Suspension Work

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A simple combination of springs, shocks, and anti-roll bars would transform our WRX’s handling.

Baselining our 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX exposed not only a weak clutch, but a weak suspension as well. Our Subaru was still riding on its stock setup, which had covered more than 200,000 miles on Connecticut’s brutal roads. This issue was only further compounded by our sticky Cooper tires.

So we took the car to Mach V Motorsports for some work. They agreed with AJW Performance and said that a simple combination of springs, shocks, and anti-roll bars would transform our WRX’s handling. We considered ISC coil-overs, but came to the conclusion that they weren’t necessary for our WRX, as we didn’t need the coil-overs’ adjustability and wanted to keep our car closer to stock.

We used Koni Sport strut inserts, paired with Mach V sport springs and Whiteline anti-roll bars. We also used Kartboy end links, as our stock end links looked terrible. The Mach V springs only fit later Subarus, but we were able to use them on our 2002 WRX by substituting later rear strut tops, which were only another $122.

Everything installed easily, though we did run into an issue with our front struts. They were so rusty that we could see through the spring perch—an attribute we didn’t like on a car that would spend time on track. We ordered a cheap new pair of front struts from Autozone, then put the Konis in them.

Our WRX feels much more planted on the street and looks good at its slightly lower ride height. We can’t wait to go out on track for some real testing.

Comments

skimobile New Reader
12/18/12 3:42 p.m.

You might want to also mention that those steel front control arms are on factory recall due to rusting & potential failure. Now might be time for a nice upgrade to the Subaru aluminum front crontrol arms instead.

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