PERRINJeff
10-21-2007, 08:56 PM
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/forums/project08hatch/banner_suspension.jpg
Click Here (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1370834) to return to the links page
While Subaru has done some things to make this car handle better then previous models, they have left some room for improvement. The beauty with the 2008 is there’s tons of room use some nice wide tires. On the PERRIN Performance (http://www.perrinperformance.com) car we used 245 wide tires which are perfect for zero rubbing issues. Its very similar to putting 225s on the GD body. I can’t wait until the 2008 STI comes out! Dare I say 265 or 275 with no issues???
So what kind of 245’s would we use? We went with, what I feel to be the best street performance tire around, Advan Neova (http://www.yokohamatire.com/news_4_01_2005.asp)’s. They are not quite R compound, but very sticky. Great to drive year round, and good enough for some light track days.
http://www.yokohamatire.com/images/hnews_neova.gif
To keep the tires connected to the car, we used some Konig Feather (http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl;jsessionid=0a0004471f43472d4a789bf5495d94fa98 49346d5b74.e3iKaNePch4Re34Pa38Ta38Pahr0?c=275188&sc=31&category=799949) wheels. These weight a pinch over 17lbs. Very good for a 17" rim, and at very reasonably price.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/konigfeather.jpg
Our front sway bar and end links from the WRX/Legacy GT fit perfectly. We chose our PERRIN Performance 22mm front bar (http://perrinperformance.com/products/show/259/Sway-Bar-Front-22MM-?category=8&model=18?nasioc) to help balance the new rear sway bar fitment we were building for this car. After some test laps in the car, we may even build a 25mm bar for the front. Our Legacy GT Positive Steering Response System (http://perrinperformance.com/products/show/276) worked great and Yes, the 2008 WRX has those stupid super soft rubber rear control arm mounts. The P.S.R.S. was a huge improvement to the handling as expected, and I think will be one of the most important suspension items for the new 2008 WRX/STI/LGT.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/276/163_medium.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/276/163_large.jpg)
The rear OEM sway bar is a whopping 15mm thick. But why did Subaru make it so small? Many people think Subaru wanted to make the car under steer more to suit the everyday driver. After some measurements though, it appears Subaru was actually adding over steer.
The OEM GD body rear sway bar is 19mm and has an effective rate of 85lbs-in, compare to our 22mm rear sway bar which has a rating of around 240lbs-in on the softest setting. This new 2008 OEM 15mm bar is rated at around 130lbs-in, much stiffer then its big brother. How can do to its shorter leverage arms.
We choose to build a 19mm sway bar with 3 mounting holes for endlinks. One hole to effectively stiffen the bar, and one hole to effectively make the bar softer. The effective rates for the three mounting positions should vary from 260lbs-in, 340lbs-in and 440lbs-in. This allows the driver to “tune” the bar from either just a mild change from stock to a change that is more than 3 times stiffer than stock. Very noticeable from the drivers seat.
During the install of our shinny new red sway bar I went ahead and installed one our large volume diff covers (http://perrinperformance.com/products/show/322). The PERRIN Performance diff cover allows for a higher volume of differential fluid and incorporates cooling fins to help cool the fluid and housing under load.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/152_medium.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/152_large.jpg)
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/153_medium.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/153_large.jpg)
All of these parts wouldn’t really make much difference unless we could lower the car and stiffen up the suspension. This is the one thing that I don’t like about the 2008 car, its’ soft suspension. This might be because I am used to driving cars with stiff suspension, and it had been a while since I had been in a WRX, but either way its too soft. But that is a good thing as this gives us something to improve upon.
ALTA Performance (Parent company for PERRIN Performance) has been a regional distributor for H&R springs (http://hrsprings.com/) for almost 10 years. They are a leader in aftermarket suspension and always our first choice in coil over suspension.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrwrxrearcoilassembly_ntn.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrwrxrearcoilassembly.jpg)
Unfortunately nothing off the shelf would work for the 2008 WRX and Their factory in Germany has not begun production of the ’08 suspension, so we had them send us a few different coil over kits to see if we could make something work.
We did find a unique combination of products from Subaru and the unlikely use of some MINI Cooper parts to build a coilover kit that functioned perfectly.
The exact combination of parts is a secret, but was passed on to H&R (http://hrsprings.com/) as a starting point for their production kit. We now have the ability to lower our car that looks great and is very functional.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrrrcoiloverinstalled_ntn.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrrrcoiloverinstalled.jpg)
Side not for dealers and installers……
I know, its not the most glorious picture, but this is a nice feature of the new 2008! Now instead of lowering a car in just under an hour, i think it could be done in just under 30 mins.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/rearchassisstruttop_ntn.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/rearchassisstruttop.jpg)
Click Here (http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1370834) to return to the links page
While Subaru has done some things to make this car handle better then previous models, they have left some room for improvement. The beauty with the 2008 is there’s tons of room use some nice wide tires. On the PERRIN Performance (http://www.perrinperformance.com) car we used 245 wide tires which are perfect for zero rubbing issues. Its very similar to putting 225s on the GD body. I can’t wait until the 2008 STI comes out! Dare I say 265 or 275 with no issues???
