Let's go LOW

As I was cruising I-285 at 100s, i realized that i need some handling b4 more power. Honestly, my 227HP is still more than enough for me. So I'm trying to go for handling first.

this time i'm for sure. what should be the first step that i need to take??? I want to start with little thing first.

How about lowering spring??? I'm thinking about STi Pink WRX-spec ($240 shipped) which has

223 front/195 rear (progressive)
15mm-22mm drop w/ 40-45% stiffer compare to stock WRX

i heard that it'll wear my stock strut faster, but i'm pretty sure that it'll last at least 3 years, right?? (mine now has 2200 miles now)

 

weight transfer over ride hight

first thing you should do is even up your sway bars, ie go to a 20 OEM rear sway bar, or to an adjustable one like the whiteline or perrin. Get new endlinks. well matched upgrade for the front would be an anti- lift kit from cusco or whiteline. And lastly get a performance alignment from a reputable wheel and tire shop. You can get quite a few opinions on what exact specs to use for that on NASIOC. This will give you a much higher return on your investment than lowering springs would. Porter seems to think a front sway bar is a better first suspension mod, but i would make sure your rear is atleast 20mm first.

Anyone else have ideas for him?

 

I'd agree and say at least upgrade to a 20mm rear sway bar and then go from there.

 

from what ive heard, you would benefit from swaybars before lowering...

i went ahead and got full coil overs first... its a lot bumpier but nice and stiff on turns.... plus lowering has the additional benefit of making ur car look better

if ur thinking of just daily driving, springs would be alright till ur stock shocks give out... but if u want full adjustibility, i'd recommend going with full coilovers like tein... they r a lot more expensive, but i've found them real useful for autocross (stiff) and daily driving (soft)

 

what's the stock sway bar size for '04 sedan???

i also remember that porter saying about sway bars. with stiff rear sway bar, how bad is oversteer??? does it slight oversteer in progressive way???

 

I'm pretty sure that all WRXs get a 17mm rear sway bar in 04

 

so there NO REAR sway bar on 04 WRX sedan??? icic I guess that will be my first step. Alex, could you PM your phone#??? thanx

 

so what will be optimal setup for 04 wrx???

I'm looking at front and rear adjustable cusco sway bars set. In my understanding, I'll need both to truly feel the total neutrality on handling. am I going to the right direction???

 

Alex tonguetied above...

04 WRX has a 20mm front sway bar stock, and a 17mm rear sway bar stock.

As he said, a good first mod is a 20mm rear bar...

What I would do is start with a 20-24mm adjustable rear bar (set to 20mm), then when you're ready you can bump up to 24mm in the front and adjust the rear to 22mm to balance it.

There are a lot of good products out there (I happen to be a Whiteline fan) but any company that makes decent swaybars will be equivalent. Perrin, Cusco, etc, they're all good as long as the bar is solid. (No Cobb/Hotchkis! )

 

porter: u don't like hotchkis cuz of the hollow bar? is there any other disadvantage to it?

 

Hollow bars have zero performance advantage and sacrifice both torsional stiffness (the point of the bar!) and durability for a reduction in weight that is marginal at best.

Check this out:

http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/bulletins/Hollow vs Solid Swaybar.pdf

 

I would also put an Anti-Lift Kit in your list of suspension mods. this really helps with front end lift and squat on launch, plus turn in to a degree as well.

BTW Alex what shop do you work for?

 

Arent ALKs illegal for autocross?

 

they pretty much have a class for everything in autocross

 

ALK is a point of contention for a lot of Subaru people in autocross.

The rules state that you can't relocate the suspension mounting points... the rule was intended to prevent people from moving the mounting location of the strut tower, converting to multilink, etc.

The ALK is really an offset bushing, not a suspension mount relocation, so it's a case where a bunch of non-Subaru drivers whined and cried about it until the board disallowed ALKs, even though TECHNICALLY (logically) they should be legal in every class from STS on up.

As the precedent stands right now, you'd have to go to a Mod class to have it legal, which would suck for PAX.

 

cool. I'll already be in Street Mod, so I'll have to pick one up.

hijack:

hehe I think my gf may buy me some car mods. She was asking me what kinda cheap stuff I would want the other day. I said "rear sway bar". She rocks.

end hijack.

 

I'm not sure it's allowed in Street Mod... I'll have to look it up. I believe it's only in the full Mod classes... let me go look in the rules.

 

thanks

 

hey bobby... stay in street mod with me... we need to represent :coold:

 

lemme borrow those coilovers and UTEC then I'll rock.