I posted in the motorsports section because I dont trust anyone else.

I'm considering buying another fun car that needs to serve dual purpose as a daily driver and a track day toy (advanced/instructor group). Previously I've had an 05 Evo 8 and a 07 S2000 for this and both cars were great, plus I drove the Prado Racing Z06 in TTU. Now I need a car with a bit more room so I can tote on my MX gear to races, plus the extra room can serve well as R comp hauling space.

I love how much space the new STI has but I'm just wondering if it can be made to turn properly. All I hear is that it has a terrible understeer problem and it's mushy. What does it take to make it handle as it should... like a well prepped STI of the previous generation, or is it possible. If not, I'm just gonna have to buy another evo.

I'm not against spending money to make it right, but I dont want to spend a lot of money and know that I'd be better off in an Evo or earlier STI. The space is what's really got me sold on the car right now. Any information anyone can give me on the STI is greatly appreciated. Info on anything; engine, power, problems, getting it to rotate like a proper track car .. anything at all. Thanks

jeff

This year will really be a big year for the new STI chassis! Alot of people are campaigning them and putting alot of money into them. I think the answer to your question really wont be known until later this year. Personally, I think they can be set up to handle aswell or better than the previous STi. And to close...i think both cars need to be setup completely different to achieve this.

^^^ what he said. Phil from Element, Doug from Topspeed, Crawford, and myself will all be running GR chassis cars this year on the track. Phil and Crawford already have quite a few posts about it from all the work they've done already. Phil really feels the new chassis is superior to the old one.

On the surface, its really easy to fix the understeer and mushy handling of the GR- just add coilovers, sways, and an alignment and you're there. For maximum performance you'll have to do more homework of course.

Curious what made you give up the EVO 8. A well set-up EVO is every bit the match for the subaru, new chassis or old.

Frank

I have the 08 sti, currently setup with Perrin sways and endlinks on stock tires and struts/shocks. I think that the car could utilize a bit more tire, and some seriously stiff springs/coilovers to great advantage, as it has some serious pitch and dive under acceration and braking.

Thanks for all the input so far.

Frank A: I sold the evo because someone made me an offer that I had to take. The plan at that time was to focus on motocross so I bought the S2000 for my wife. I couldnt stop with the track days and it wasn't big enough to be useful to me. Sold it, bought an 08 TL for the wife and have just been driving our 4runner for too long I guess. It's boring, I only pull my MX bike with it and my wife doesnt want to give up the TL. I built a nice hitch for my evo to pull my track tires and fuel so I plan on doing the same to the STI so that I can tow my bike to local tracks. If we make a long road trip I usually send my bike with someone who has an enclosed trailer so I just need something big enough for gear.

Again ... thanks for the input.

jeff

well, if you're looking for cargo capacity, you're headed in the right direction. Here's mine coming back from the track after Crawford gave me some tires to take home in addition to my race wheels:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3232/2919048230_13db712f86.jpg

so counting, that's 4 mounted 255-width tires, 4 unmounted 285-width tires, camping gear, floor jack, jack stands, wheel ramps, and my track tools bin.:banana:

Frank

^ impressive.

I instructed an '08 STi and yes, it understeered horribly. Definitely a slow in, fast out car. IT could really launch out of the corner, but you had to crawl getting in. On the bright side, from what I've heard, just upgrading to some bigger sway bars and adding some front camber really helps get the car more neutral and helps reduce a lot of the corner entry understeer. To really get it to handle, and gain some adjustability, you'd have to go with a decent set of coilovers.

Subaru is also know to set their cars up from the factory with a very conservative alignment. Its a pretty big difference just getting a stock car aligned with more aggressive settings.

However, You will need to add camber plates if not coilovers to get enough camber to get the car to really turn. AWD cars will probably never turn in as well as some RWD cars but with your experience you probably know that.

I've fit 8 tires in my WRX Hatch w/ plenty of rear visibility. The only problem is that with the seats up the Hatch has almost no cargo space. Its sad. The sedan has a ton, but obviously doesnt have the height when the seats are down.

Just back from a track day at Portland International Raceway (PIR) with the local Porsche club:
-The car is undersprung, and was thankful for the Perrin Sways that are on the car.
-The stock tires were terrible in the dry, and fantastic in the wet (it rained very steadily on my last 25 minute session).
-Brakes are fine, would have benefited from some higher boiling point fluid to go along with the HT-10 pads.
-my car is equipped with a 20g turbo, and enjoyed driving with with several 996's, a GT3, Cayman S, e36 M3, 350z track, etc. most were on R comps or Hoosiers. I ran in the intermediate group today. good stuff.

How are you 08 track guys doing with oil consumption on your cars? I'm out of Subarus for a while until they can go a few model years without having horrible factory tune and piston problems.

hijack/
I've only gone 1 oil change since stg2, so its hard to say, but I bet its gone up a little because there is already more oil in the intake tract than there was on my '02 months after going stg 2. Curiously, I'm losing some coolant. Not a lot, but enough that I'm worried I have the beginnings of a gasket leak somewhere. I installed stg 1 at 250 miles and stayed mostly off the thottle before that to avoid det. I'm not too worried because I'm getting the whole engine built in a week or so.
/hijack :)

Frank

I have forged pistons in my 08, and no real oil consumption to speak of.

My catch can stays virtually empty on the street, and gets some oil froth on the track (to be expected).