Susupension Thread

[Allch Chcar]

Do you also offer camber plates and bracing?

[Gearhead23]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Hello,

We are already thinking about shocks, coilovers, springs, swaybars, bushings, brake ducts, etc. for this car. We've got lots of experience with the Subaru Impreza platform, though this is a different ballgame. Also plenty of experience with Mitsubishi EVO, Porsche, and BMW.

We've got good relationships with Ohlins, Bilstein, AST, KW, Whiteline, JRZ, and also design a few of our own parts. Can't wait to bring high quality parts to this car.

If the standard shocks are made by Showa, that's a pretty good thing. The 2008+ STI switched to Showa from KYB and there was a nice improvement in valving quality to go with it. From the sound of it they've paid more attention to valving than usual. Not as good as Bilsteins but a big step up from the usual OEM japanese stuff. Plenty left on the table for a good well designed spring to upgrade to (if done correctly). We'll have them dyno tested as soon as it's possible. This spring is going to be great! At least 2 of us in the office really want this car.

EDIT: Sachs isn't bad either....they make a wide range of stuff though. Some very very high end stuff and some simple OEM type replacements. I feel pretty confident the standard shocks will be impressive for an OEM (though maybe not Koni Yellow or Bilstein Sport good).

- Andrew

This is Great to hear!!
Looking forward to see what you come up with for this car.

[SHINCHU86]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

different strokes.

i see what you did there.

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Love Ohlins. One of the better all around "win on sunday take the kids to school on monday" coilovers out there. Great valving even off the shelf, but can be customized to dominate on the track (even the single adjustables). The real track stuff is a different playing field and I generally only recommend those types of shocks for race only use.

Bilstein is close in terms of capability, but off the shelf can leave something to be desired on the performance end (which is why we prefer custom valved when possible). Ohlins just nails the valving all around and the adjustability is more consistent, but they are a bit more expensive.

Both great shocks.

- Andrew

That's great to hear. I've had a lot of great feedback with Ohlins from both tuning and service on my motorcycles so it's good to hear it directly from the source. There were several Ohlins shops in California (Stig Petterson being one before he moved out east) so hopefully they'll make a set for this car.

Are you referring to the R&T as the real track stuff?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by Allch Chcar

Do you also offer camber plates and bracing?

We have plates for the Impreza and we've been thinking about bracing for that car. Hopefully some of this simple stuff will transfer right over, but a lot of that remains to be seen. We're excited to get started, but we don't have any inside scoops with Subaru or Toyota.

Originally Posted by RRnold

That's great to hear. I've had a lot of great feedback with Ohlins from both tuning and service on my motorcycles so it's good to hear it directly from the source. There were several Ohlins shops in California (Stig Petterson being one before he moved out east) so hopefully they'll make a set for this car.

Are you referring to the R&T as the real track stuff?

A lot of our Ohlins customers actually came from motorcycles. R&T is street/track. They went through same name changes over the years (DFV, Sportline, PCV). It's similar tech to the race stuff but designed for the street. The TTX and the older Flag models are the harder core stuff (and way up there in price).

- Andrew

[balance]

Hey Andrew,

Welcome to the forum! I've known you guys back in the evom days. In fact, I purchased the Ohlins DFV coilovers for the evo from you guys when you first released them. (almost 6 years ago from now.)

It's great to hear that the guys at RCE are intending to buy this car. Will Myles be one of them?

Anyhow, I'm just curious whether the current Ohlins customers nowadays are able to service their shocks in the US. I remember, back in the days, the domestic servicing was not readily available.

Given your expertise in tuning the subys, what would be the things we must expect considering this car basically has a subaru suspension layout. (e.g., stock max -cambers, the strongly recommended bushing changes, etc.)

Anyways, great to see you guys here. RCE is definitely one of the top-notch suspension vendors in my book.

[Allch Chcar]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

We have plates for the Impreza and we've been thinking about bracing for that car. Hopefully some of this simple stuff will transfer right over, but a lot of that remains to be seen. We're excited to get started, but we don't have any inside scoops with Subaru or Toyota.
...

