It's immaterial which of the 12 settings I had previously.

But after many months of driving on it, I decided to knock it up harder by two notches.

Bugger me what a difference. The car is much sharper and rides much flatter through the bends with direction changes being more pronounced and lively.

I now have a really superb handling car. Of course the T20 is a superb handling car anyway, always has been, but these extra notches have turned it into a more aggressive handling motor that just begs to be driven hard through bends and off roundabouts...

It may just be a placebo and I'll quickly get used to it again and knock it up harder or back down softer again.. who knows.

But after reading a few posts where Dave and I have gone on about getting the handling sorted first rather than power, this new lease of life the car has from a minor adjustment makes all those posts still hang true..

If there's ever a reason to get something decent like AST's (and the associated extra settings) then this is it..

 

I'm getting mine fitted by Rick in the next week or 2. Can't wait

We can compare notes on how many fillings we can get to drop out in the name of good handling

 

Ah yes... I forgot to mention the loose teeth..

Dazza came out with a classic on the Talkie walkies a year or so back on a run to Lady Bower... 'This is a firm ride... My man ***** are jiggling'..

Make sure you look to get a proper geo setup and possibly the uprated ARB's too (25 or 26mm on the T20/T25 I think - Drew can confirm)

The AST's are good... But these two bits alongside the Anit-Lift and Quick Rack on the T20 turn it into something special..

 

thanks for that Al...
;-)

 

No probs buddy.. I still PMSL now... classic

 

What are they set on now Al?

have mine on 7 all round, mine has all the T20 suspension on it

 

Not sure TBH mate. probably about 7 or 8 on the front and 5-6 on the back. Or is it the other way around

I'm going to have to check tomorrow...

It was quick impulse thing and I didn't spend the time winding them all the way down / up to get the base line...

Good choice BTW...

Did Powerstation do yours?
You got the Fast Road Geo?
Have you got the quick rack too?
What other T bits did you get?

Too many questions!!

 

I must be doing it wrong, 'cos mine are on HARD all the time...

Apart from the M-sport trip with the SMACS lads, when a certain Mr Atom kept complaining about his man *****, funnily enough

 

I used to play with mine all the time, er, the AST adjustables that is. Around town I used 1 or 2 all 'round rising to 4's for spirited wet driving and 6's in the dry. I tried out varying front to rear but never found much benefit, settling on the conclusion that AST would have designed it so the same figure on both would already compensate for weight distribution differences and handling dynamics. On track at Blyton I went to 9, but the car was twitchy and dropping to 8 settled it down. On a more open, flowing track I have no doubt that the higher settings would come into play, but I never got to do that On road I cannot justify going over 7, with ride and progressive break-away becoming compromised, especially with extreme tyres such as RE070's. The day before mine went to its new owner I put it through some severe on-limit handling (as you do ) guiding it through a series of Dales B-road bends at between 90 and 140. I didn't have the ALK or front bar, but the geo set-up Stuart Tams did on my car was far more advanced than the Prodrive settings much touted on here (ask Steve Chaps whom compared the camber of our front wheels one day) and would only consider a few revisions to the set-up I had. The rear 22mm bar which I moved to the stiffest setting within 2 weeks of fitting should have been a 24mm at least for my driving style, and this may have justified a front 22mm. Noltec adjustable topmounts could have given me more camber and castor adjustment for Stuart to play with, along with adjustable rear tie-rods. The only thing my car needed beyond that was a bit more power and a wealthier owner who could justify its running costs To anyone who's got or getting AST's and/or Whiteline stuff, for fvcks sake, use the adjustability otherwise it's wasted. Mine was changed often 3-4 times a week, depending on where I was going, with whom and in what weather.

God I miss that car

 

Nicely put together mate...

I'm not sure I'd want to to make such frequent adjustments, as I'd want to get used to the setting in all conditions and driving situations over a decent period... But I do regret leaving it for as long as I did..

I will however be looking to see what the car rides like with the same setting all round as the weight over the front tends to make me think it should be stiffer than the back.. this is the beauty of the adjustability.. I may be wrong..

I'll give it a few days and then make another adjustment at the back to balance the stiffness all round..

 

I upt' mine a notch tonight and it its a bit to stiff for the road, alough around the big smooth private roundabout it did nearly tear my head off once the tyres were warm.. i.e. after i'd been around 6 times :-)

 

Yes Powerstation did mine

Yes the Fast road geo was done

Mine has the quick rack as its a JDM Sti

Also has the anti dive kit and the thicker roll bars on

It now has the same tyres as the T25 (pirelli Pzero corsa's)

Engine was done buy Richard Bulmer though 350bhp and 370ft/lb torque


Gives me a big grin every time I drive it

 

Can do what ever I like with mine now, as the splitter's been fubar'd, so it can go a little softer

 

Now that's what I'm talking about... Great stuff..

Andy... How'd you manage that?

 

Like i said Al big smile every time I drive her

 

How Much was Andy's remap? (if you don't mind me asking - PM if needed or tell me to bugger off )

 

Only have mine on a 'neutralish' setting at the mo but can already notice the difference. Having geom. done next weekend hopefully. Has already removed quite a bit of the roll which I get on certain parts of my little bit of road I like to drive on Rick also set it up so it's sitting quite a bit lower than previously which I think has helped too.

Look forward to experiementing in coming weeks CB but the anti-roll bar can just stay on it's stiffest setting as it's too much of a pain to adjust when compared to the nice tiny twists of the ASTs! And I don't have to get me hands dirty.

 

My ARB's on the middle setting. I've been advised to uprate the mounting points before moving it to stiff, as these then become the weakpoint.

Any comments anyone?

 

By mounting points you mean drop links? I think the standard ones are widely regarding as "plastic" and "crappy". I had alloy ones put on at same time as the ARB so can't really comment on if the standard ones can take the hardest settings.

 

No, I mean the brackets that the drop links fasten to. They're bolted to the shell, and uprated items are available, dunno wtf they're called though

 

Ahh I definetly have no idea then. My cars still in one piece and I've got the stiffest setting on if that helps

And is my CD in transit yet?

 

I ran mine on the stiffest all the time from 2 weeks after fitting to the day it went without uprated mounts. Everyone reckoned before I fitted that the middle was the best, but they were all SO WRONG. I was initally disappointed with the bar until I moved it up, and thereafter I felt I should have gone for the 24mm. Most reckon the 24mm is only suitable for track use, but I think my smooth driving style would have been fine with it. If you like things sideways and use the brakes a lot then the 22 is probably best, and the more twitchy your driving then the more you'll need to be on a softer setting. Switch it to the stiffest and see how you like it, after all it only takes 10 minutes so you can always put it back if it doesn't suit you.

 

Was already done when I bought the car

but I have the bill for it

£1766 but that includes the exhaust which was £999+Vat



pulls like a rocket in any gear completely different car to a remapped UK STI with the same power

I let cw42 drive mine at the ring and he was pulling 15mph more down the straights than his own car , at the last RR his was 3bhp more than mine but mine was 35ft/lb torque more than his