem?

What about new springs?

Basically, I don't want to pay to get this done only to find that the problem persists (and that buying a set of premium tyres would have solved the issue).

Any thoughts?

Thanks loads everyone :-)

PHK.

fat-thomas

iTrader: (4)

decent tyres and four wheel alignment would be a good starting point

InTurbo

iTrader: (3)

Well the stock Wrx shouldn't oversteer so fitting Sti shocks is a silly recommendation.

Let's start at the basics, first I would check your tyre pressures are correct.
Over inflation in the rear tyres would cause them to loose grip.

Then have all the bushes checked, no point wasting money on a alignment of you have excessive movement in a bush.

If all is well get a decent 4 wheel alignment, hopefully the car should be driving as it should.

PetrolHeadKid

Thanks for the replies guys :-)

I checked the tyre pressures - they were actually down 2PSI at the rear and 1PSI at the front (all now correct (33PSI front & 32PSI rear).

There seems to be a consensus on wheel alignment here (+ the bushes and I will also look into getting a set of 'the best'? tyres for this car (whatever they may be)...

Does anyone know of anywhere near Peterhead (Aberdeenshire) that would be able to check out the suspension / handling and make honest recommendations?

Many thanks,

Steve.

InTurbo

iTrader: (3)

I personally prefer a tyre with a stiff side wall on the Hawkeye. Car feels soft and unresponsive otherwise best I've used are.
Re070 bridgstones,
Awesome dry grip, good steering response, poor wet grip, tramlining when half worn.
Ad08r Yokohama
Unbelievable grip levels, good steering response, good wet grip, poor wear rate.
V105s Yokohama
Good all round performance not as grippy as the two above, good steering response, good wet grip, best wear rate out of the three.

Worst was the Goodyear eagle f1 asymmetrical 2.
Soft side walls, slow to respond, lots of understeer, comfortable ride.

There the only tyres I've used on my hawk.

Ginola

iTrader: (25)

You're comparing trackday / semi slicks to road tyres.. I don't get any understeer with eagle f1's and are amazing to use in the wet on track, give loads of feedback and make a great road tyre, the re070's are a dreadful tyre when it rains, which it does a lot here.. I use 888s for track work but comparing them to eagle f1's would be similar to saying "my scoob is faster and handles better than your yaris"

To the OP, a good geometry setup will transform the car, I would try this before replacing the boots (checking the bushes can be done at the same time) have a search on here for recommended fast road settings and go with them armed to the alignment centre,

It might be worth buying a pair of camber bolts for the rear. They are cheap as chips from most places and will allow you to get a good amount of negative at the rear

InTurbo

iTrader: (3)

Yes i well aware of the differences in tyre types,
There the only tyres I've used on the car and all I can comment on,
V105s and eagle f1 are similar performance road tyres. And for me the V105s were the better tyre by far.

Standard Re070 and the ADo8r are both extreme performance road tyres. And the AD08r were the better of the two.

PetrolHeadKid

Thanks for the tyres replies InTurbo :-)

I know only too well how much of a difference the right tyre can make (transform would be a better word) the handling of a car...

I had Goodyear GSD3s on a previous car and they were very good in the wet - personally I would be willing to sacrifice a bit of dry grip for better wet weather grip (I live in the North East of Scotland).

I previously owned an EVO IX FQ-360 and the guy that I bought it from had owned a few Scoobies in the past and he mentioned (Quote) 'I had one exactly like that I think, but in silver. A 2.5 engine with PPP on it. Was nice, but the thing that drove me crazy was the understeer. I remember getting a mod done to dial in some toe-out on the rear wheels - needs to be done carefully, but can makes the car much more lively. That's one of the things I liked most about the Evo - no understeer.'

So your suggestion (Ginola) about getting the geometry set up makes sense - is this something that any specialist should be able to do? You've lost me a bit on the amber bolts and a negative camber though! :-(

Any idea how much I should be looking at for the cost?

Many thanks,

PHK.

Ginola

iTrader: (25)

A Pair of these..

http://scoobyworld.co.uk/catalog/pro...oducts_id=2058

Then find a local reputable Alignment center with a good 4 wheel laser setup and go armed with the settings you want.. most places will charge per adjustment, from memory the cost of having a full setup done is normally around £100 ish if a few bits need changing,

I would recommend something like 1.5 degrees front camber and 1.3 on the rear a tiny bit of toe in on the front (0.9 of a degree or something) and a tiny bit less on the rear 0.6 or something. It will feel a little woolly at low speeds but really come alive when you start pushing on.,

There are lots of threads on here about chassis setup and geometry well worth a read.

InTurbo

iTrader: (3)

I had my car set up by Peter Cambridge (ex prodrive suspension engineer)

He told me part of the reason Impreza's understeer is the fact stock rear camber setting are a great deal higher than the front, This causes the car to push on in the corners.
What he did to help eliminate the understeer in mine was to reverse the stock camber settings of -0.30 front -1.30 rear.


My front camber has been increased to 1 and a half degrees negative, (-1.30 )and the rear reduced to just under a degree negative, (-0.59)
We aso fitted a larger Prodrive 21mm rear roll bar, this increase's the load transfer across the front wheels, helping turn in response,

Having the lower camber in the rear and the combination of the slightly larger rear bar diameter has also made the rear of the car more mobile and more neutral as a result.

Toe front and rear is set to 0.03 total 0.06 toe in.

fat-thomas

iTrader: (4)

Are you sure the issue is not that you are comparing an evo to a wrx.
The wrx will feel poor no matter what tyres it has.