ALK and ARB... what now?
 

I have just fitted a ALK and 22mm rear bar on its hardest setting (wish i had gone for the 24), but i am still getting pronounced understeer, especially on turn in. The car is alot better, dont get me wrong, but want a more neutral car that wont plough on.

I dont really want to change springs, as i like the ride in general, but what else can i do to reduce understeer?

Tyres are ok, and new. But havent had alignment done, only thing i can think of is that with a bit of toe out on the rear.

3 things:
1
Fit noltek top mounts to the front.
2
Fit camber bolts in each strut
3
Get it aligned by someone who really knows what they are doing.

Get used to the way the car drives.
You might want to try middle hole in the rear arb.

Graham

I've a similar problem. It drives lovely and is very much more rear-biased than it ever was before, but still has a tendency to plough on if you take too much speed into a bend, especially in the wet. You can get the rear round quite easily and controllable with a little throttle, but if it's already understeering, it just turns into a ragged four wheel drift.

First thing I'm thinking of is getting some decent camber on the front, with a little less on the back, see how it goes. I just need something to get the front to bite more, short of changing the top mounts.

BTW spec is 22mm adjustable ARB on the rear (hardest setting), alloy droplinks front and rear, ALK on the front (all Whiteline), KYB dampers, Eibach springs and rear camber bolts, rear strut brace (it's a wagon).

The advantage ofthe noltec top mounts is that you can dial-in a huge amount of extra CASTOR into the geometry.
To this you set about 2 deg neg camber ot maybe a bit less.

The high castor generated a progressivly increasing negative camber as the steering wheel turn is made.
The loaded outside tyre is set more square to the road and grip increases to make the car go round the chosen path not understeer.

The hard roll setting on the rear will inducs a bit of tail happiness or some oversteer, but the strength of the Impreza chassis is if you can get it more neutral you can pile on the power early in the corner and come out fast and without undue lock.

This short clip is of my hillclimber on a damp track.
Approach speed to the bend is about 80mph and the car has 380 bhp.
Note how flat it is and lack of under/over steer.
Without the castor mod I would have gone round (maybe) that bend on full LOCK, not opposite lock, and would have been much much slower as you wait for the chassis to sort itself out.

DropShots Day

The chassis is quite well developed after 3 years of extensive work with a very long list of compatible parts.
Graham

Definately need an alignment now that the ALK is fitted. Mine felt so much better once done.

I was reluctant to go for any other springs as well but was glad that I listened to Grahams advice (amongst numerous informative threads) regarding certain AST's :D One of the best mods I've added to the car and if anything are actually more compliant than my Prodrive springs. Also reduced the annoying bouncing that I used to get!

RLE: :D
Job:
They look really nice and a move-on from Noltec's.
Good going from Whiteline!

Graham

your my suspension guru Graham :) Honest replies and plenty of on road experience. Works for me mate.

Just replaced my front dampers and couldn't remember where the camber bolts had been set. I just turned them to give maximum negative camber, and it corners like its on rails now, virtually impossible to understeer at all. I run out of bottle before it runs out of grip.

Take it here for a proper setup by a track prep specialist.

Mocom Racing - Performance car and trackday products

Based in Essex first junction off the A12 after the M25. :D

I'll pop in next time I'm down that way. At the moment I've got it booked in this week at SCA Race and Rally in Norwich to get it sorted out.