WHAT IS THE BEST FIRST UPGRADE FOR A 2001 IMPREZA COUPE 2.5RS WITH AROUND 90k MILES?!?!?. SUSPENSION/ENGINE, WHATEVER, ANY INPUT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. JUST STARTING TO MAKE MY SUBARU PERFORM RIGHT! AHHAAHA. THANKS.

first, loose the caps. you dont need to yell.

get a light crank pulley. will improve trottle response a bit.

then get group N engine and tranny mounts to improve the "feel" of the car.

then get some good high temp brake fluid, i use willwood hightemp.

then get some kyb agx struts and some nice spt springs.

also dont ask the same question multiple times. we will get to you and try to help.

Turbo kit

rear swaybar to help reduce understeer

as well as upgraded endlinks for the swaybar.

1st thing... Change your cam belt to a STi version.
new struts/springs...
ALK...
upgraded clutch & lightened flywheel.
lightweight pully.
highflow cat w/not-so-stock-exhaust.
Version 6 front & rear seats.... - No Mine Aren't For Sale.
And a...

[movie quote/on] ...'Pine Tree Airfreshener' because every car has one has one'...[movie quote/off]

Chris.

dont forget about stickers.

they are good for at least 20 hp.

rear swaybar to help reduce understeer

yea, rsb for sure

New tires.

Good Performance Tires
/end thread

1. bigger rear sway bar
2. better tyres
3. solid endlinks
4. SS lines + pads when its time to chnage the brake fluid
5. ALK
6. tint
7. intake/exhaust if u want, buts its case aof diminishing returns if plan to go with a swap.

yea.. buy my turbo kit http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=624573

don't waste your money on an intake and exhaust :D, cuz you're gonna have to replace those if you ever decide to go turbo anyway.

Tires >*

You cannot do anything without good tires, handling performance everything is pendent on it. Can't lay down the power without it, can't handle without it.

If you can afford it get quality perfomance proven parts.
Start with a rear antiroll bar,
then wheels with performance tires,
then suspension setup.
after that the mad money sucking RS vortex kicks in. :rolleyes:
If you do these basics, your RS will handle like a champ.

E. :cool:

thanks people, ill begin pouring money into the RS immediately.

Yep, tires. Followed by short shifter and/or Kartboy short shifter. If you don't have a Kartboy you're just not cool. :)

www.kartboy.com

Suspension's always good. I say "handling first, power after."

WRX brake rotors up front are nice, too, along with Legacy/H6 rears. Parts available:
www.subaruwrxparts.com/gc8.html

*Read www.spdusa.com for lots of tips on what works and, more importantly, what doesn't. That site is run by Mike Shields, who's been in the Subaru community for far longer than any of us have even known the Impreza existed. He's opinionated sometimes, but he's also usually right. ;)

If you want to upgrade your lights, also read this first: www.danielsternlighting.com
DS has forgotten more about lighting than the rest of us will ever learn.*


So.... educate yourself first, mod later. :)

=S2=

Why does everyone say to do tires first on a car with so much body roll? Sure it will give you better grip, but you'll also toast them much faster than if you minimized the body roll first. My experience from one track day and three auto-xes with 75% new tires on a stock suspension shows me tires won't last. Do you really want to toast a set of new nice expensive tires in 3 months?

No thanks, I'll get a sway bar, springs, and struts before I throw away my tires again.

If you don't like reading, here's a little visual support of what I'm talking about. Please don't tell me that happened because I was running pressures too low. Pressure was at 43psi cold for the track day in the following 3 pics.
http://home.comcast.net/~virtualize/fibuz/subaru/trackday-01292005/01292005-trackday/DSC01048.JPG
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~isburns/IMG_0886.JPG
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~isburns/IMG_0887.JPG

And most recently the straw that broke the camels back, pressure was at 42psi cold. No pictures of the tires afterwards, but basically cord is showing and the tread is starting to delam. Tread in the middle of the tire is fine, however- still has 40-50% or so left.
http://www.pbase.com/rsrock/image/41326194

I just won STS in an autox a week and a half ago with nothing but some KYB GR-2 shocks in the rear to replace the worn stockers, a Cobb adjustable rear swaybar (set to 20mm) with solid endlinks, and some bald, 2 year old, Sumitomo HTRZ II tires on the stock rims.

The stock RS already has excellent springs (actually, the spring rates are better suited for the chassis than most of the sport springs on the market) for good balanced all-road handling. The swaybar just removes the last little bit of understeer, and the tires just up the grip levels.

If you're looking for power.. save up for an engine swap.

isburns has a good point about reducing roll.. but he was also using an H rated tire that wouldn't be constructed to put up with much abuse . More negative camber would be prefferable regardless of what type of tire you're using, but it's not suprising that his H rated tires rolled over, chunked and burned.

OK, Beaverboy is right, he called me on the type of tires I was using :p . I just got the car in January and haven't had the time or money to do anything to the car. Now that my tires are in shreds, well almost anyway, its time for a performance oriented alignment and new tires. I'm still gonna try to hold out on getting a nice set of tires until I'm sure I'm not gonna shred them though.

I just got 2nd in STS with only a Cobb intake on this past Sunday. Of course the guy who got first in STS was 4+ seconds faster then me, also took top PAX time, and was also in a MY00 RS Coupe. Props to Jeddy, although of course he had some suspension mods and nice tires on there.

And I'm not trying to knock the stock suspension, I actually like it, just not when I'm at auto-x events and track days :lol: .