josh long

Morgan, I agree with you completely only the stock suspension was originally intended for picking up the kids, not auto or rally cross. I would however liken the difference in the RX dampening to the new STI stuff. For most applications this would be great. For sporty type tarmac stuff you will more than likley want to look at lowering the ride height significantly (1" range)This will lead to bottoming problems. And can only be properly corrected by increasing both compression and rebound dampening and spring rate. (this is generally done with a shorter overall damper too) If you know where to look, there is reading to find the base settings for an all wheel drive turbocharged rally car for both tarmac and gravel. (Ford is really nice and publishes information they derived from their WRC experience for privateers) With the above being said, after driving a car properly set up for gravel stage rally on both gravel and tarmac I would not care to spend the extra cost for tarmac only setup. The gravel set up on tarmac is so much better than what can be achieved for much much greater sums of money. And this was at gravel height!

It is quite possible your stock suspension is not one butt suitable for your type of driving. Like I said if your dampening was optomised for your intended use, there is little left to be gained by minute valving changes. Everything you said above was about set up, not dampening settings. The only exception is with your statement about the RX suspension, that I agree with for a low cost option. The RX stockers work quite well! The cost to grin ratio is quite high! For those confused about the above references you may want to read this. http://www.mrtrally.com.au/performance/howctc.htm

I am curious as to why you would ever want to change your suspensions settings if they were optomised for your car? The weight of your car should not change much. If you had an expert build your suspension with you cars weight, drive, and intended use in mind are you sure you want to change these settings. I have tuned suspension for full suspension bikes (downhill, and cross country) and motocross. Only to have the units I tuned come back with their owners looking all sheepish, saying I thought I could make it better. How do I put it back? Give somebody a clicker and they will turn it! If your going to "tune" your suspension be sure to take notes! The suspension I was showing you is for rally specification. If you are not going to jump or slide your car it is not likely needed.

The coil overs I was speaking of are inverted if you look at the picture provided you will see the telescoping portion is 40mm ...... go look at your struts they may be a little smaller. The cartridges are gravel spec Bilstein units. OR you could go buy effectively they same thing from DMS for like $3500- $4000. They are not externally adjustable. Josh

I have a buddy that built a set for a rally RX they would be in the $1350 range to duplicate. They are based on a 40mm inverted bilstine cartridge. look here http://www.specialstage.com/forum/cgi-bin/DCForumID8/1409.html John Vanlandingham worked for ohlins for a while Not cheap but this is the real deal. http://www.fireantracing.com/content/images/gpa_assembled.jpg Picture of some built for a Ford. Josh

It is Kris Barnes car, and at this time he is just going to use a turbo off a liberty we have here. There are plans for a much bigger unit shortly though. Josh

Yes this is being done at Frantic Four. The 99 rs is rearwheel drive now too. It should be fun! Josh

I dont think It can be refered to as stock anymore. Sure it uses some parts of the stock crossover pipe but that is it. This design will clean up the flow. The manifold comes no closer than the stocker and actually takes away heated surface area from the oil cooler area. The up pipe is ALL fabricated with the exception of the 2 into 1 flange at the bottom. I posted up some more pics of the progress. Josh

http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0080 http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0081 http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0083 http://usmb.net/gallery/Josh-Longs-Pictures/000_0084 Check out these photos of a new turbo impreza project. Josh

Timing sounds off(belts), I did thid recently on my turbo wagon 11psi boost and no power/wierd backfires. Josh

1.21 jiggawatts Skipper you must be CRAZY! What turbo and how much boost are you running? Your exhaust is 3" right? fuel pump? base fuel pressure? and variation at max boost? Josh

Where's the dent?

If you can afford this car, not the payments, you can title a car like this in the USA properly. Just like this escort cosworth http://www.wrc-cosworth.org/dv/sale/CA1/CA1.htmlJosh

This was SUPER fun! Ken was smoking! Consistant and smooth. Although he seemed more intrested in how it sounded than his runs:D. There was a time that I thought I was stuckin Groundhogs Day the movie the yellow bumble bee...... Jeff was representing in my old Justy. I had a great time The Galant ran well although street tires were not the Hotline in the open class. The course was junk after our 1st run. The only bummer was my buddie blew the right front tire off the wheel, on the back sweeper. Josh

I will be there (SIR) in the morning in my White Galant VR4. Qman, do you think it would be ok to bring a Mitsu into the subie pits? Josh