Mike Murphy

I've got a 2003 WRX with prodrive lowering springs, also front and rear strut braces and I'm looking to tighten up the suspension further to make the handling as good as I can for fast road and a bit of track, without making the ride too harsh (and spending too much!!)

I was thinking of a rear anti roll bar and droplinks as I was told these would be good, what about front arb and links??

Also someone said the whiteline anti lift castors and also pillow ball top mounts (I'm not even sure what these do)

Any other ideas? I think poly bushes might be too stiff, what about an H brace, will this stiffen things up too much???

Thanks ofr you help folks

Cheers

Mike

simo

I'd start with the rear arb & maybe the front one as well. These and a good 4 wheel geo alignment & you will notice a marked improvement. Also, no difference to ride harshness.

Mike Murphy

Thanks Simo, what about droplinks???

Mike

simo

sorry, them as well

Andy 02STI

I was in discussion with scooby clinic abot reducing body roll on my 02 sti with existing pro-drive springs and they suggested whiteline arb and droplinks - £215 fitted and is meant to make a marked improvement.

911

The above will make a good improvement on any Impreza.

Be ready for more though, as you can add a few more bits (not all expensive) and the chassis will improve no end further still, especially on the track but you will notice a bit of a compromise in road harshness.

Poly bushes are for track day cars
If you fit bear top mounts you dont need the anti lift kit. The top mounts will allow the car to have MUCH more caster in the front geometry and this single handedly will almost eliminate understeer.
A lower brace is good, but in mho is for when you have poly bushes/top mounts/the Works.

Never forget a competent alignment job by a specialist such as PowerStation.

If you really are interested try a very long read here:
https://www.scoobynet.com/projects-4...t-chassis.html

Graham


A shot of the steering rack bushes, lower wishbone poly bush (putple) the ALK (gold blocks on the right) and the H brace.
This is a fraction of the cars mods.

Mike Murphy

Cheers Graham, looks like I'll be ordering front and rear arb and droplinks.

What are bear top mounts (like pillowball top mounts?) and they are better than whiteline anti lift castors??

Cheers

Mike

911

Sorry Mike, meant to be BEARING top mounts, same thing as pillow ball.
The new Whiteline tops are very nice and they will give great caster/camber.

The ALK from Whiteline gives a tiny increase in comparison to the caster angle.
On my car i have both ALK and extreme top mounts (AST's) but only because I'm too lazy to remove the ALK.

You might need camber bolts in the front and rear to balance the alignment.

As i say, there are many things you can do but for a nice road car huge changes are not needed to get a nice 'reward'!

RavSpec

try out some GTSPEC products (GTSPEC)

Mike Murphy

I wouldn't mind getting underbracing, but wouldn't that make the suspension too stiff for a road car??

911

Not at all.


This is my classic.
Graham

Mike Murphy

Cheers Graham, what items of underbracing would you recommend, that would not make the ride too harsh??

Mike

911

The brace only triangulates the suspention frame/pick-up points.
If the suspension lower arms still have the stock rubber bushes, then they will 'flop' all over the palce no matter what bracing is done.

To stiffen it all up you need to remove all rubber pivots/mountings.

A big hard work job and a big re-alignment after, but with a (large) number of other mods will give a chassis you can only dream about!

Forgive the video, but it behaves like this when done:
DropShots Day

The track is actually quite damp, and I am flat-out in third at the entry.

Mocom Racing

iTrader: (2)

Mike, the first step is to look at your current struts as they're far too soft for track use and even fast road use for that matter.
Address this correctly and you shouldn't need any of the fancy chassis bracing, (I'm a GTSPEC dealer so not knocking the product) but my road car doesn't run them and consistantly runs 8:40/30 lap times at the ring with my poor driving on congested public days.

KYB AGX adjustable struts combined with your springs and a set of 20mm STi ARB's will give a very nice set up for road use.

Mike Murphy

Graham, nice vid, car sounds sweet!!

Mocom, thanks for the advice, looks like I've got some saving to do, how much do the adjustables come in at???

Mike