RSutton's 2011 SSM WRX Hatch Progress

Get in touch with Mike at TopSpeed Motorsports. He'll get you taken care of. That is where mine came from.

More pictures.

 

curious as to which floor mats you have? weathertech?

 

AllPro has some nice custom ones if you don't want to go with Weathertech

 

Yep. WeatherTech. I love them.

 

Rob, thanks for the tip. I'll talk to Mike about them. I'm usually bugging him about parts advice anyway.

 

Escape by rsutton198 | oneninety8.com, on Flickr

I had a meeting in Asheville, NC yesterday so I decided to take the long way from Atlanta. Nothing better than tight turn mountain roads early in the morning without another sole in sight. This is the section of my route today that includes some of my favorite driving roads in GA/NC.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/311304437

 

Another image I haven't posted here.

 

WOW!!! Love the photos under the rocks. :bowdown:

 

I was having issues with losing oil so it was time to get an air oil separator. Car was still hitting full boost/power with no smoking or anything weird. It was just getting into the intake system. An air oil separator is a good idea anyway. I really like the Crawford setup so that is the one I went with. Install is pretty straight forward.

 

might be time to check the AOS in the valve covers and PCV system for build up or clog.

 

Bridal Veil Falls. But that has to be the smallest amount of water I've seen in a while there. We need rain BAD.

 

Fall leaves are in peak right now up in Asheville.
Sometimes I wish i'd never moved
Then I remember that if you don't farm tobacco, christmas tree's, sell used cars or pastor a baptist church there is literally no income to be found up there.

Oh, also meth.

 

Income isn't everything. Sure it's nice but lately I've been going back to my roots (hunting, fishing, dirty trucks) and I tell ya the simple things in life are what's best.

Ok I'm off my soapbox....:rofl:

 

Robb do you have any good underhood shots of your car showing the stock location setup? I am finding it harder and harder to find stock location turbo pics WITH a FMIC.
Most keep the TMIC and you can't see anything as a result. I'm just curious how much room you have in there with the Dom 1.5.
Also what intake tube are you using?

 

He has the Perrin inlet.

 

Why thank you sir.
One more question Robb, did you end up going speed density? If not, what MAF?

 

It is speed density now but it was MAF before.

 

Pretty cool to see this in print. If you get Drive Performance Magazine from Subaru...you'll find it on page 4.

 

good stuff Robb! Proud to see!

 

For awhile now, I have been thinking about what I want to do next with the car. There really isn’t much that hasn’t been touched at this point other than the transmission…so there really isn’t very many options left. As a general rule, once you get to this point, you either get rid of the car or start redoing what you have already done.

The idea of running the car on an airbag setup has always intrigued me. The ability to adjust ride height on the fly, inside the car is awesome on many levels. It allows us to run lower ride heights without the worry of steep driveways and other front lip crushing obstacles. My current ride height (while completely track functional and not stanced) even ran into issues at my old driveway to the point I had to drive down the wrong side of the road to get up without scraping.

The biggest downside to bags for me was performance. I am not willing to make the car handle worse for looks. I would rather have something that performs well than something that just looks good.

TopSpeed Motorsports has a great relationship with Air Lift Performance. For those of you that have seen their white track car, it actually has a TSM built and tuned motor. After talking with the guys at Air Lift about my car and what I wanted it to do, we decided to give their V2 setup a try in the car. Cicio (the owner of TSM) and the guys at Air Lift have a ton of track time on this setup so it is a proven performer that also has the ability to bring a car to professional hard parking levels.

So here is where I am at right now. All of the lines are run for the bags through the car and the compressor, tank and controller are installed. Ideally, the tank would have gone in the spare tire well, but thanks to two 13.5” JL subs…that just isn’t possible in my car. Instead, I am going for a clean look inside the trunk area that still allows me to fold down one side of the rear bench seat.

This part of the setup is pretty straight forward. Everything is included with the kit outside of thread sealer which is cheap and available anywhere. The kit actually fits very well where I have it. I ran the front lines up the sides of the interior (also where all of my audio wires are run) and through the side firewall grommets behind the dash. These feed directly into the fender wells behind the liner. It really couldn’t be a more perfect setup to run the lines and it is incredibly easy in the hatch.

