john banks

Present spec:

215/40R17 Goodyears on OZ SuperLegs
Eibachs
Standard MY00 dampers (30000 miles) sound and seem fine
Bumpsteer/geometry
AP 4 pots to fit under 16s for track
About 380 BHP and 370 lbft, target this summer 450 BHP and 400 lbft

Main use:

Road, a few trackdays a year

Waiting to see what T-uk's car is like on KW variant 3 coilovers once he fits them. I actually like my present setup but the boys tell me it is not up to the job.

Thinking of adding strut brace(s), anti-lift/pro-dive, solid drop links, pillowball mounts, considering going for the variant 3s. Also considering a front diff.

I am a fairly average driver, I can chuck it about, but prefer slow in fast out (very fast out if possible), and a smooth non-slidey style. I find the present setup once I get used to each new level of power (increasing by about 1 BHP per day this year so far hope to continue apace) very benign and amazingly forgiving, and the traction still astonishes me even in bad conditions with silly amounts of torque in low gears.

I know about ECUs but don't have a clue when it comes to suspension.

I want something that will handle silly power but not bite me suddenly.

Many thanks for any suggestions.

Andy F who can throw a car about like T-uk (why do I know a load of hooligans ? ) said when the car was about 330 BHP that he thought the setup was really nice for road use in its present form. T-uk thinks the whole think flexes like mad since I went silly with torque

[Edited by john banks - 2/18/2003 11:18:42 PM]

Danny Fisher

John, I will have soon the following items.

Cusco Front Strut Brace (Big thick mother version), wont fit with TMIC.
Cusco Rear Strut Brace (Big think mother version)
HKS Front Camber Plates

Mail me if interested.

Dan

David_Wallis

john..

go for the same tyres as andy..

your suspension wont be up to the new engine..

AVO's seem very good on stevens.. (p20spd's) On a local private road it with a long sweeping bend it holds the road very well at 120 / 130 copes with change of direction very well..

However I did say it was a bit soft but that was down to the damper settings..

I posted a thread up titled cornering braking handling and acceleration or similar..

driver training is whats needed, you probably find AndyF and T-UK take the same approach I do... They dont give a **** about there cars.. if they break it then they fix it.. Its probably in the back of your mind that you dont want to give 100% - 110% as you dont want to damage the car..

Anyway I am doing

Group A or Group N Engine Mounts
Poly. Bushes.
Pillowball mounts
Coilovers
Uprated F & R ARBs.
DropLinks
Front & Rear Upper and Lower Strut Braces.
AntiLift Kit ???
BumpSteer Mod ???
Adjustable Rear TCA <-- Think it was that I was going to make..

Im sure theres more as well..

Would like an electronic centre diff as well, with proper electronic diff controller.

David

LB4

John,
i would recommend the drop links and ALK before any others, the drop links give a small but noticable increase to intial roll resistance... and the ALK improves steering feel, obvoulsy the geometery would need re aligning after the ALK is fitted... these are fairly cheap mods but give notiable improvements.

LB4

john banks

Andy F was saying the same, plus uprated rear ARB and strut braces. Think I'll go down that line, since it is a road car I think a lot of coilovers won't go soft enough.

wally

I have the same wheels and tyres, also swaybar links, ALK, geometry setup and strutbrace front. I also made a sort of crossmember on the back seat to stiffen things up, and that works, less creapy sounds in the back now.
The original damper-spring combo is already on the stiff side so I will try now a rear swaybar from Whiteline to reduce understeer.

I also think coil-overs are too hard for raod use, a friend of me has Leda on his MY01 and its like a rock on the streets, I like it but not for everyday use.

My next thing will be the rear swaybar,

The extra noise and vibration is something you should take, you can't expect good things alone...

Also a good thing to do is replace the engine mounts with STI ones, theyre quite cheap, about 80`£ for a pair, it will reduce the movement of the engine and so balances the car better when lifting or accelerating...

john banks

Thanks Wally, present shopping list is looking like:

ALK
Solid front and rear drop links
Uprated rear ARB
Front upper and lower 4 point brace
Rear upper brace
Engine mounts

nom

I found that...
Anti-lift kit is good value
Strut braces make a suprising difference
DMS gold (the new toy ) are quite extraordinarily compliant. Much smoother over bumps/lumps/holes, etc. etc. than my old oem dampers/eibachs, but there stability is wayyy better, minimal, umm, tipping? going round corners (you know what I mean - the car stays flat I think is what I'm saying here) - and the typical hideous road surface leaves it unfazed - with the eibachs, too many bumps & I felt like the wheels were only speaking to the ground on an occasional basis, a 'keeping in contact from time to time' type relationship. That's gone. The car & road appear to have made freinds again.

john banks

DMS gold are coilovers? How much where from etc?

nom

Well, not knowing the exact definition of a coilover I'm not 100% sure, as DMS seem to call everything they do 'shock absorbers' as far as I can tell, but confusingly these shock absorbers seems to have springs wrapped around them as well...
& YHM, John!

john banks

Thanks nom. I'll resist extending this particular shopping list further for now I think

David_Wallis

V Expensive IIRC.

Pavlo

Ledas have transformed my car. I would imagine with damping on minimum they would be fine on an impreza.

They were second hand and do rattle a bit. However what sold them for ME was that it takes just 25mins to get to Leda and have them rebuilt at about £45 per corner, and new shafts are just £13 extra per corner.

They apparently have some new bushes/seals or whatever which solve the rattle problem.

