Griblands

I have now almost completed re-building my Impreza Classic Wagon Stage Rally Car. I would now like to look at the suspension, but I am on a restricted budget.

PLEASE don't make suggestions if you have only ever driven on the road, as Stage Rallying is very different!

What I need is long-travel (ideally adjustable ride-height) suspension, and again I prefer softer suspension to soak up the bumps and jumps. My preference is for Bilsteins.

It would be ideal to have a set-up for both tarmac and gravel that only entails a change of springs but I guess that is asking too much.

Comments please - Anyone have anything for sale??

Hopefully a photo of my car has appeared above. If not, take a look at my garage. Many thanks!

subzerokent

iTrader: (1)

Don't know if it's what your after but I saw a set of Tarmac rally coilovers on eBay yesterday

Griblands

Subzerokent - Have been looking and found a pair of fronts but not a set. Do you have a link?

bushiwarrior

Exe-tc are very good http://www.exe-tc.co.uk/

Griblands

Bushiwarrior - Thank you. Looking at their website I am sure that you are correct but I can't find an application for the Classic Impreza & I suspect that it is very expensive.

Markyscoob

How about BC ER series? I have these on my car and they're nice and adjustable with 80mm of length change. 5/4 for gravel, and 8/6 for tarmac, you can get them with helper springs and vary length and preload seperately. The new ones come with solid rotating external pipework, but the older ones had hoses. As they order custom, you could no doubt get them with hoses which would suit competition better.

If only they made inverted versions they would be perfect! Bren from Apex says an Ohlins chap stripped some BC dampers down and was impressed in value for money and overall performance so worth looking at.

About £1,700 all in with spring helpers included and rose jointed pillow ball top mounts all round.

Not Proflex, but then they cost 4 times that and you have to service the damn things every day.....

Griblands

Markyscoob - Thank you for the suggestion. However, £1,700 is above my budget. I don't understand how suspension became so expensive! Is it just Subarus?? Anyway, BC seem to be a main manufacturer that supply others but now manufacturer an 'unbranded' product - Is this correct?

I like the adjustable ride-height via the bottom mount (ride-height cannot be adjusted by the bottom spring platform as some people seem to think) and they appear to have a 44mm diameter piston in a 53mm diameter damper body.

Thank you - I think I will investigate this further. Recommendations for the cheapest place to buy would be appreciated.

Godspeed Brakes

iTrader: (259)

If your looking to buy cheap you will not get proper rally suspension ! I bought new Reigers for my rally car , not cheap but they are about the best you can get , the 3 way suspension makes a huge difference to the run of the mill stuff.

If I was you , I would look at fitting some bilstein suspension , you could buy some strut bodies , or even get some made , along with some inverted inserts , a coil over kit like you buy for Escorts , you have a massive choice of spring rates available then , it shouldn't be that hard to do

Griblands

Hello Godspeed Brakes - What car do you run & do you use it for tarmac or gravel? I would be interested to know what spring rates & lengths you use. I take your point about Bilstein inserts. The car currently runs these for gravel, but for some reason with standard diameter springs!? I want to experiment with adjustable coilovers for the tarmac setup before I mess about with the gravel settings. How much did the Reigers cost and what seconds per mile reduction did you get?

Markyscoob

As above, cheap and quality are mutually exclusive.

You can adjust ride height with preload, it's been the norm for decades doing this on coilovers until the bright idea of seperate length adjustment. What you lose is sensitivity at top out, because more preload pushers the car to top out more, and loss of available travel, or less droop. Essential if you want the spring and compression damping to land the jumps safely.

The relationship of front to rear springs is essential for jumping, and rally cars are forced to do this a lot, mainly for photo opportunities!!

BC are the best value for cost out there, and APEX can customise your order fully.

Mine are the new spec ones, with the rigid pipework for the remote reservoir. The older ones with braided hoses would suit rallying better I would have thought. You can remove the lower mounts fully on those whereas you can't with the new design.

The downside is the reservoir is under the arch, not inside as on Proflex units. They do have good boots and seals though.

If you want to run at a budget small enough to avoid costs like this, then you're going to finish very much well down the field, no matter how good you are as a driver. Rallying costs money. suspension is key to handling and adaptation for differing surfaces as much as your choice of tyres.

My BC ER series came with 135mm and 150mm travel f/r. Mine's a road car so I went for rubber rear mounts and conical rear springs. The helpers mean I can run minimal preload and have 6/5 springs and O.E. length shock bodies and O.E. ride height and then vary +-40mm in adjustment.

The damping is separate compression and rebound and I get 30 clicks. I asked for the plush high speed damping valves and despite a firm ride I get none of the banging and crashing of the O.E. STI shocks.

VERY satisfied so far.

BR series would be just as customisable except for the lack of reservoir and combined damping adjustment. Loads of folk like them and for £750 or so you can also get custom long travel units and spring helpers and pillowball adjustable or fixed top mounts.

(The advantage of the braided reservoir connector is the bottom mount is not slotted and you could upgrade later on)

Griblands

Thank you all for your help and advice. I've just bought these (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1906467716...84.m1439.l2649) so I now hopefully have a good base to start from.