SCOS

Afternoon people,

I'm new to the forum and just wanna say Hi, looks a good place to be

Anyway, I've had my Bugeye for about 2 months now, and am not very impressed with the handling of my car.

I am getting it checked out by a specialist asap, but may want to upgrade the suspension while its in the garage.

The car feels very twitchy, and more like RWD round some bends.

Tyres are fine, as are the pressures, but this car is lacking the handling I was expecting. I used to have a J plate Saphire Cosworth 4x4 and that was amazing compared to this.

Any advice on what mods I can do to improve this?

Car is standard spec btw.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

chiark

Sorting out the geometry would be an excellent first step - you can eliminate a lot of weirdness with the correct geometry settings.

Gridlock Mikey

Hi there Chiark. Hows it going old timer? I still have your backbox After all these years

stilover

Que all the "Learn to drive posts"
Had the same thing with my 05 STi, didn't like the handling but got told to "learn to drive". After this I had the Prodrive spring kit fitted with full Geometry settings, changed type of tyres, and put on 18" wheels. All combined to totally transform the car. My suspisions was the original geometry was out, think that thought was justified after have the Prodrive bits on.

See what happens after you have your geometry looked at. This will probably transform it alone. Plus, if your running on Bridgestone RE070 tyres, bin them, there crap.

ozzy

A good (and accurate) geometry setup is essential. The variance on Dealer rigs is too great to be worth anything.

Out the box, the Impreza has great traction but the handling isn't the greatest.

Also it may not drive or handle the same as your cossie, so you may have to adapt your driving style slightly to get the best out of it. (driving style can't be ignored).

chiark

Wotcha Mikey - glad you're still enjoying my backbox... Bear in mind it was originally blowdog's, so it's now legendary

The only twitch you should feel is if you lift off, and even then you have to be going some to get the back end into play IMHO. Geometry should sort out twitchiness, and if you want to improve handling further you're into drop links, etc...

SCOS

Cheers guys,

I will defo get the geometry checked out first

I'm not new to fast motors or 4x4, and have a lot of track experience, so you can rule out driver errors

Most unexperienced peops wouldn't know anything was wrong until they stacked the car and asked questions later. A good driver should know the limits of their car imo

Thanks again..........loads of good info and clued up people on this site

ozzy

Trackday drivers are usually the worst

The amount of people that complain of understeer (as an example) when there's nothing wrong with the car usually starts the cry's of "learn to drive"

Graham's (911) project on suspension tuning is a great read and fitting ARB's, drop links together with some top mounts to get some caster into the geometry is a great way of getting a fantastic handling car.

warrenm2

echo the rear ARB and drop links mods, does make a lot of difference to the understeer. There is a section all on suspension, have a good look round in there - and the RE070s arent crap at all!

ru'

What bugeye is it?

davedipster

I do agree the RE070's are the best OEM tyre I have ever tried, and they are well suited to the sti set-up. When hot they are amazing.
I've found that having the prodrive geom settings applied to a 03sti gives a very nice road set-up (£65), safe understeer at the limit. This can be turned into oversteer easily with the right steering and throttle inputs when having a play.
Maybe I'm just a driving god!

dipster

scoobydooooo

i agree , i didn't think there was anything wrong with the bugeye i had , i think you have to learn how to drive them , same as any other car !!
and learn to trust it !!