For me it makes the car feel much lighter, much less 'unwinding' as you change direction, I feel more in control of the thing in general.

That said I will be getting as braced up as I can, uprated rubber topmounts will remain.

Ride is good, but because the springs are not progressive ones, you pick up the smaller bumps a lot more. Bigger bumps are soaked up better I think, an high speed cruising is more stable. It woul be possible to have some progressive springs if you got from Leda new. Increasing the rear ride height a little removed a lot of the understeer, although when i did it I noticed I gained back some lift-off oversteer. Setting the car lower again (I'm at -20mm I think) would reduce both.

One thing that made me get new shocks/springs now was because the old ones were dead, rather bouncy. But you will have different priorities.

paul

john banks

POWER Muhahahahahahaha!

darkblueturbo

yup
Powerengineering.co.uk sell them for £1555 inc. Vat plus £250 fitting.

FASTER MIKE!!

Avo`s are half the price of the DMS, so surely that makes them good value for money? they are adjustable to hight and damping.

mike (who`s waiting to get his avo`s fitted)

AJbaseBloke

John,

In addition to the engine/gear box mounts, with that much torque you may want to upgrade the rear ARB mounts along with the ARB (also by Whiteline) - you'll be surprised how much of a difference they can make, esp coming out of a corner under POWER

If you can live with some more noise from the rear I'd suggest upgraded lateral arms and diff mount locks, too - they'll help stop things wiggling.

Also, go for the steering mount bushes from Whiteline - they take the waffle out...and are darn cheap.

All IMHO - and non, I don't work for Whiteline (as John knows)

Edit: Missed a coupla things

[Edited by AJbaseBloke - 2/22/2003 1:59:58 PM]

Claudius

If I were you, John, I'd try and get some old standard suspension and worn bushes. At least, that way, the car will feel like it has a lot of power, all over the place etc

Seriously, dampers are expensive, but there's no alternative!

hypoluxa

I've seen an AVO shock snap in half at 5mph, which is a little worrying...

DMS Gold are very good, bump and rebound are adjusted in unison (DMS Giants are independent) Standard springs are a little soft for track but are great on road. Tad pricey tho.

JohnS

iTrader: (1)

Why not consider the P1 suspension set-up, comprising of variable rate Eibach springs, and V5/6 STi dampers.

I had this on my old MY98, and it transformed the handling, particularly at higher speeds, but still reatined decent ride quality around town as well. Sensibly priced as well if you shop around.

Combined with the other mods you have planned, these would probably do the job very well, without you having to go to the hassle of fitting coilovers, and adjusting them for different types of roads.

John

darkblueturbo

JohnS - I like this idea a lot!

I drove a P1 and the stability and speed and tracking of the road when on power round the corners in amazing compared to my standard MY00, which isn't too sad in itself.

And, as you say, I've never fancied the idea of having adjustables. Would just be a pain and the way I am I'd never be happy with it and keep changing it to try make it that little bit better...

Thanks for a cracking idea!

john banks

Thanks all. Will consider the damper idea later, feel the Eibachs I have suit the 99/00 dampers nicely.

Am going to order....

ALK
Adjustable rear ARB
F+R droplinks
F upr and lwr + R braces
Rear camber bolt kit

New tyres & recheck geometry been a while.

Considering Quaife ATB front diff also. Any thoughts?

dowser

The quaife will bring a nice sideways attitude to corner exits when you want it - it's more of an issue the more grunt you've got, I've noticed a marked difference over the last few months....may even be a bit extreme for yours

I would also fit an uprated centre at the same time the gearbox is out (let me know if you find somewhere with decent pricing!).

Richard

darkblueturbo

Mr. Banks... what Eibach springs do you have with your OE M99/00 dampers at the moment. The ProKit?

I'm currently totally standard so am hi-jacking threads left, right and centre looking for ideas or how to improve upon the originals.

thanks

john banks

Yes the Pro Kit. Makes a nice difference IMHO.

darkblueturbo

I've heard good things, but now I'm very interested in the P1 setup as that was LOVELY.

But I'll leave this thread alone and let you get back to sorting out how to keep your soon to be 400bhp + monster on the straight and narrow!

T-uk

so is the general feeling that pillowball mounts are a waste of time?. jb mentions at the start he is considering them, but they are not discussed.

I would have thought,similar to claudius' comment, that every little helps, when using 30000mile old struts and trying to use them with possibly 450+bhp

[Edited by T-uk - 3/13/2003 6:49:05 PM]

WUZ

iTrader: (14)

Dark Blue Turbo - i am currently running P1 suspension on my car (with a view to getting some uprated drop links as well) with 319 bhp & 331ft/lb and so far the P1 stuff has kept me out of trouble. the car feels so much more precise into and through corners at speed than the old stuff but isn't too crashy in town (other half wants to keep her teeth in her mouth).

I'd consider it if you want an improvement but aren't doing enough track days to warrant a coilover setup.

oh and get the ALK done too!

Russell

7 Foot

John - Have you had a chance to fit any of the parts on your list yet? If so what are your thoughts?

I too love the idea of the P1 set up. Where have the people who have done this sourced the parts from? Is it just a case of waiting for something to turn up in For Sale or have you been buying these from Subaru/another supplier?

john banks

T-uk and I have fitted the front upper strut brace, the rear anti-roll bar and the rear drop links. All nice, but subtle improvements so far. The car is still a kitten to handle at over 400 BHP.