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing your work Andrew.

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

A lot of our Ohlins customers actually came from motorcycles. R&T is street/track. They went through same name changes over the years (DFV, Sportline, PCV). It's similar tech to the race stuff but designed for the street. The TTX and the older Flag models are the harder core stuff (and way up there in price).

- Andrew

That's how I realized Ohlins was the real deal was through motorcycles so that's great to see it port over to the autos. I had a PRXLS, fork cartridges and dampers on my previous bikes. The TTX shocks, R/T and even FG gas forks are common upgrades for bikes and even the TTX rear shock goes for $1200 and was tough to tune when it was first released.

Hopefully they'll offer a kit for this car.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by balance

Hey Andrew,

Welcome to the forum! I've known you guys back in the evom days. In fact, I purchased the Ohlins DFV coilovers for the evo from you guys when you first released them. (almost 6 years ago from now.)

It's great to hear that the guys at RCE are intending to buy this car. Will Myles be one of them?

Anyhow, I'm just curious whether the current Ohlins customers nowadays are able to service their shocks in the US. I remember, back in the days, the domestic servicing was not readily available.

Given your expertise in tuning the subys, what would be the things we must expect considering this car basically has a subaru suspension layout. (e.g., stock max -cambers, the strongly recommended bushing changes, etc.)

Anyways, great to see you guys here. RCE is definitely one of the top-notch suspension vendors in my book.

Nice! Thanks for the kind words. Both me and Myles are thinking about getting this car. We've got a lot of ideas of what should work and areas to look at based on our experience, key bushings to replace being one of them. Definitely have a list of where to start and the suspension will be taken apart once we get it for a lot of measuring (spring rates, shock dynos, swaybar rates, motion ratio, etc.). Hopefully that stuff should go quickly since it's the same platform and we'll know where to look for things. Since we're familiar we'll be able to get the info we need fairly quickly and still be very thorough. So more time in the real world testing phase rather than the "what the hell am i looking at" phase.

Myles is hoping this car is the reincarnation of his old 944 turbo.

- Andrew

[Ryephile]

I'll be curious to see if there are aluminum knuckles and suspension arms already out there compatible with other models, whether they're parts-bin from the STI or whatever.

Toyota/Subaru had to take a handful of cost-reduction shortcuts to fit the price point [whatever that is], so cutting out cast iron for aluminum is an obvious choice for those interested in better performance & lighter weight.

[SHINCHU86]

ditto. i dont know what kind of rod-ends i would like though. i had solid spherical on EVERYTHING in my s14, and it was a bit harsh for daily.

roto joints (used by companies like BMR and UMI) might be a good comprimise.

[Ryephile]

Thinking about the suspension a bit more, I haven't read anything regarding anti-roll bars on the car. I'd assume there's the usual front and rear, but then again, who knows their construction, diameter, torque arm, and motion ratio?


I'd like to see quality aftermarket options for:
*dyno-proven digressive and adjustable dampers [Nitron, Penske, Koni, Ohlins]
*proper springs [i.e. Hyperco or Swift]
*one or two variations of rubber bushing durometers along with a teflon-lined spherical bearing solution for the track rats
*a selection of quality, flat [not-torqued] cro-mo hollow anti-roll bars that have bushings that are actually as good as OEM
*camber, caster, & anti-dive solutions for those that want geometry different than stock.

[verlumpt]

I will be putting ASTs on my FR-S. I've been using their products in both autocross, road course, and on my personal RallyCross car with great success. Heck I"ve been considering putting on of their motorcycle shocks on my SV650n

A great middle road setup that for me has been proven to be super reliable and to perform really well.

[Nurburgring]

Originally Posted by Racecomp Engineering

Myles is hoping this car is the reincarnation of his old 944 turbo.

He misses replacing headgaskets and rod bearings every year?

Great news that Racecomp is getting involved in FT86 aftermarket.