carfreak85

Which yard?

I used the BFH method as well, worked just fine, but took forever.

Eh, more like 1" lower, not huge, but I don't have positive camber anymore!

Intake, exhaust, 2WD struts and reclocked torsion bars. Plus the tires. Thats all. Improving your driving skills will make the most difference.

Working on it. I dusted a number of Porshces at the last PCA autoX I went to. Now that I have real race rubber (Yoko A048s), it should be a lot better. Still gutless as F*** though...

Sell your car and buy one that was originally equipped with an auto. Doesn't make a lot of sense to do it any other way.

Actually, you can! Step one, remove tail-lights, fuel lines, anything aft of where you want to cut. Step two, fire up your sawsall. Step three, go to town!

Woo-hoo! So, what did I win?

Is that an EA81 optionally-equipped cruise control switch?

Courtesy Nissan tends to do a large portion of the California Hi-Po Nissan stuff and have pretty reasonable prices from what I've heard. Glad I could point you in what seems like the right direction and on a side note, isn't it neat how the lug nuts and wheel studs are basically identical from the 1960s to today?!?!?! Soooo cool to me at least.

I have no idea if this would actually work, but if the FF-1 studs are similar to EA82 wheel studs, we might be in business. I think original credit for this goes to WJM, but anyway, Nissan and Fuji have been pretty close bedfellows in the past. Nissan has Nismo, which makes nifty little doo-dads like extended wheel studs for running high offset wheels and wheel spacers. I think WJM was able to use these Nismo studs in his RX, but really, I'm trying to remember this from an internet tidbit almost a decade old.

Real close to that for sure. 0.04X for sure.

Might as well convert to XT6/Impreza/legacy 5 lug hubs. Pretty much bolt on and zero precision versus drilling hubs.

Tempting. I have yet to dip my toe into offroad timed competition... We shall see if schedules align.

Those SSR's are really cool. I'm so jealous...

Caved to the dealership hook-up. OEM part is a JECS piece...

Not on an EG33... Its a PITA, or so they say on the SVX WN. I've got a buddy who works at the local Subie stealership who can hook me up, but still, just looking for quality, new parts. The car is too nice for JY parts unfortunatly...

Need to replace two of them. Where did you get yours and how much were they?

I would agree that a fresh set of modern tires and new struts/tie rods/ball joints would really wake up any old subaru. It also eats up all of your $500 budget.

Sounds like its about time to change it. Even if you haven't put a ton of miles on it, the used fluid can start to do some bad things if just left to sit.

+1

If ambient temps are low, like in the dead of winter, you'd probably be able to get away with it. During the summer at WOT, I think you'll blow her up, especially without an intercooler or water/meth injection.

Horsepower is meaningless, especially when you have to turn. Build a lighter car and you will win. Witness any Lotus, Ariel, Caterham, Westfield, or any other little-bity car. They clean up Ferraris, Lambos, Koenigseggs, Gumperts and Nobles. I'll be generous and assume you have 150 WHP. @ 2600 lbs you're pushing 17.3 lbs per horsepower around the track. Your buddy in the rabbit, assuming your weight and HP estimates are correct, is pushing 16.4 lb/hp. He will still be faster. His little tires are not working as hard as yours. There is a reason the Lotus Elise has 175 width front tires. Drop some weight and your lack of grip will become less of an issue. Move some of the weight off your front end, and the grip will improve further. Shoot for something like 52% front/ 48% rear weight bias. The 5-lug conversion might bump you into another class, so read the most recent edition of the rule book carefully to see if that kind of mod is allowed in your class.

CAMBER!!! Actually, make sure those RA1s are new. As is less than 5-years-old. The tires are the single most important and impactful thing you can do to improve handling, then start looking for things to replace. The factory suspension geometry is not all that bad. Besides a serious lack of camber and caster, there is pleanty of travel, there is zero scrub-radius (at least on EA81s) and the ity-bity wheels/tires and brakes all keep unsprung weight extreamly low. Your list of mods to do: 1 - Best tires you can find 2 - Lightest wheels you can find (The enkei wheels in my avatar are 8 lbs per corner. 3 - You have camber plates, right? If you're not around 2-3* static front camber and 1-2* static rear camber, you need more. 4 - If you are allowed to strip the car, do it. Weight kills and compared to a 1600 lb VW rabbit, you are about 1000 lbs too heavy to win... Sorry. 5 - If you want more oversteer, put on the smallest front and largest rear anti-roll bars you can find. If thats not enough, simply pull the front bar. Still not enough? Put on a second rear bar. This info is based on my own personal AutoX experience and on my Vehicle Design degree.