The Rad Wagon... now with 100% more radness
 

Thanks to Cory and Bob at KSpeed for sneaking me into their busy schedule to install the wheels and coilovers. :)

Coilovers are BC Racing Outback XT fitment. The rear hops around a little more than I was expecting over big bumps (spring rates are barely stiffer than stock) but the car does seem to handle very nicely. I wonder how close to the bumpstops the rears are.

Wheels are the best cheap wheels around: 18x8+45 MB Motorsports Erasers from Discount Tire Direct. Tires are 245/45/18 Michelin Pilot Super Sports.

Looks awesome, love those MB wheels

With the secret weapon license plate no less, that's fantastic.

Later, when you do that 6MT swap and go 5x114, I'll sell you back the ATech Erasers we got from you a couple years ago. :)

needs MOAR exhaust tip.

I think the JDM parts list required to get a bumper with cutouts for exhaust tips costs more than that 6MT swap Kevin mentioned.

I have a dremel if you want to use it. I can come by and help.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62...J/557e861e.gif

Nice! Wheels do look nice. Gunmetal?

Yup. They're a little more blue than I was expecting, but they sorta match the blue paint on the car.

Its nice to see the 'plus size' subarus here.

Power upgrades on the horizon?

Cool car. And license plate.

Are you saying his car should shop at Lane Bryant?

It looks good! I saw it at Kspeed yesterday.

Maybe the distant horizon. At most I'd do a downpipe, fuel pump and reflash... and the AVO TMIC if it turns out to need it. But having gone down the route of built engines in my WRX... I'd really much rather have a fun but slow OBXT than a crazy fast one that's always broken like the WRX is.

In suspension news, the rear end bouncyness *does* appear to be because the car is sitting on the bump-stops. There's all of 1/2 a mm of clearance between the bumpstop and the upper control arm... so the slightest deflection puts the stop in play... and that rubber is *stiff*. So I'm betting the car is effectively on an underdamped 15k rear spring instead of the 6k it's supposed to be. :lol:

The car is on jack stands right now in my garage... I'll have the bumpstops off as soon as I figure out how the hell you get to the bolts holding them on. Google, don't fail me now!

The bumpstops were the culprit. With them off, the car rides pretty much identically to stock. :cool: The only problem... now I don't think the rear-end is stiff enough. When it was on the stops, it friggen turned way better. :lol:

Hopefully just cranking the rear to full-stiff will get some rotation out of the car at the track. But even if that's not the case, I'm super stoked that it's still nice and comfy on the street.

Looking good.

Ver' nice, sir. You can always toss GT bumpstops in there to split the difference :lol:

I also need to outfit you with 100% more wagon mafia logo.

Yeah, I'm not sure if the LGT stops will be low enough or not... Nick is gonna snap a picture of his car. Likely though, I'll just get a set of LGT stops and then cut them if I need even more clearance.

Anyone have a part number for them BTW?

Edit: looks like the P/N I need is 20501AE00A.

I tried to snap that picture, but I couldn't get a clear shot, or focus correctly. No biggie, I did a quick search on legacygt.com and found this thread.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthrea...xt-140548.html

The guy has a pic of the OBXT vs. LGT rear bumpstops.

The LGT stop certainly won't be up against the control arms at rest the way the OBXT ones were... but I'm not totally sure I'll be able to stay off them when the suspension moves.

I guess I'll just need to get a set and try it out... they're only like $8 each, and I can certainly cut the LGT ones down even more if I need to.

Yeah, just nip the tip if need be.

:eek:

Unless there is a compelling reason not to, the stop should come into play 1/4-1/2" before coil bind or the strut bottoms out, whichever comes first. Anything else is just limiting travel and an instant spring rate jump which is seldom good.

I'll need to pull the wheels off to get a good look at the rear suspension to figure out what the ideal length should be. I'm a little hesitant to cut the stop significantly though, the stop is supposed to be a progressive helper spring essentially, cutting too much off the tip just turns it into a doorstop effectively rather than a helper.