So I almost have the power aspect of my car sorted out, and I need to do something about the handling. I'm interested in a "well balanced street" setup...ie stiffness is certainly OK, but the combo must be able to eat up moderate street bumps, etc.

My current "setup" (if you can call it that) is:

Perrin Springs on stock struts
Whiteline RSB @ 22mm, with links and heavy duty mounts.
Special Gino alignment

Right now the car feels great on perfectly smooth road...but any bumps really upset the whole chassis and generally make the mid-corner driving experience almost as un-fun as cornering a sportbike (ie...dreading the mid corner bumps).

I understand there is a trade-off between stiffness and handling, but I would assume that a better matched set of shocks/springs would do wonders for the feel.

So...what should I be looking at for the roads around here? The STi/SPT suspension? KYB shocks? Some brand of coilovers? School me. Vendors feel free to pitch what you got!

Thanks,
Eric

 

I have the JIC coilovers....while I love them for what I do performance-wise with the car (autocross), they are NOT the best choice for a "street" car as far as being comfortable. Longest trip I've taken with them in the car was to Vegas last fall for SEMA......and let's just say that was a LONG trip

For what you're looking to do, I'd get the Koni adjustable inserts (which I feel are better than the KYBs for a couple reasons) along with what you already have and be done with it....

 

Thanks guys...why do you like the Koni's better Ed? Are these just a shock or someone has to rebuild my stock ones with the inserts? I thought the KYB's were a shock?

<---confused.

Thanks again

 

The KYBs are a strut that doesn't have the spring on it. Add the spring and a tophat (either stock or aftermarket), and you have the whole strut assembly.

The Konis are a strut insert. You disassemble your stock struts, "cut out" the stock insert, put the Koni insert in there, and reassemble. Someone like MPJ/GB could easily do this for you.

I prefer the Konis over KYB because experience of friends on other cars have shown the KYBs to not last very long (10-20K miles, tops). The Konis should last for a long time. The Konis are also very easy to adjust, with the **** being right on top.....could adjust all 4 of them in a matter of about 2 minutes on a wagon! On a sedan, adjustment of the rears would be a bit tougher since it requires rear seat removal......score one for the wagons

 

i'm running STi Ver.8 RA Spec-C struts/springs/tophats and have been for the last 7-10k miles or so. in addition, i'm running the following:

Cusco rear swaybar/Perrin Endlinks
Noltec front end links
Cusco front and rear strut bars
Whiteline ALK (sport)

my setup is quite stiff, and there is very little body roll to the car while cornering. for the most part, the car is quite composed on rough roads except at very low speeds. the valving of the Spec-C struts combined with their high spring rates makes the car feel poorly connected to the road in vey slow, bumpy corners. however, the faster you go, the better it feels. bumps that are very unpleasant at 15mph are barely even noticeable at 40.

as far as daily driven comfort goes, its really not bad. it took a while to get a bit used to it, but now i don't even think twice about it. the longest i've spent in the car setup like this was about six or eight hours and it wasn't too bad.

one of the other advantages of the STi stuff for street use is the ride height. i'm only about 1/4" lower than stock, so i don't tend to scrape the front lip of the car as much as some other setups. the STi hardware also has a lot more droop than most coilover setups that i've seen, which means that you're less likely to lift a rear wheel when cornering.

 

I'd definitely go with v7 or v8 takeoffs on a WRX. If you care about being able to hit badly paved roads hard that is. That's the best part about the Prodrive setup on my RS- it never feels over damped or too stiff even on horrible roads. Never gets that skipping stone effect, no matter how many lateral Gs I'm pulling when I hit the pothole. It's still plenty servicable for track and autocross use however.

 

I'm running a STi Ver7 RA Spec C suspension. By suspension, I mean struts/springs/tophats, controlling arms, swaybars, endlinks, lateral links, and trailing arms.

The set up, as a whole, runs pretty much how dropkick's does according to his description. I just got back from a spirited drive down Point Reyes Rd to Limontaur Beach, and even my friend noticed how "sloppy" the suspension seemed when we were stuck behind some traffic on that road (it's quite bumpy if you've never driven on it before).

