Magish

iTrader: (2)

Well, first off I would like to welcome everyone here. I plan to be spending a lot of time in these forester forums as I now own one!

Anyways here is my question:
I just tonight purchased a 20mm rear sway bar, that will be arriving sometime in the next few days and installed soon after. I also will soon have a new set of wheels and tires, which means that my wheel gap will show even more, plus, I will have a urge to drive faster So I've decided its time for some new suspension. I also realized this after going on the Mountain States Great Fall Drive 2004, in which I got lost because I quite simply could not keep up which in all honesty... just pissed me off.

So, its time for new suspension, and I do not know what to do. I've done searches on all the usual suspects (subaruforester.com, nasioc, here) and found nothing and it always seems like my posts on subaruforester.com go unnoticed so I decided to give a shot here.

Heres what I'm looking for:
A suspension system that lowers the car a good amount, but not to the height of say, coilovers. This not-so-beast's main duty in life is daily driving, plus the occasional mountain dirt road, and Rally-x. That is not to say however that canyons are not out of the picture, as that is what the crazy pirates are into and that is who i go driving with so I need something that will work well for that TOO along with possibly a possibly track day. Sounds like a lot of things for one suspension system to be good at Finally, its gotta be cheap. I'm a poor student who is paying off his car, so it cannot be too expensive.

Here are the options I have come up with so far:
USDM STi suspension: Cheap, even for everything (1 offer i got is for everything for 300!) and very nice for the canyons. Its not too slammed, but possibly a bit lower than I want but it would handle GREAT in the twisties. I do not know however how it would fair in rally, and dirt situations, which scares me a bit.
JDM Forester STi springs: These would lower the car just about a inch, which though i would like a bit more is probably about purrfect. Only problem though is the price, which though it is probably justified ($350 for a set) seems a little steap to my cheap *** for just springs. I also do not know how they handle canyon driving, and track driving as once in a lone while my car might get some track usage.
??????:

So there are what I have thought of so far. What I am asking of anybody here is to give me opinions/experiances with each on 1. Dirt for the USDM sti suspension and 2. Pavement (canyons, track) on the STi forester and weather you felt it was worth the 350. Thanks in advance
Cheers
-Jeff

Roo

iTrader: (3)

How about telling me your screen name on www.subaruforester.com ? I'm the site administrator, and I want to see your posts over there. I read EVERY SINGLE post on the site, and I believe the question here has been well covered.

Here's a few links for your reading pleasure:

http://www.subaruforester.com/viewtopic.php?t=5795

http://www.subaruforester.com/viewtopic.php?t=5646

DAMWAGN is more than willing to answer questions in this thread:

http://www.subaruforester.com/viewtopic.php?t=5328

and:

http://www.subaruforester.com/viewtopic.php?t=4077

FWIW, we just did the redwood rendevous checkout last weekend, and ran on the Kings Peak Rd. (definite off road material) with 17's and the the twiSTi springs.

The ride was firm, yet not too firm, and we only bottomed out once. That was on Sunday, after spending a day playing with the STi, the WRX sedan and wagon, and the OBS.

Magish

iTrader: (2)

Thanks roo for the reply,

As to not getting my questions answered... it only really happened twice and i got discuraged. Personally I still love the site (even tough i lost my passowrd for my old account so i started a new one! doh!) and will try again with my next question i need answered

pleiad7

iTrader: (3)

As Roo said, the STi Forester springs will give you the best of both worlds if you're looking for much improved handling while still keeping most of the ground clearance for soft-roading and light off-roading. I'm very happy with mine, they give the FXT a very nice stance without making it look slammed, and handle everything from high speed corner carving to rally type gravel fun. Here's a pic from last weekend when we were running checkout for psoper's Redwood Rendezvous Adventure Tour:

Stevied

iTrader: (2)

JDM V8 Takeoffs work just fine too.. that allows you to use either regular STI or Spec C's