Opinions on Anti roll bar upgrades and suspension mods in general

BazGF8

BazGF8

OG Wagan
ISDC Club Member
Just wondering what are peoples experiences trying to sharpen up the handling of a classic Impreza without affecting the ride quality to much?

Couple of things I want to find out about as well

1. Ideal ride height with 17's?

2. Roll center adjustment kits?I can see these working well on a low car?

3. anti lift/ dive kit? worth it?

4.Uprated Anti roll bar's .What to go for ? Front and rear? or rear only, the aim is obviously to reduce body roll and obtain a better turn in?

5. Poly bushing the car, experiences?

6. Coilovers? Yes /no?

7. Spring rates for a fast road car ?

8. I find the car can feel quite nervous/twitchy sometimes, any way to make the car more neutral/stable

Anyhing at all that will help lads , add it here
 
1) Ideal Ride height for Classic is

350mm front
345mm rear

- measured from the centre of the wheel to the edge of the arch.
Sometimes too low doesn't mean the best ;)


2) Roll centre/Bump steering kit is a must imo if you want to lower the car...

3) on classic its worth indeed having ALK .... plus some other alterations in order to increase the castor value ;) See thread http://bbs.scoobynet.com/suspension-12/918196-geometry-settings.html

4) For classic the best option is to go with 22mm front and 24 mm rear.

5) YES. SuperPro seems to have a bit softer bushes than Whiteline... to keep it a bit more civilized on everyday use.

6) The only coilovers I would use on the road would be BC.. (with standard 5/4 spring rate ) the others I find too hard for everyday driving. If not coilovers, the best seem to be P1 suspension or Eibach springs with STi Reds.

7) for classic standard spring rate which comes with BC coilovers 5/4 will do.. if you want hardcore you can go 1rate higher on both.

Read through the threads on scoobynet:
http://bbs.scoobynet.com/suspension-12/918196-geometry-settings.html
http://bbs.scoobynet.com/suspension...wrx-am-i-thinking-in-the-right-direction.html


8) Try Bonesetters Geometry settings from the thread above- I found them very good with 0.08 toe in.

Arnie1 from Scoobynet is an american guy living in Germany. He is very helpful and is a guru if its about suspension settings etc. Worth sending him a PM ...
 
Thanks man, exactly what I wanted . Can I ask where did you find the ideal ride height ?
 
baz if you were looking for buhings mcg in kells have energy full kit for around 200 quid dec has them in his car and we all know how good that wagon handles just some more thinking for ya mate
 
Couple of things I want to find out about as well

1. Ideal ride height with 17's?
no more than a 35mm drop if ya want some road manners to remain in the car
2. Roll center adjustment kits?I can see these working well on a low car?
the benifit of a roll centre kit will only really be felt on a car very low or on coilovers so i would spend somewhere else
3. anti lift/ dive kit? worth it?
anti lift kit is the single best thing to sharpen up a classic for turn in and stablility under heavy braking
4.Uprated Anti roll bar's .What to go for ? Front and rear? or rear only, the aim is obviously to reduce body roll and obtain a better turn in?
i would recommend fitting 22mm front and rear bars as 24mm on the rear can cause lift off over steer [which is not good goin through the foxhole] :multijump: especially in a wagon
5. Poly bushing the car, experiences?
a set of bushings will transform the handling if at the sacrifice of some refinement while on the road not much though
6. Coilovers? Yes /no?
no if its a road car ,yes if its a weekend toy or trackday car but buy the best you can afford, buy good and buy once
7. Spring rates for a fast road car ?