I want to say that I experience more body roll that dropkick described, however, but I would attribute that mainly to the fact that I do not have strut braces and my sway bars are the stock size as a 03 USDM Sedan comes with. Compared to the stock suspension though, this baby is a lot stiffer. It did lower the car: just enough to be noticed by me. The mechanic that did it didn't see a difference and argued with me about it for quite a while, haha, but that's a whole different story.

In the end, the only thing that I would really like to do to my suspension is what dropkick has done: add strut braces and maybe a cusco sway kit (stiffer endlinks and bigger bars). Another thing I have been thinking about doing for a long time is picking up some Prodrive springs. Their rates are pretty close to the Spec C springs I have now (only about 10lbs off in the rear) but would make the aesthetic of the car much better by eliminating the fron wheel gap.

Oh, I no performance mods and run on 17x17.5 ROTA with Kuhmo tires (225/17/45 I think, too lazy to go downstairs and look); not sure how much that factors into all this, but I'm sure it means something.

 

Thanks a bunch guys...you've been really helpful. Now if you could all show up at my house and take me on back to back test drives that would be great! My address is...

I hate to say that I like my lowered stance from a looks perspective...but I would go back to the STi setup if I could find a good price. I have to make the most of my 1 year free alignments

 

If you want to ride in a car with an STi suspension, i'll let you take mine for a sping sometime. Just PM with some times that work for you.

I have a slightly different STi suspension: Version 5 RA Limted (4way Adj). These are not inverted like the Ver7/8 or non-adj ver5/6, but still are just as stiff as a spec C setup like the folks have above. I'm running STi springs, but i have stock tophats, so it's a little more compliant. I'm running full stiff front and rear, with rear 20mm sway bar, endlink front and rear, and tower bars front and rear. I have 215-45-17 Kuhmo MX tires on 17" Rotas.

The car rides great on smooth roads, and has a little play due to the soft tops. It's take bumps fine, however dips, and drops can be considered fairly stiff. IF going less than 5mph over a speed bump, the struts don't really compress much at all. It corners flat, and is pretty agile.

Nuetral means that when i turn in (at reasonably fast speeds), There isn't much understeer, or over steer. In the even that there is understeer or oversteer, it's not too hard to correct the car with steering input and throttle play. I love it. I could go to coilovers, and I just might later on, but for what i have right now, i'm happy. Besides, i might be the only person in the country with these struts, rare things are a bonus :banana:

PM me, and you'll see how it is.

-Gagan

 

the strut tower braces really don't affect the ammount of body roll that the car displays that much, if at all. the additional stiffness that they impart to the chassis just seems to give the driver (me) a better idea of what the car is doing in connection with the road.

i installed the rear sway bar that i'm running before i even bought the STi struts and springs. the rear bar reduced the body roll a little bit, but its really the spring rates that eliminate the body roll. one of the reasons that milesmatics might be experiencing more 'body roll' is tire choice. i'm running 225/45/17 S0-3s on 17x8.5 wheels. as such, the tire is stretched across the rim which accentuates the S0-3s already stiff sidewall. i noticed a hell of a lot more roll in the corners when i was running the RE92s and stock wheels. i've never driven on Kumhos, so i don't know how stiff a sidewall they have. my guess is that they're where the main differance lies.

 

teins with 6 up front 8 in the rear....i bounce like a ball on turns...

 

Thanks for the offer Gagan, maybe I'll take you up on that sometime. STi adjustables sound pretty nice.

Maybe I'll just hold out for that $3k Prodrive active system I read about in this months SCC. :drool:

 

Is this a good deal?

$700 shipped for new JDM V8 take offs, struts/springs/tophats?

 

Reasonable..

Best thing I would say is like Matt (Concillan) said above would be to get as many folks as possible together at a meet or similar and hopefully they will be obliging enough to let you sit in or flog their cars.

Mike