Sway Bars vs Coilovers
- Thread starter Rebel
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What are your plans with the car? Ride quality super important?
Here's why. If you get a good set of coilovers and semi-aggressive spring rates you won't need to upgrade the sway bars. But if you want a more street biased setup you'll need to get both. If you want to lower your lap times you'll want a more track focused coilover with probably 10-12k spring rates for a car like that. The ride isn't terrible, but the better the coilover the better the ride is going to be for an aggressive setup.
Just PLEASE don't get some sub-par shitty coilover. If what you're looking at costs less than $1000, you'll regret it. Those coilovers are like 5000 way adjustable and they suck. The dampening sucks. Quality sucks. Get a good German made coilover.
They will break your bank, but do it right the first time, trust me. I have two track setup cars with track setup suspension. I just spent another $1000+ on my Integra because I hated the coilovers I bought for it earlier this year. They were too street biased, not nearly aggressive enough.
Here's why. If you get a good set of coilovers and semi-aggressive spring rates you won't need to upgrade the sway bars. But if you want a more street biased setup you'll need to get both. If you want to lower your lap times you'll want a more track focused coilover with probably 10-12k spring rates for a car like that. The ride isn't terrible, but the better the coilover the better the ride is going to be for an aggressive setup.
Just PLEASE don't get some sub-par shitty coilover. If what you're looking at costs less than $1000, you'll regret it. Those coilovers are like 5000 way adjustable and they suck. The dampening sucks. Quality sucks. Get a good German made coilover.
They will break your bank, but do it right the first time, trust me. I have two track setup cars with track setup suspension. I just spent another $1000+ on my Integra because I hated the coilovers I bought for it earlier this year. They were too street biased, not nearly aggressive enough.
It's my racecar dd. I've been autocrossing almost every week. I don't mind a stiffer suspension since almost every car I've own has been a sports car but at the same time I don't need anything overkill because especially in the winter it will see a lot of dirt roads/ snow. That's why I figured I could get something to dial in an aggressive summer set up and dial it back for the winter. I was also considering rally cross but I may wait until my car is older before experimenting with that.
I was figuring around 2k for a coilover set. Was I off in my estimate? Any brands in particular that you recommend? First time doing suspension mods so I'm really only familiar with Stance.
this.
I proper coilover setup doesn't necessarily need sway bars, and depending on your spring rate, you might actually want a smaller bar. even then, as far as that goes, if you're only trying to get the car to rotate more, you could play with air pressures in your tires.
but first and foremost, spend your money on more events. you're most likely not close to reaching the limits of the car stock, so until you are, save your money.
Ideally I'd like to get an nice track set up and keep it year around if possible but have the ability to set it back to stock/ whatever if I decide it's too much come wintertime. I do a lot of dirt road driving and I just want to make sure I'm not bottoming out everywhere. No issue keeping it at stock height year round.
Maybe I have the wrong understanding of the abilities of coilovers and how they work.
Probably. I've been learning more at each event although I'd like to think I've put up some pretty good times. I've considered also putting money towards tires.
Ideally I'd like to get an nice track set up and keep it year around if possible but have the ability to set it back to stock/ whatever if I decide it's too much come wintertime. I do a lot of dirt road driving and I just want to make sure I'm not bottoming out everywhere. No issue keeping it at stock height year round.
Maybe I have the wrong understanding of the abilities of coilovers and how they work.
.
The Idea for coilovers is the adjust ability but it doesn't work like say air suspension. Every time you change the height you will have to get an alignment. Plus dirt on the threads will make it a PITA to adjust possibly fucking it up after the first winter. It's there to get the height you want and not be limited to what the spring compression is.
You could probably drop the car 2" from stock and still be able to drive it year round, although on the dirt roads you would have to check what your limits might be.
What you seem to be looking for are Coilovers w/ adjustable dampers. They should give you what you want as far as track to street. You may not even need sway bars at all untill you want the car for track only.
As e said the idea of raising and lowering height is somewhat misrepresented. I have a different opinion for what it is:fixed height suspension that is Tunable. That may mean a small drop, depending on geometry. Add a set of fixed height springs, some good adjustable shocks and adjustable sway bars. Throw a performance alignment and leave it be. My other questions are:
-can you align to performance specs or do you need additional pieces to do it?