8. I find the car can feel quite nervous/twitchy sometimes, any way to make the car more neutral/stable

Anyhing at all that will help lads , add it here



the setup i have in my wagon is sti spec c struts and springs but i replaced the fronts only with eibach -35mm pro kit springs rear is standard spec c which is -20-25mm ,full energy bush kit which is wishbone bushes and trailing arms and lateral arms,roll bar bushes and link bushes also fitted sti front and rear strut braces.22mm whiteline bars front and rear,whiteline subframe lock kit also anti lift kit.and my own geomtry setup from trial and error of -.5mm toe in on front and rear and -1.3 degrees camber each side front and rear . my car is extremely stable at high speed and also turns in well and is not uncomfortable on the road i have used this type of setup on my classic wagon also and it was a big improvement from standard ,you have to remember that your car is 15 years old and while the bushes may look fine and pass nct they will be weak under load and move around alot .all the above is from my own experience and im not saying anyone else is wrong but this works for me :thumbsup:
 
Kind of relevant to the coilovers debate but would lowering springs by their nature make the ride stiffer and handle better than standard springs?
 
ye they definitely would make it stiffer and handle better but they are more compliant than coilovers unless they are cheap springs
 
get yourself a set of eibachs ya wont be dissapointed just make sure you do a geometry setup after a few days of driving as it takes a bit of mileage for the springs to settle down to the correct hieght then geometry and it will be the job
 
I had a look at eibach springs but scoobyworld say they don't lower STI's. Was looking at a set of Tein springs which are €100 cheaper and at least they say they do lower it :threadhijacked:
 
oh right didnt know that , mine has spec c struts and the eibachs definitely lowered it ,just be carefull with tein they are hard on the road
 
wonder why they say that when i bought my suspension in the uk the guy said it was from a v8 sti spec c and when i fitted the eibachs to the front there was a noticeble drop , :dontknow:maybe the wagon is heavier or some thing
 
Had the whiteline anti lift kit droplinks and rear roll bar on my type r
Thing was unreal best money I ever spent on a mod
Then was the brembos
 
Great info there Dec , a lot to think about, geometry settings are near the same as yours
 
Hi Baz, seen other threads that Type R STI indeed is not lowered, or lowered by a minimal amount, by Eibach as it is already lower than normal WRX etc.

Tein is indeed a bit hard.

Comes down to what you want from the car. If daily driver it would be hard to beat Prodrive setup I think and lowering needs to be carefully considered as depends what type of roads and driving you are most likely to encounter. I am in Wicklow and with the bad roads lowering is a bad thing as I need the extra clearance. If going lower maybe 25mm front and 30mm on the back as max values as lowering doesn't just give clearance issues, but also creates other problems with overall geometry which you than need to address by for example getting a roll centre / bumpsteer kit. Those values were for a WRX but if yours is an STI which is already lower than a WRX then you may need subtract maybe 10mm or half those values or you will end up with a car that doesn't handle on anything but flat roads. You will never see a slammed down rally car in Ireland as it just doesn't work on our roads.

FYI, Coil-overs can be every bit as good and comfortable as normal struts. The problem is that a lot of kits are pre spec'ed with springs and dampers and typically they tend to be hard and more track orientated as a lot of people only go through the expense of getting coil over kits if they are going to the track. However, you can order different springs (different spring rates) and even different valving for the shocks with a lot of the coil over providers if you know what you are doing and what to ask for. Have a search on forums to get a better idea of spring rates and valving or speak to an experienced shop if you are tempted to go coil over.

ALK is great and really transformed my STI v3

Polybushing is great, even on a daily driver and if you have any concerns just pick a slightly lower Duro rated compound. Really transformed my STI v3

You could go with a stiffer ARB, however, I found that buying decent WL droplinks was maybe as good an upgrade. Get the big fat C or U shaped ones for the back as the round wire ones are not much better than OEM. The big advantage of the better droplinks is that they work quicker and hence more consistently; from initial shallow turn in there's immediate push on the ARB whereas with the OEM droplinks there is a "delay" for the droplinks to start to load up the ARB.

Another big improvement on the classic is a lower front brace and really tightens things.

With regards your car feeling twitchy: what is the current geo setup? If you are running toe out it will do this. Before you make up your mind on different value you might need, get a geo check to see what values you are currently running.

Hope above helps.
 
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