The rear lines follow the vent lines in the trunk on either side that exit right behind the rear bumper next to the rear struts. Again…perfect for access to the connections and keeping the lines out of the way of moving parts.



Today or tomorrow, I will be running the harness and all of those connections. The controller unit is going to be installed in my center console as clean as I can make it. The goal is to have everything integrated to look as stock as possible. What you see here is the exact 95756 WRX kit without any upgrades to the compressor or tank.

At first, I was really worried about mounting this weight on the factory trunk cover but as it turns out...it is reinforced with metal inside so it made for a perfect solution. Since my floor is slightly raised due to all of the audio, it is also sandwiched in by the backseats agains the rear deck. Everything is super secure and doesn't rattle one bit. The subs are also left with enough room to do their thing while the low heat output full range digitals still have air circulation through the front of the board venting out the open sides. I really couldn't have fallen into a better setup.




I have been going back and forth on whether to bring this public or troll the hell out of the forums only to release shocker pictures when everything is said and done. While I have some friends that are awesome at that and it is funny as hell to see the reactions…that just isn’t how I roll. Add to that…I really suck at trolling anyways. I am going to be updating my thread as the process goes. I already have my photo-shoot locations picked for when it is done. I just hope I have time to get it all done before I have to go out of town next week. The final images should be pretty epic.

 

Interesting. Have any pics of the bag/strut setup itself?

 

I haven't taken any but I will soon. Work and life is in the way of the rest of the install right now. Should be back to wrenching by Thursday night/Friday.

 

clean setup. did you think about mounting it behind the smaller section of the back seat so if you needed you could fold down the larger section for more storage space?

 

The setup is wider than that side of the seat and my son's car seat is on the passenger side anyway...so that side rarely if ever goes down.

 

Epic robb!
Can I get the RCE T2's or are they already sold?

 

They would work in the rear but not the front unfortunately after I thought about it. The hole centers on the knuckle for the STI and WRX are different. The rears bolt right up with no issue and all the other dimensions are the same. Kind of sucks they are different for no real reason actually.

 

Noooooooo.....!!!!!!
Man I totally would have grabbed

 

I just want to feel how it rides..I know what I'm used to seeing with airbags but would love to see what's possible

 

+1

I've never seen airbags associated with performance driving...after looking at their website it looks like they've come a long way. Can't wait to hear how they work for you.

 

Here are some videos about how modern air suspension performs.

[YOUTUBE]dTrupjf-QFQ[/YOUTUBE]

http://vimeo.com/78528697

I should have some updates tonight and tomorrow!

 

I used to have a custom air suspension very similar to that on my 1g Turbo DSM. I will say that it surprisingly rode very well and like the video stated there was very little slop/roll compared to the old coilover setup I used to have. Just make darn sure your hose connections inside the cab is good. Mine blew off once while the tank was full of 120 psi of air......VERY loud and sounded like a gun shot going off.

 

Teaser...

 

That is absolutely slammed. How's the ride thus far?

 

So far so good. I wish I had a bigger pump and the rear would go a little higher (hits ride height and a little higher just fine...just won't jack completely up like the front does). I need to get the car aligned.

 

Is there a way to tell that you are at a set height? My old system had pressure guages so you would set it at a certain pressure although getting it exact was not easy at times. Granted that was on old system 12 years ago.

 

Need moarrrrr low!!!!! HAHA j/k. Can't wait to see it in person.

 

It's too bad I am out of town for the meet next week.

 

It's handled digitally by pressure. There are 8 presets you can set.

 

You knew it was coming...


Slammed by rsutton198 | oneninety8.com, on Flickr

 

Robberto Martinez?

 

haha! Yeah...I'll still have the same driving height I always have had.

 

adjustable rebound on these?

 

Just damping and technically spring rate with the bags.

Cell phone picture that I was sending friends after I cleaned it...fully aired out.

 

Looks amazing! I've been saving up for that suspension set up for a while. Is DD more comfortable over coilovers?

 

It is so far. I am still dialing in my settings so I plan on writing something up after that is done.

 

That looks sick!! Super nice car.

 

Air Lift at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge at VIR.

[youtube]1ScCHuaCLrM[/youtube]

 

Very nice. I'm happy to hear that you still drive around with same height as before. Weld the doors shut next, becauseracecar?