Contemplating the following for my 07 wagon: Replacing stock RSB with 20mm from sedan Installing Kartboy endlinks front and rear a professional alignment This is a high mileage daily driver and I would prefer to retain stock ride height and plushness while improving the handling and responsiveness. Discuss/criticize/deplore the merits or lack thereof of such an endeavor. Separately, what would an anti-lift kit add or detract to the above set up? [bows graciously to the suspension gurus] Thanks in advance, Sean
1. Good, but take time to get reacquainted with your car afterwards. 2. Good, makes the bars come into play quicker than the stock links. 3. Should have been #1, but good. Make sure to specify what you want, because they could just check that its in factory specs (-0.25F, -1.5R with wiggle room) and send you on your way. ALK would help on any setup on an impreza, the only time its a 'bad' idea is when you're classing for autocross.
ArcticWolf hit all the high points. None of those things will seriously hamper any sort of daily driving and shouldn't really affect your ride height. If you get the Kartboy rear drop links you *might* lose 1/2 an inch of clearance in the rear but probably not. ALK is fun. The two things I noticed with mine were less slop in the front and better turn-in.
Great Question and Answers, thanks! At the risk of a diversion, here is what I have been wondering regarding the wagon: what would the effect of only doing the endlinks be (well, and of course the alignment)? Or conversely, just the sway bars and not the endlinks?
endlinks, regardless of the bar used, would affect how quickly the bar comes into play doing the bars by themselves would give you... a bigger bar. the downsides would be that they're not working as quickly as they would with stiffer endlinks, and (if you go really big on the bar) they might break the stock endlinks.
But without adding a few extra parts, the alignment will only be able to work within factory tolerances, so that will still be a limiting factor. I can't run the ALK in STS, so I'm having the Whiteline offset bushing installed in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I'll be doing a *lot* of other suspension stuff at the same time, so I fear I won't be able to tell exactly what benefit this alone will get me. Sigh. <Subliminal advert> Jeff the Alignment Guy </Subliminal advert> Bye for now, Stuart.
Got me there, though camber bolts are reasonably cheap. Camber/caster plates are a little more spendy. :hsugh:
While I'm no autocross classing expert it was my understanding a rear sway that wasn't available stock on your vehicle takes you out of the stock class. Front sway, cat back exhaust, air intake are the only things you can tweak up and remain stock. can someone confirm or deny?
Not complete info, but essentially true. You can, for example, use any struts you like that are the same dimensions as stock ones, but you have to stick with the stock springs. But who wants to stay stock when there are so many cool mods out there ? Look at Sean's "lowly" 96 L mixing it up in XP these days. His car is mod-tacular. Yep, I just made that up. But you can all use it if you want to. I don't mind. I think I need another cuppa. Stuart.
The main thing is, the ALK by itself takes you up past SM. The other stuff would keep you in a ST* class. Soup didn't mention doing autocross, but I brought it up because if he decided to get into it, it would be important.
Yep, I think it kicks in at the Prepared level. I think it breaks down like that because, generally speaking, the bushing is seen as the chassis attachment point for the control arm, and in less modified classes, changing such a chassis attachment point is verboten. To my mind, in the case of the ALK, the two bolts attaching the ALK to the body are the chassis attachment points, and the ALK is just a part of the control arm assembly. However, Subaru is apparently the exception when it comes to the ease with which this mod can be done, and so the ALK is specifically outlawed further down the classing scale. So, instead, we get the pain of pressing a fresh poly bushing with an offset center into the stock housing to achieve a similar result, but without the controversy. Stuart.
You can also purchase the Group N Front Control Arm Rear bushing. It is the same as the stocker except a harder rubber compound. They come all put together so there is no pressing involved. They're ~$40 apiece but that was worth not jacking around getting the stocker apart. It's a very nice piece. I have two of them on display in my garage if you'd like to come take a look.
