Spherical Bushing Options
 

I'm toying with the idea of going full metal jacket on my BRZ since it's becoming more and more of a track toy since I leased a separate daily driver. I've been looking for options as far as brands and coverage (which pieces each company sells)

The most promising one is from CounterSpace Garage cause they're generally legit about doing things, except I'm not totally sure what's included in their kit. For some reason the parts aren't listed, but it's expensive, so I imagine very comprehensive. While I'm waiting for a response from them, I thought I would look around to see what's out there. I already have the SPL RLCA, so I'm looking for basically everything else. I would like to have a completely rubber-free suspension setup if possible. Spindles, control arms, subframe, diff, etc.


EMS sells press-in bushings, and seems to be the only company that sells bushings for the spindles as well as the control arms

Hardrace suspension sells a combination of press-in bushings and control arms

Racer X sells a combination of press-in bushings and control arms

Cusco sells a combination of press-in bushings and control arms (front control arm has rubber bushings though)

SPL parts only sells control arms

Perrin sells some non-adjustable arms with spherical bushings


I'm not familiar with half of these brands, so I don't know what is really high quality other than SPL and Cusco. Also, don't know which arms to change to aftermarket and which to keep and press metal bushings into. I know this is probably not a road often traveled so any kind of feedback is appreciated.

I have almost solid everything... some combination of SPL arms, SPL subframe bushings, Cusco replacement bushings, Salasko diff bushings, Revolution bushings on the front LCA, custom solid transmission and engine mounts. I wear earplugs :)

Blue Megan racing parts are rebranded hardrace parts.

I know a lot of people who use these parts on track because of how cheap they can be.

I was on the fence about going full metal diff..and SPL has those rubber insulators for the subframe bushings. Would you say drivetrain or suspension had a bigger effect on nvh?

How did you reach your decisions about what to purchase? Seems like you have a mish mash of parts like I assume most people do.

Can you provide some feedback on which of the mods seemed the most and least transformative?

I went down this road. My car has everything in the SPL catalog on it and all the driveline stuff is the JDM STI mounts, Whiteline bushing toppers for the diff. Reason I didn’t go solid mounts for the driveline is that it’s only a bit stiffer than hard poly, but NVH increases dramatically. Meanwhile solid suspension you feel more than hear (although there are fun noises sometimes).

Unless you plan to never put the car on the street I’d say doing solid driveline mounts is going to be pretty torturous. JDM STI or Cusco mounts will get you 90% of the way there and are completely doable.

My car is loud from road noise in the cabin but I drive it regularly on the street when not on track and it’s alright

I already have poly front LCA bushings, white line diff inserts, and white line subframe inserts. Also have the Perrin steering rack lockout, and Perrin shift mount bushing. also catless exhaust and rumbly tires. The car is 10x louder than stock. I don't really mind that much since I don't use it as an A to B car. Every time I drive it it's for fun

I'll look into the JDM factory stuff but unless it's super cheap which I doubt I probably won't use them. But even still suspension is my main focus. I might leave the driveline stuff alone until after suspension is done.

Still waiting for CSG to get back to me

They're probably still catching up from SEMA, and they're helping prep a bunch of GTA cars... you'll probably get a response over the weekend or next week

Ya it's all good. I'm not in that much of a rush. But I would like to know more about bushings. Hopefully this thread will help

I wouldn’t bother with ESM. They have poor customer service and at this point have effectively stolen some parts of mine. I bought their master kit which doesn’t come with upper rear control arm bushings. So I dropped off a new OEM control arm which cost me $400 (CAD Monopoly money) and they refuse to answer my calls and ignore all emails. If I ask/mention anything on social media they just delete the comment. I then requested if they weren’t going to make the bushing kit could I at least get my control back and radio silence.

I have since gone with Whiteline full bushings/inserts and am very happy with everything.