gareth60

Hi all,

Has anyone had any experience of adjustable suspension? I've been thinking that I would like to soffen up the ride of my STI7 for motorway driving and wasn't sure if adjustable suspension will allow me to do this.

Thanks in advance
Gareth.

SDB

the only problem is that most adjustable dampers only adjust rebound damping so it can be a little bit of a gimick...

if you know what you're doing you can tweak it slightly to make adjustments in the limit handling, but it's only fine tuning as your entire set-up will suit a very small range of rebound adjustment.

If you can adjust rebound and bump independently there is much more you can do, but again your springs will dictate and suitable range within that adjustment.

Chassis dynamics is an incredibly complex thing, but the only way to truly learn about it is to experiment with a starting point of basic understanding, which is fairly straight forward.

The best dynamics experts however are the ones that accept that sometimes you just have to try something that doesn't seem like it would work and just see what happens.

Obviously if you're experimenting with the handling of your car you should do it in a non public VERY wide and safe place as the last place you want to find out that the settings adversely affect your limit handling is on a slippy blind bend in the middle of the night.

All the best

Simon

gareth60

Thanks,

That's basically what I thought. I had a setup on a previous car (not a Subaru) and disliked it so much that I took it off.

One thing that had crossed my mind was progressive springs, do you think that might help?

Thanks again
Gareth.

SDB

progressive springs are pretty spooky things in that they are a complete nightmare for chassis engineers to calculate for.

They *can* work really well, but it is too much of an unknown to be absolutely sure.

The thing that you will notice more than anything on the motorway is damping.

If you think of the dampers as the instant high frequency reaction to the road and the springs as the averaging overall balance of the car (this is an over simplification, but you probably get what I mean).

If you could get progressive springs and some matched, high quality, but slightly less agressive dampers you will probably end up with a car that handles nicely through the bend (although will probably not be as responsive on turn-in / adjustment) but will still be soft and comfortable on the motorway.

If you've got the cash to throw at it, it's all worth having a go...

this is definitely a far more productive method than just going with the "norm" or "accepted preference" as what is right for you, might not be right for someone else.

All the best

Simon

gareth60

Hmmm,

Thanks for this. Basically it sounds like I could totally mess things up unless I'm very carefull.

I think i will live with it for the moment and just use the wife's car if we go on any long journeys *grin*

Thanks so much for your advise
Gareth.