[cody]

Thanks for the input, Gentlemen. Here's my reply to him:

Hey Whe! Good to hear from you!

I posted your question on the local Subaru forum, here: http://www.seccs.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9384

I'm definitely not onboard with the coilover idea. Coilovers require frequent rebuilds and they almost always make the ride too stiff. I'd only put coilovers on a crazy modified car that I planned to track. I don't run coilovers on my car, and I have been killing it in autoX. I came in 2nd place for the year last year and here are some raw times from the first two events of this year. Note I came in 1st one day and 2nd the other day. The guy who beat me on Sunday was on stock STi suspension too. lol

Saturday: http://www.renoscca.org/results/solo...ound01Raw.html

Sunday: http://www.renoscca.org/results/solo...ound02Raw.html

I do agree that he should definitely start with upgrading the swaybars, preferably with adjustable sways. He'll probably need to upgrade the stock endlinks too if they're plastic. Those are what connect the swaybar to the swaybar mounts on the chassis. The mounts may need to be upgraded too if they're too weak, they did on the early WRX's like my 2003. With adjustment, he'll be able to dial them in after installing them. I soften mine up in the Winter to avoid oversteer in the snow and soften the ride a tad.

In the thread, Dean made an interesting suggestion with those spring rubbers. That might be just the ticket. I'd definitely try it out if they aren't too expensive. Maybe try to find some people who have tried them on Subarus on a forum for info or just pick some up and try them and sell them if they don't work out. They can't cost that much.

If that doesn't satisfy him, he needs to upgrade springs and struts, like I did on my car. Apparently it may be hard to find springs that don't lower him too much, but he needs to research on Nasioc or LegacyGT.com or something, what's available. Race Comp Engineering (RCE) is known to make some really nice springs for the Imprezas and I'd be surprised if they didn't make something good for him as well. Then he'll need new struts and they should both be installed at the same time in order to avoid double labor. The struts for Imprezas in order of good tarmac performance decent to best are KYB AGX (had them and they were fine), Tokico D-Spec, and Koni Inserts. The Konis are what I run now, but they're not recommended for a car that sees a lot of "rally" type driving offroad since you insert them into the stock strut bodies. They helped me get better times in autox and made the car more comfortable at the same time. Really nice ride. I have no idea if this info crosses over to Legacy's though. Maybe find a good Legacy GT forum since I think the Legacy's are all compatible.

After he upgrades the springs and struts, he'll need an alignment (immediately to avoid uneven tire wear). I'd suggest something like zero toe all around, negative 1 front and -.8 rear camber as a conservative, yet better than stock alignment. This is also conservative enough that he won't wear tires unevenly or reduce straight line braking.

In the rear of the car, stiffer sways, springs, struts, even higher tire pressure will cause the balance in a corner to be much more oversteerish, so he'll need to be ready for that and know how to give it a little throttle and steer into the slide to avoid looping the car. If the car oversteers too much, he can soften all of those things in the rear of the car in order to reduce it.

Hopefully that gives you guys some ideas and starting points any way. Let me know if you have any more questions.

Stop making babies, I'd like to go camping with you again this decade.

Cody