lifted impreza report

[tailgatewagon]

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=679

ltimatesubaru.org/photos/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=679

 

so you can see what were talking about

 

98 impreza

99 outback struts & springs

super swamper tsl's

27x 9.5 x15 on forester wheels.

tires never ballenced

ej22 with 5speed,

1/4 spacers on rear wheels

rear 3.9 vlsd out of 91 ss sedan

 

10,000 miles on this set up,

 

so for how its been,

oringnal driving impressions of car(un moded with 270k)

drove good but stuts were shot. on a strait strech of gravil road fairly narrow and a bit rutted i was seeing top speeds of 80mph +-5mph,

car was controlable but understeard and was easy to slide at 45mph+,but try to scandanavion flick took lots of input and brakeing to get it to come around. good. car did 110mph+ on free way with no drama,

 

driving impressions now 281k on the car now swampers are about half wore out, not too loud, car will still do 110mph+(100 or so on the speedo) but takes a little more time getting there, first gear sucks you have to keep the car rolling and lug the motor and hope it has enough to crawl you along, or use lots of speed seams to have held up well to both.

struts are starting to leak but ive jumped it 15 or so time never relly bottomed out hard but have been 35mph + 2 feet of the ground. took it on the same straigt gravel road scarry at 65mph, turn in is much better car drifts easly with just a dip in the power and a slight turn in. milage is down from 25-to (17-20), have aired the car down to 5psi and snow wheeld it gets to much traction and wheel speed is hard to keep up. as for floating it dos ok

 

clutch is almost gone now and car is squrly at 70mph on snowy roads(i know dont flame me but here in mt we drive the same speed no matter what the weather most of the time)

 

would i do this mod again. yes but i would still miss the rally speed every time i drive on gravel roads.

 

anyway hope this helps anyone thinking of doing this mod.

 

the only thing i would change is to do it to a coupe.......

[Free Range]

Q: how much of the lost rally ability is due to the swampers, and how much is from the tall struts?

[tailgatewagon]

i think the stiff rear sturts make the car under stear less. i drove it with the sturts and no swampers for a little bit. i dont think the struts hurt the rallying as much as the swampers they have no grip on gravil and even less when turned sideways. right after i lifted it i came into a corner way to hot just after a crest. i was doing maybe 35mph i pitched it sideways and droped it into first i barrly made the corner infacted i yelled to my wife (WERE GOING OFF). the rear tires were hanging off the corner anyway point of the story is if i would have had the swampers on i would have no more impreza. the same corrner with the swampers on is about a 20-25mph corner evenwitht eh best of lines.....

 

one good thing about the swampers is i hit a rock about 9in in dia at almost 40mph with my rear wheel in a drift the rock went in under the tire and i drove over it. you could see where the tire flexed all the way to the bead but it didnt hurt the tire..... also jumping the car is helped by the tires........

 

hum not shure if its all a jumble of radomness.

 

so here is the short...

 

corners with swampers equals easy sideways but slow

striats are slower with less control.

stoping is longer with less control

 

the only fun thing is the snow... the drifting is easy and very perdicable i can drive it sideways at 10mph or 40 mph and feel at home.

[tailgatewagon]

i dont have understeer on it now that it is lifted and has swampers. it understeered whenit was stock....

 

i dont have a rear swaybar anymore and that makes it better offroad ive noticed.