Toyota GR86, 86, FR-S and Subaru BRZ Forum & Owners Community - FT86CLUB

After almost 1 year and 14k miles on the RCE SS1, I write this review to help out future buyers (if there is still any out there).

TLDR
Better than OEM ride comfortability at low speed, same quality on highway speed.

1 way adjustable for some autoX and newbie track days fun.

Reduces the wheel gap for better looking.

Car movement is much more predictable during turns.

Get your car corner balanced after installing this!

I bought the SS1 in 2020 November but never got around installing it until the 2021 Christmas break. I installed the SS1 with Verus LCAs, whiteline front and rear endlinks, and toe arms but kept the sway bars OEM. After the installation, I found a local shop that seems to be the best in the area to do the alignment and got everything dialed to -1.5 camber all around. The car was lowered by 1.25" and dampers are set to the RCE DD settings. However, I felt like the car was more or less the same if not worse than before. During turns, I hesitated to go full throttle cuz the rear was not stable. Also, shifting weight through S-corners disrupted the car badly. It almost feel like a heavy box sliding up and down and hit walls in the car. On the street, I felt the ride was even harder than on OEM struts:sigh:.

I had questions about the alignment being out of whack, so I tried a 2 different shops to check the alignment and they all said everything looked fine. Tire wears were even, nothing seemed to be off to them. I played with the damper settings quite a bit and never really echoed with the good reviews I read on the forum. I was pretty disappointed, and regretted purchasing the SS1.

Yesterday, I had a chance to have one highly reputable shop near Chicago to do a corner balancing and alignment on the car. After picking it up, I immediately felt the car handling was much much better than before. The shop said on the scale, it was 55/45 which is almost 300lbs heavier on one diagonal weight. They successfully got everything to 50.4/49.6, close to the perfect 50/50.

The SS1 now feels amazing and actually lived up to the good reviews. The road I take everyday doesn't feel crashy anymore. I had some very "spirited" driving on and off highway ramps today and the rear was planted during the whole time. One of the ramps actually has a very nice right-left-right-left corner. The weight transfer during that is much smoother and more predictable. I am super excited to try autoX and track days again next summer to really feel the difference this made. Now I can only imagine how good it handles fresh out of the package and before all the pot holes it's been through.

Anyway, after everything is set up correctly now, the SS1 definitely earns "my butt certified" status and I highly recommend it to anyone that has the budget <$2500 when factor in the camber plates, endlinks and LCAs.