hey guys. as many of you know, i have been doing some extensive research/asking questions everywhere, and it seems like i have finally come to the verdict; i am getting the prodrives on my 03 bugeye sedan. after wandering around helplessly, my first choices were: RCE, SPT, pinks, swifts, and prodrives. After a little bit of research, i decided that i want to keep my stock struts, so the choices came down to the swifts and the prodrives (yea, despite the huge thread on rce vs espelier vs swift. thank you guys for the input). i will change my struts sometime later, but god knows how long i`ll research for that one hehe. anways, the reason why i dropped the swifts (even though they are really cheap and are known for presitigious racing history), is that they are tested and proven on 'race' cars, not street cars. also, i figure that since prodrive work exclusively with subaru whereas swifts are more general, there might be something that prodrive knows about the wrx better than anyone (hence the reason why they try to hide the spring rates, etc). when i was looking for the set of springs, there were three components that the set had to satisfy: 1) ride height- it doesnt matter how well the car performs on the curves. if i cant go on the driveways without stopping completely or if it's soo low and i cant go over speed bumps, that 'hinders' me from driving faster, which is the ultimate goal of new springs. i thought the prodrives had a VERY reasonable drop. 2) ride harshness- it also wont matter how amazing it is, if you cannot drive it everyday. i thought that the prodrives felt BETTER than the stock springs. (thank you josh_booth for the ride. and if i`m not mistaken, you had 19" rims right?) 3) suspension travel- often aftermarket springs will get rid of our suspension travel, and this is where you either shine or fall. in my opinion (even though i am a huge noob at suspension, as well as everything else haha), a set of springs with the longest travel and the highest spring rate is the most ideal. for instance, teins are so short and stiff, it`s a scary ride when driving them to the limit (the suspension 'gives' and overloads the tires IMO.. i still remember going for a ride in my friend's 05 wrx, and he slipped on every single turn he took). without suspension travel, you could possibly hit a small rock in middle of a turn and spin out (hopefully AWD will save you :hsugh: ). from what i have been reading, i think the prodrives do excellent in the component #1 and #2, but not so good on #3, even though it is still better than most aftermarket springs at it. Many people on nasioc have complained about its suspension travel at the front because of its 'raked' look, and IMO, subaru engineers have the front higher so that you can easily manuever the front of the car and communicate better with what it's doing and the rear-end can just follow the front- i could be very wrong about this, but i am a firm believer that the front is higher for a reason. but the prodrives slam the front, and it seems like the SPTs would be a better choice in the #3 component (too bad i cant equip the SPTs without a different set of struts). But hopefully, it wont be THAT bad. :sx: keep in mind that my car is a daily drive, and i have 90+K on her already. and yes, i will shut up and get'em installed for a full review soon if you guys care for my nonsence haha. thanks for reading a long post and hope to see many inputs that i can learn from!
No problem any time, And yes I do have 19" wheels. Any wase I hope you like the springs when we get them on your car.
You'd be just as well off with the Prodrives as with the Swifts. I've driven a couple cars with WRX-Prodrive springs and they're a nice touch if you want to keep the stock shocks. You'll be happy.
my friend has the prodrive springs on his 02 rex (thanks ped) and loves em. You should be very happy with them even as a daily driver.