[forfun]

Took the forester to atuox today (my first time). Wow it was a blast.:woohoo: There were several sti's , one was putting down 425 to the wheels with a p&l R3076R. He was crazy fast I think he made a pass in 48 sec witch was among the fastest of the day. There was an NA impreza RS putting down low 50 sec times keeping up with a few STI's! There was a legy Gt and a couple wrx's.
My new Bridgestone 760sports are way better then my all season but with a UTQG of 340 they didn't blow me away with there grip. They just had about an hour drive time on them so they may have still been greasy. Over all I had WAY to much power for my stock suspension. I was lifting my front end exiting corners and spinning my front tires. Then there was understeer powersliding and a really pissed off chasis. lol Even with all this my best time was 58 sec with one cone hit. Time for some suspension mods. Any advice or offer of parts for sell would be much apreciated.:rock:

 

[Tussen]

Glad you got out and had a blast!
Check out the how to turn gaster than a STi thread for some solid info.

 

[fourortwowheels]

glad you enjoyed your first outing, i know i was hooked afterwards. it gets even more fun after some seatime and being able to read the course. this is just the beginning!

some good beginner mods would be a set of swift springs and a front sway bar and tires(eventually). like tussen said read the sti thread in the suspension forums, or even check out my modlist in my thread a few below this one.

it really all depends what clubs you run with and what class you want to run. then build your car to spec...

first off what year is your foz? and what club do you run w/?

 

[FXTRunner1]

The forester snow plows like mad. I recommend if your going to stick with autox'ing then replace the rear swaybar with an adjustable 22mm or 25mm bar. I'm running a hodgekis sti competition bar but a lot of others use the perrin 22mm. What ever you do don't upgrade the front bar this will make it understeer even more. I just pulled my aftermarket one off and went back to stock. Also while your at the autox chalk a small part of the tire edge on all four corners. You want to run the lowest air pressure with out the sidewalls rolling under. The best way to go about that is to start with about 45 lbs in the tire and drop pressure off untill you see it just starting to scuff the side of the tire and the go back up 2lbs of air. With my RE01r tires i run 36f 32r . Tire pressure can also be used to help tune over / under steer. If you want more over steer, add more air to the rears. Welcome to the autox fun!

 

[fourortwowheels]

every1's car is also setup differently for each drivers needs and wants. for instance, the fsb made the largest difference in handling of any mod ive done. i also did the rsb first, but the fsb really brought everything 2gether. also w/ tire pressures i like to run 39f/40r cold - so right there is two different opinions. i run springs/struts and fxt runs stiffer coils also which come in2 play.

b4 mods i even say you just go out there and learn to drive the car. the rest will come naturally and then you can worry about all mods. improve the #1 mod first, you!

 

[GatorXTi]

I have donor mounts for the Whiteline caster bushings that will help with the front end traction.

 

[TheNateums]

Sway bars help alot.

Read this- iwsti. com/ forums/driving-tips-techniques/178391-real-truth-about-understeer.html
it all applies conceptually to autocross but obviously can't work the same. But the info is good and might help you improve your cornering in other ways.

Sorry, Im still to new to this forum to post links, just remove the space after "iwsti." and before "forums/"

 

[Tussen]

The Real Truth About Understeer - IWSTI.com: Subaru WRX STI Forums
This is an excellent writeup.

 

[wakeabyss]

I'm with 4or2wheels. First time I went out I had a 25mm hotchkis rear swaybar and I was oversteering like crazy. I then put in a Whiteline 24mm swaybar in the front and it helped a ton. I recently put on STI front control arms with Whiteline front bushings and rear caster bushings along with the roll center adjustment kit and that helped a ton with understeer. The tires just grip better under hard turning now. Much of it depends on your driving style.

To the OP, if you want to get more competitive, skip the swifts springs. IMO, they are just not ideal for autocross. An alignment is a great mod for cheap. (approx -2 camber front and -1.2 camber in the rear)

 

[TheNateums]

What Tussen put is what i wanted to link too.

 

[forfun]

Thanks

Thanks for all the replies and advice. I started to read the understeer post and it makes a lot of scence from what I have read so far:chair: I know for a fact I was just flooring it like a mad man with out any throtle modulation:chair:. And my front end was definatly like a snowplow. I had a couple of poeple that were working the course tell me that my front end was raising up and my front tires would just spin. Actually now that I think about it my new tires may have actualy made it worse since the back tires were most likely getting more traction then my all seasons ever did. I was a little worried about not having any seat time with these tires. I only had about an hour of commuting and highway time with them so I didn't know what to expect. Thanks again

 

[The Black Box]

UTQG below 200 will make the biggest difference.

Bigger front swaybar is one of the smartest mods you can do if you understand how poor the front suspension geometry is on the Forester.

If you're still understeering with a lot of suspension mods you most likely need to analyze your driving style. You make up the most time being fast in and out of the fast turns not drifting in the slow turns...

 

[funkymonkey1002]

UTQG below 200 will make the biggest difference.

Bigger front swaybar is one of the smartest mods you can do if you understand how poor the front suspension geometry is on the Forester.

If you're still understeering with a lot of suspension mods you most likely need to analyze your driving style. You make up the most time being fast in and out of the fast turns not drifting in the slow turns...

+1. The front camber curve on the forester sucks, a stiffer FSB will help keep you in a better part of the curve (basically when the suspension compresses too much, the camber starts to go positive). Also a roll center kit (ball joint and tire rod extensions) will help to fix the geometry but they can only do so much. Just throwing a super stiff rsb on will get rotation, but you're losing some grip by making the rear too stiff, however on a very tight course this could help.

 

[Tussen]

What Tussen put is what i wanted to link too.

That's why I provided the link for you!
Excellent info.

 

[TheNateums]

That's why I provided the link for you!
Excellent info.

Thanks!

PS. It's awesome to hear foresters are out there doing AutoX!

It's funny how little weight difference there is between Foresters and Imprezas.

 

[meathooker]

I'm with 4or2wheels. First time I went out I had a 25mm hotchkis rear swaybar and I was oversteering like crazy. I then put in a Whiteline 24mm swaybar in the front and it helped a ton. I recently put on STI front control arms with Whiteline front bushings and rear caster bushings along with the roll center adjustment kit and that helped a ton with understeer. The tires just grip better under hard turning now. Much of it depends on your driving style.

To the OP, if you want to get more competitive, skip the swifts springs. IMO, they are just not ideal for autocross. An alignment is a great mod for cheap. (approx -2 camber front and -1.2 camber in the rear)

i can atest to this! he was tail happy that day!

after racing my sti last year i am a huge believer in a big FSB. i ran a 27/29mm whiteline and the car loved it. i have COBB front and rear in my car now (fxt) and i plan on taking the front COBB out to put another whiteline 27/29mm on.

 

[Hardrvin]

Are you doing St. Louis region? I'm not too far out from you in Evansville, IN.

 

[Tuned200]

I use to be a hard core drag racer, until I autox'ed on day. Then drag racing wasnt as much fun. The I road coursed....and now drag racing isnt that run at all, and autox is fun but it doesnt last long enough.

Glad you had a good time.

 

[fourortwowheels]

i couldnt agree more, str8 line is fun but turning is where its @!

i thuroughly enjoyed my first track day but auto-x is still king in my book. drag and track doesnt have the same adrenaline rush as auto-x for me. the fast pace and having only 5-8+ runs to learn the course and shave time is not only challenge but great fun!

auto-x > track > drag

 

[forfun]

sti forester

Bought struts off an 04 sti with 60,000 mileslast weekend. they have the stock springs, does anyone have experiance with this set up?