Suspension Upgrade Help

Uprated Springs / Dampers

Fitting sport-springs will stiffen up the ride and lower the car, but the Scoob's standard dampers are Kayaba Racing jobs so its not worth shelling out a couple of hundred for an uprated damper set as well because they won't give a worthwhile improvement to handling at all, unless you're standard shocks are knackered. If you just want to lower the Impreza then go for a spring-set only, it's a lot cheaper. If you're trying to stiffen up the handling then coilovers, below, are the only way to getting round corners quicker and flatter.

Coilovers

These replace both the spring and damper with a much stiffer, tougher and more compact unit, which is designed for handling first, comfort last, so road-holding gets a significant boost. They're also completely height-adjustable, so you change them from road to track in a few minutes and higher-end models also have settings for castor/camber angle and a greater degree of control.

Strut Brace

A strut-brace is a stiff bar that bolts across your suspension turrets and stiffens the whole chassis up. Front ones are an essential. Rear strut-braces are only necessary on Wagon Imprezas, saloon and coupe models have an integral one built-in. They're not an expensive mod, but the difference they make is amazing so if you're after better cornering then fit one right now. Price-wise, a good generic-brand one, like Sparco or OMP, is about £90. A proper JDM one, like TEIN or Cusco, will be £200+. If price is a worry then you can find pretty good looking no-make alloy ones on eBay for £50 or less, but I'd recommend scanning the auctions for a 2nd-hand STi one, fitted to the Ver. 3 and up. This is made of titanium with carbon-fibre rods, so its lighter than the rest and looks amazing. They seem to hang in the £50-100 range - I got mine for £65.

Drop Links / Anti-Roll Bar Links

These bolt between the hub and the anti-roll bar on either side to stop the car swaying like a boat. Standard ones are pretty stiff, but designed to give a little in the aid of comfort. Uprated ones have no give at all and will keep the car flat through bends. A good set of alloy drop-links with poly-bush inserts start at about £50 a pair on eBay. Handling will be firmer and steering ultra-responsive, but there'll be a lot more vibration and road noise.

Poly-Bushes

Upgrading these things is for serious nutters and trackday-special cars only really. Rubber-bushes are designed to have a little bit of play in them to soften the ride up, but they deteriorate over time and if your'e working on a classic Scooby then the chances are the bushes are quite worn and there'll be a bit more play in the chassis. Upgrading them to much stiffer and harder-wearing polyurethane ones [or 'poly-bushes'] means there's no play in the chassis whatsoever, which is great for staying flat as a pancake round that tough right-hander, but finally makes nipping to Tescos or pleasant day trips out of the question. The car will jar and bounce over every pebble on the road, but if day-to-day drivability is not your concern then this is the final rung on the ladder to real race-car suspension.