-do you have good tires? This is probably the first mod to do really.
-How good is the chassis design to begin with
I am not really familiar with subarus from a suspension standpoint but getting things tunable and going from there is the next place I would go.
-can you align to performance specs or do you need additional pieces to do it?
-do you have good tires? This is probably the first mod to do really.
-How good is the chassis design to begin with
I am not really familiar with subarus from a suspension standpoint but getting things tunable and going from there is the next place I would go.
Depends on how much he alters his ride-height, main concern will be toe.
It's all about maintenance. Bi-weekly spritzing of a little white lithium has kept a few sets of my coilovers looking and performing as new for ages. And it's always ideal to take an airgun to the cartridge along with a little PB blaster before adjustment to clean the threads as well. "Take care of your shit, it'll take care of you."
It's a solid chassis with debatably iffy geometry.
I actually don't know the answer to that question
Stock tires currently. Dunlop SP SPORT 01. I already know they need to go.
I think it's pretty good currently. I feel it grips/ turns well for what it is. Has a pretty neutral feel.
I believe it has to be an 08+
In terms of ride height, if I decide to change it, I would only change it max twice a year. Same for the stiffness. Which would be done obviously at the same time.
Honestly you don't need to change the ride height just because it's winter. What changes? The road doesn't get higher.
Your answers to all questions have me
because you're in it to do it right. I 
you for that. With your chassis and AWD you definitely need to get a more oversteer focused setup. I had an Evo X (worst car ever) and that thing understeered like I had plastic tires up front. If you're just autocrossing though, you could just run shit tires out back and good tires up front 
that would work really well. Honestly.
And KW all the way. The refinement of those coilovers is amazing. They can have 14k spring rates and ride really well. They also will hold up to the winter months. Speaking of that, why not just get a car for the winter? I get a car every year to get me through the winter months and usually if the deal is right you can either sell it for what you paid for it or more if you make it better than the condition you bought it in. Just a little bit of work and it's a free car with a profit.
Either way, go with a great coilover (Donnie said the two best IMO) and you'll be the happiest person in the world.
Your answers to all questions have me
because you're in it to do it right. I you for that. With your chassis and AWD you definitely need to get a more oversteer focused setup. I had an Evo X (worst car ever) and that thing understeered like I had plastic tires up front. If you're just autocrossing though, you could just run shit tires out back and good tires up front that would work really well. Honestly. And KW all the way. The refinement of those coilovers is amazing. They can have 14k spring rates and ride really well. They also will hold up to the winter months. Speaking of that, why not just get a car for the winter? I get a car every year to get me through the winter months and usually if the deal is right you can either sell it for what you paid for it or more if you make it better than the condition you bought it in. Just a little bit of work and it's a free car with a profit.
Either way, go with a great coilover (Donnie said the two best IMO) and you'll be the happiest person in the world.
Two way in the front and 3 way in the rear.
As mentioned my winter activities change. I do a lot of snowboarding and snowmobiling so I drive on less than ideal roads. (2-4 days a week) It's not something I'm planning on changing but I'd like the ability if needed. Who knows maybe I'm just being paranoid. My previous cars always stayed stock height and the truck is well.... a truck
Ride height is the least important feature I'm interested honestly. As long as it doesn't turn into truck height, it's performance over aesthetics. Sounds like from what @E mentioned, I need adjustable damping.
Your answers to all questions have me
I believe stock had oversteer tendency originally. I installed a Perrin differential lock down to tighten the rear and give it a more neutral feel as I read that was more desirable. I know it's all personal preference really.
I do like the tire idea though. I know I heat the fronts 2x as much as the rear so I'll look into possibly running varying tire stickiness. If that's the correct term
I have a frontier that we got last summer. It does fine in the snow/ mud, but it wasn't something I enjoy driving on longer trips. That being said, I have no plans on making the wrx a track only car. At least not at this time. I got it for the versatility of driving through the woods, racetrack or even to work. Pretty sure it's still got a decent amount of mud on it from when we went rock climbing last week.
Plus I'd rather have a nice 5.0 or vette or something as my track car eventually.
Reading the differences between the v1 and v3, it sounds like I should be looking more at the v3 because it has damping adjustments. Doing a little more reading, it sounds like I may want to consider getting top hats as well. Or is this something I don't need to worry about because of the adjustable dampener?
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