yeah, sold the cup kit to brandon. the springs he has for sale looks like the ones i sold him. he messaged me about the h&r's and mentioned the yellows, just so happened i took them off that weekend.

 

thanks for the input bri. yeah ive been hearing a lot about the bilstein combo. i think im similar to bri though where i kind of want that nice drop, but not slammed.

is there a spring out there that brings the stock body to about one finger gap or so?

so i guess another idea... if i went with the bilstein set up and added sways, and upgraded to 18" wheels, does anyone have an idea what that looks like? or any insight?

 

this is the only picture i have with the rce yellows.

RCE Yellows and Bilsteins
18" 255/35 tires.

i had the rear c clip one up from the middle to be level with the front. i think it was a solid fat 2 finger gap all the way around.

i was about to go with h&r springs and the koni yellow inserts but myles at rce said they will be stiff so i wansn't too sure. he was pretty spot on with his recommendations and ride quality. if you get springs make sure to get stuts, or plan to since your's will probably blow fast.

 

All the best advice has been given as to what people have run and their opinions.
Next step is to buy what you can afford and if you could, probably coilovers would be my personal choice as you wont have any regrets if you can buy adjustable inbound and rebound types like KW, RCE, or other if you like to tinker with your ride height and feel.

I personally like RCE and had tarmac 2s on an 05 sti, but again buy what you can afford. If on a budget, search Iclub and nasioc classifieds for what people are selling as the best option. Good luck.

 

Yes they do KILL your stock struts. They are on an 06, but I'm sure the risk/damage is the same. I've had yellows on stock struts for a little over a year now and they are starting to clunk like no other. I am currently researching on coilovers as well and this thread has some awesome info.

 

Are those 18x9.5 rpf1? Since u sold ur springs should sell those too

 

Kw's

 

the kws are a bit out of my range.

was looking at the bc rams. supposedly are stronger than the bc br+ and its not that much more than the br+. ive decided to most likely go with coilovers as height was a factor to me. (not planning to do the slam herra frush thing but i do appreciate stance a bit )

 

IMHO, if you got time to test and tune your suspension, coilovers is the way to go plus the fact of adjustable height option is a plus. But if you dont want to deal with playing around with your suspension, strut and spring combo is another viable option.

 

I'll add 2cents to it.

Right now: Stock struts(one not sounding too good after 6 months)
RCE Yellows
18x9.5 +40
265-35-18
Little bumpy, mainly from the tires low profile, when we switch to stock tires/rims, it's not bad at all.


bri_n_m: nice!

 

QFT.

TiC is the shop I would most listen to when asking suspension questions because they have TREMENDOUS knowledge when it comes to handling performance. From reading some of your posts it sounds like you want to mostly have it agreeable for DD, have some kind of a drop and improved performance.

What I would go with:

1. Swift Springs - here is the link at TiC Turn in Concepts ...you can also contact Swift directly for custom wound springs and the price increase is not very dramatic.

2. Adjustable Struts - for the life of me I can't find any KYB AGX or Tokico D-Spec for the newer WRX...but I did find the Koni Yellow Adjustables Koni North America - ITT -2010 Subaru WRX Catalog Search

3. Whiteline 24mm Front Swaybar - 2008 WRX 24mm front bar

4. Whiteline 22mm Rear Swaybar - 2008 Whiteline 22mm Adjustable Rear Sway Bar (BSR49XZ)

5. Kartboy Endlinks front and rear - Accessories - Turn in Concepts (scroll to bottom)

6. SUMMER performance tires of your choice.

7. Settings - Sways (stiffest setting Front and softest Rear) - Struts (75% stiff front and 40% rear) - Tires (F38 and R34)

This setup should give you the following:

1. Enough drop to look alright without eliminating the all important strut travel (room your wheel can move up and down on the length of the strut stroke) that will keep give you full access to your car's entire handling limits.

2. Adjustability of stiffness / compliance from adjusting both the shocks, sways and tires.

3. Neutral at limit handling with on-demand oversteer from brake input and understeer from power input. Subaru's are all about neutral behavior with the ability to use the brake mid-turn to create oversteer...imho. Though some people like more squirrely handling which this setup can also provide.

I'm not a big fan of buying coilovers when you're not going to be using them specifically for their intended purpose (i.e. corner-balancing).

 

Yeah greg was good at TiC. He did recommend me the koni shocks and rce blacks or swift springs. Im thinking the koni shocks with swift springs. Either that or the inverted bc rams. I believe greg said that the konis are adjustable too?? Haha

Has any body had a hard time with recon (if applicable) with any of the mentioned set ups?

I thank you everyone for the opinions.

 

Konis are adjustable for their "stiffness". Should be a **** either at the top of the strut (the thing that pokes through the top hat) or on the side...probably the top though.

Also not mentioned is that strut / spring combos tend to last far longer than coilover setups. Your results may vary but for the most part coilovers require service (i.e. mailing them to the maker for freshening) every few years. Which can be expensive, leave you without a car for a week or two and pain in the bumm for lazy people like me.

Another route I recommend for the non-performance crowd is a set of sleeve and spring combos such as Ground Control http://www.ground-control-store.com/...p/II=818/CA=25 . These give you the adjust-ability without the worry of affecting strut durability (from what I am told as I have never run a set but have several friends that have with good results).

 

hmmm ok another question regarding sways... is there a difference between perrin and whiteline? might be a stupid question but just wanted to hear some opinions.

 

You need a larger diameter hollow bar to equal the stiffness of a solid bar.

There's a ****-ton of math involved but a 24mm solid bar has the same stiffness factor of a 30mm hollow one.

Hollow does save weight though. I tend to go solid such as Whiteline's stuff which is top-notch.