So what kind of 245’s would we use? We went with, what I feel to be the best street performance tire around, Advan Neova (http://www.yokohamatire.com/news_4_01_2005.asp)’s. They are not quite R compound, but very sticky. Great to drive year round, and good enough for some light track days.
http://www.yokohamatire.com/images/hnews_neova.gif
To keep the tires connected to the car, we used some Konig Feather (http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl;jsessionid=0a0004471f43472d4a789bf5495d94fa98 49346d5b74.e3iKaNePch4Re34Pa38Ta38Pahr0?c=275188&sc=31&category=799949) wheels. These weight a pinch over 17lbs. Very good for a 17" rim, and at very reasonably price.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/konigfeather.jpg
Our front sway bar and end links from the WRX/Legacy GT fit perfectly. We chose our PERRIN Performance 22mm front bar (http://perrinperformance.com/products/show/259/Sway-Bar-Front-22MM-?category=8&model=18?nasioc) to help balance the new rear sway bar fitment we were building for this car. After some test laps in the car, we may even build a 25mm bar for the front. Our Legacy GT Positive Steering Response System (http://perrinperformance.com/products/show/276) worked great and Yes, the 2008 WRX has those stupid super soft rubber rear control arm mounts. The P.S.R.S. was a huge improvement to the handling as expected, and I think will be one of the most important suspension items for the new 2008 WRX/STI/LGT.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/276/163_medium.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/276/163_large.jpg)
The rear OEM sway bar is a whopping 15mm thick. But why did Subaru make it so small? Many people think Subaru wanted to make the car under steer more to suit the everyday driver. After some measurements though, it appears Subaru was actually adding over steer.
The OEM GD body rear sway bar is 19mm and has an effective rate of 85lbs-in, compare to our 22mm rear sway bar which has a rating of around 240lbs-in on the softest setting. This new 2008 OEM 15mm bar is rated at around 130lbs-in, much stiffer then its big brother. How can do to its shorter leverage arms.
We choose to build a 19mm sway bar with 3 mounting holes for endlinks. One hole to effectively stiffen the bar, and one hole to effectively make the bar softer. The effective rates for the three mounting positions should vary from 260lbs-in, 340lbs-in and 440lbs-in. This allows the driver to “tune” the bar from either just a mild change from stock to a change that is more than 3 times stiffer than stock. Very noticeable from the drivers seat.
During the install of our shinny new red sway bar I went ahead and installed one our large volume diff covers (http://perrinperformance.com/products/show/322). The PERRIN Performance diff cover allows for a higher volume of differential fluid and incorporates cooling fins to help cool the fluid and housing under load.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/152_medium.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/152_large.jpg)
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/153_medium.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/products/322/153_large.jpg)
All of these parts wouldn’t really make much difference unless we could lower the car and stiffen up the suspension. This is the one thing that I don’t like about the 2008 car, its’ soft suspension. This might be because I am used to driving cars with stiff suspension, and it had been a while since I had been in a WRX, but either way its too soft. But that is a good thing as this gives us something to improve upon.
ALTA Performance (Parent company for PERRIN Performance) has been a regional distributor for H&R springs (http://hrsprings.com/) for almost 10 years. They are a leader in aftermarket suspension and always our first choice in coil over suspension.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrwrxrearcoilassembly_ntn.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrwrxrearcoilassembly.jpg)
Unfortunately nothing off the shelf would work for the 2008 WRX and Their factory in Germany has not begun production of the ’08 suspension, so we had them send us a few different coil over kits to see if we could make something work.
We did find a unique combination of products from Subaru and the unlikely use of some MINI Cooper parts to build a coilover kit that functioned perfectly.
The exact combination of parts is a secret, but was passed on to H&R (http://hrsprings.com/) as a starting point for their production kit. We now have the ability to lower our car that looks great and is very functional.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrrrcoiloverinstalled_ntn.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/hrrrcoiloverinstalled.jpg)
Side not for dealers and installers……
I know, its not the most glorious picture, but this is a nice feature of the new 2008! Now instead of lowering a car in just under an hour, i think it could be done in just under 30 mins.
http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/rearchassisstruttop_ntn.jpg (http://perrinperformance.com/shared/images/dynos/2008_wrx_build/rearchassisstruttop.jpg)