STi road racing questions

[rbahr]

Hi All,

I will be doing club events with my STi. I have checked into the cost of brake parts for this car - LOTS of money. I understand that Stop Tech will be comming out with a kit - but I was wondering if there were any other options

Any opinions on the STi factory suspension. I only have ~350 miles on mine so I really don't have a sense of how the car behaves at the limits. Are there any weak areas (like the end links on the WRX) that need to be addressed?

Any other thoughts and opinions about tracking these cars are welcome...

TIA

Ray Bahr

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[wolverine]

None for me so far (BTW, 1500miles and counting) Except feed it high-octane gas and it will pull like nuts!

[TR11]

i autox the sti and the brakes are fine...you just may want to go with SS lines, motul fluid, cross-drilled rotors maybe when they come out etc....my stock sti stops much faster than a wrx with the stoptech brake kit....the brakes on this car are top notch.

[rbahr]

The brakes look pretty respectful except (and this is a BIG except) the front pads are $380 and the front rotors are $800 - I could easly go through a set of front pads in a couple of events esp using street pads... BTW I have yet to find race pads that fit. Othe than this outragoius cost - I would simple run some cooling to the brakes and be done with it.

[thebishman]

The stock pads and rotors may surprise you. I just did a track DE weekend in 103F heat and the pads and rotors held up fine. The fluid is definitely a weak link however; Motul 600 is a must imho.

[shirokuma]

Originally posted by rbahr
The brakes look pretty respectful except (and this is a BIG except) the front pads are $380 and the front rotors are $800 - I could easly go through a set of front pads in a couple of events esp using street pads... BTW I have yet to find race pads that fit. Othe than this outragoius cost - I would simple run some cooling to the brakes and be done with it.

Brake pads must be available - there is a huge selection in Japan for the Brembo STi setups, and in some cases you can find pads for cheaper than the old Subaru 4 pots. I think it's a case of aftermarket reacting slowly to change- though I'd just call around, from personal experience the slowest part of the aftermarket is advertising the fact they have something new in stock.

As for rotors, DBA of australia must have a distributor in the states. Their 2-piece hat/rotor slit or cross-drilled rotors should be available, and they do make them for the STi. USDM STi is the same as the GDA-onwards JDM and overseas STi. And those rotors are considered a bit costly at around $500 a set in Japan (though the price of replacement goes down to around $300? or less because you simply have to replace the ring, not the hat, afterwards).

Cheers,

Paul Hansen
www.apexjapan.com

[bcristea]

Originally posted by thebishman
The stock pads and rotors may surprise you. I just did a track DE weekend in 103F heat and the pads and rotors held up fine. The fluid is definitely a weak link however; Motul 600 is a must imho.

For heavy braking tracks the stock pads will not hold up to the high temps (1000 deg plus). I as well as others have experienced this.

Cobb Tuning will get some full race pads in ~3-4 weeks from Racebrakes out of Aussi land.

Carbotech currently sells street/track (panther plus) and track (Panther XP's) for the 04 STi. I have the Carbotech's but have yet to use them. I'm waiting for the next track day. You can call carbotech direct or subaruxtras.com.


Regards,

Brian

[WRX 2002]

Originally posted by bcristea


Cobb Tuning will get some full race pads in ~3-4 weeks from Racebrakes out of Aussi land.

Regards,

Brian

I have been getting my replacement pads from racebrakes australia already. I used the 1055 compound and now will try the 1065 compound. Just make sure you specify 14/15mm pad width otherwise you might get the 16mm and have to shave off a mm or so.

Getting them directly from the source is the cheapest way.

N.

[rbahr]

I will probably upgrade tp AP Racing or Stop Tech at some point to simplify this proble - but until then Thanks for the info! I also have some email in with Hawk - which is what I currently run in my track car.

Ray