Have been fairly surprised from day one really with the amount of body roll on my 03WRX. I find it can be disconcerting in some situations and doesn't always feel confidence-inspiring when pitching into bends at higher speeds. I used to have a 306gti-6 which gave me huge confidence on initial turn-in and I felt I could place the car perfectly and could feel exactly what it was doing all the time.

Now I know some people talk about upgrading the suspension on the WRX when Prodrive release their kit but I am very, very wary of tampering with the handling characteristics of cars. My gut instinct says don't tinker with it because if you stiffen the suspension at all to reduce body roll you'll lose one of the WRX's biggest strengths which is the way it can devour a crappy, poorly surfaced, bumpy UK B-road without giving you piles, or suddenly sending you into the trees. Where I live most of the roads are crappy, twisty B-roads!

Having said that I am surprised by how much it rolls and moves around and doesn't always tell you precisely what it's doing. My dealer explained in great detail why it does lean so much and how this is preferable and allows the running gear to deploy the most grip/traction/control. But he got v.technical and TBH lost me half way through.

I'm not really into upgrades/mods for the sake of them or for the look of them (eg. just so the car looks lower). Am only interested if it improves the driving experience in the real world on real roads.

Any thoughts/experiences??

[Edited by blip - 04/08/2003 11:37:55]

 

I agree with the problem - especially having run an Elise on the Lotus Sports Suspension package - no roll at all (and a couple of inches lower) - but very hard/crashy! The best compromise I ever found was on a Golf VR6 I had - Koni Top adjustable Dampers with Eibach Springs and Eibach Anti Roll bars. However it had nowhere near the suspension travel of the Scoob .....

I would love to hear others opinions!

 

I think it's mainly a psychological problem:

Lots of roll implies a lack of control.

I disagree: I have "experimented" a bit and I find the grip and handling generally excellent, even combined with a more comfortable ride.

On the track I'm sure my rolling WRX would lose out, but down UK back roads I can make good progress without losing my fillings

 

For me, the roll ain't that bad. The "feel" of the car is much better than an MY00 and there's loads of communication as to what's going on. You could probably kill it a tad with some springs, but with the variable rate damping I wouldn't know if this would negatively affect (=knacker) something else

 

I felt almost exactly the same when I first got my MY02 WRX!! I had come straight from a 106GTi, which (much as you describe with the 306), handled incredibly well 'out of the box' with no mods. Very little body roll, and it went where you pointed it. Initially, 0-60 aside, I was quite disappointed with the WRX.

You get used to it though, and come to appreciate the awesome grip which makes up for much of the outright handling downside. Plus there is a lot to be said for getting some stiffer springs. Currently I am running mine with Eibachs, front strut brace and solid rear droplinks, all of which have firmed up the handling a lot, as well as reducing understeer. I'm considering Whiteline antiroll bars, but the jury seems to be out on whether or not that will totally knacker up the rest of the suspension after a few months on bumpy UK roads .....

As a total handling package the car now handles better than the 106GTI did ....

IMO

cheers
DaveR

 

DaveR - how does your WRX now cope with bumpy, badly surfaced UK back roads? Does it still give a composed, fluent ride or is it choppy/jarring?

Do you do much back road driving day to day?

I'm just not sure whether I would regret stiffening the springs up on anything other than smooth A roads, plus there is a lot to be said for being able to cover ground without working up too much of a sweat or getting blurred vision

 

...actually it seems to cope pretty well with B-roads and general bumps and cambers. To be honest I can't remember exactly how much softer it was over bumps before the Eibachs --> but I do remember thinking that the ride quality had not suffered too much when I first had them fitted. And honestly, the massive improvement they give to the handling is well worth any slightly harder ride.

Day to day I don't do much B road stuff (unless you count the appalling pot-holed London roads ), but do plenty of that sort of thing at the weekends.

the only slightly disconcerting tendency is that the car rear-end is now more willing to 'step out' on bumpy corners. This is the sort of symptom (plus potential long-term damage) which would be made worse by antiroll kit I believe, which is why I have held off this long

eibachs/droplinks/strut brace are a good halfway house I think! (unless you're going to take the car on the track a lot)

hope this helps

 

Hmm, that's the kind of thing that I was worried about. On balance I think I'd rather have slightly more body roll with more benign 'on-the-limit' behaviour, as I'm no opposite-lock hero

 

.... each to his own LOL

if we're totally honest, we should have bought Elise's or VX220s for similar money if we wanted cars that handled fabulously --> the Scoob is more about big noise and loadsa grip in all weathers

 

My only problem is that when I corner the car hard - it wears the writing off the sides of the tyres! So I know it rolls quite a bit and then there is the understeer which I think I can trim by adding a bit more negative camber.
I would be very interested to see how the Eibachs match up with the standard dampers - as this is probably where I would go. - Slightly lower and stiffer .....

 

Try a strut brace first??

 

I wouldn't worry about a strutbrace, the shell is plenty stiff enough - the body roll and ride is spring / damper /ARB related - more that than the stiffness of the shell.

Justin

 

WRX 03 - it's got a Strutbrace - one of those nice STi ones that the dealers sell .....

I did debate moving to the Sti tyre size of 225/45 (from 215) but I think that will just generate more grip and let go more quickly?