STU class setup questions

[boostinpsi]

What do you think autox gurus?

trying to stay out of streed mod or BSP. please give me a hollar if you notice anything that would be not allowed.

STU allows no boost changes so a mbc is out of the question.

is a schroth 4pt harness legal? dont see why not rule dont specify so i say yes.

buschur tbe w/hfc and bullet muffler.

245/45/17 falken azenis rt615s still a good choice? i was going to go 255/40 till i decided to shoot for STU which limits you to a 245 tire

rear trailing arm bushings are allowed iirc

springs from gtworx.com they arent on the website yet because they arent out yet. all i can say is a 20mm front drop and 15mm rear drop. supposed to perform better than the swifts. for the cost to me its worth a try.

cusco camber plates

rear strut tower bar. probably an ebay bar or an aerosync carbon bar from gruppe-s

whiteline 24mm adj. rear bar and a cusco 21mm fsb but only if i can figure out a cheater way to swap it without completely removing the subframe.

ss brakelines <--in my wrx they made a world of difference. do they help in the evo at all?

i will have an e-flash for my cone filter and tbe and to get that extra hidden hp thats in the stock car.is it possible to tune the basic stuff without a wbo2 or still a no go?

I can have brake ducting. Do you think it would help at all? i could fab it up myself for cheap im just wondering if its worth it at autox speeds


sparknotes:
buschur tbe w/hfc and bullet muffler
gtworx springs
cusco camber plates
rear strut bar
fsb & rsb <--- maybe
trailing arm bushings
falken rt615 245/45/17
schroth 4pt harness <--- legal?
ss brakelines <--- maybe
brake ducting <--- maybe
eflash

is my exedy twin hd going to screw over my plans? i really hope not otherwise itl be the same setup in SM

thanks guys. this should start pretty soon. ill start with the tbe and flash then move on to the suspension.

[Warrtalon]

Russ is our STU guru, so he can give you the best advice. Here's my few comments:

- The RT-615s are pretty good, but there's a few others that will be more competitive, such as the Advan Neova (I think).
- I wouldn't try to compete with just springs and camber plates. Do a nice set of coilovers
- Not sure about messing with the front sway bar
- Harness should be fine
- I think the clutch knocks you up to SM

[russjnco]

Just a few comments:

The Falkens will be very un-competitive. My first choice would be a 245/40 Advan Neova first, second would be a 245/40 Bridgestone Re01r and third would be the stock A-046 Advans. Also, the 245/45's will rub with a lowered suspension

Cusco plates will work but save yourself $40 and go with the Tein camber plates. I think you can get those for like a $150 and they're perfect for the stock struts.

As far as brake ducting goes, I believe that is not allowed in STU or at least I can't find it in the rule set. I'm not sure if you could get enough aero cooling to help minimize the amount of heat radiated into the wheels and tire. I do recommend the SS lines though and good set of brake pads. Project Mu NS pads work fine or Hawks.

Don't mess with the front sway bar. However, replace the front and rear endlinks. Whiteline makes a universal endlink that is listed under the Subies that works for the Evo and they also have a dedicated link for the rear sway bar. I don't like the Perrin links, too much clicking in the spherical bearing and the AP links don't have rust treated hardware.

Trailing arm bushings will help a little but do yourself a favor and get the whiteline bushings or the delrin two piece. I tried to do the Energy trailing arm bushings and ended up splitting the forward leading seam of the arm. I had to track down a new arm from a salvage yard and was generally displeased with that whole situation.

The rear strut bar is not necessary. I have one but it's really more bling than anything. Besides, it gives me a way to tie down my fuel jug.

Some other things to contemplate is a rear bump steer kit, that does help. Front poly sway bar bushings (takes about an hour and a half and you don't have to drop the subframe). Forward poly engine bushing mount. H&R 15 mm front wheel spacers.

I would also recommend a tire probe, setup sheets, a decent sprayer and a mini battery.

Hope that helps!

[Warrtalon]

Russ, what about the clutch? Does that kick him to SM?

[russjnco]

The clutch would kick him into SM. In order to remain in STU, the clutch has to be O.E. or O.E. equivalent.

[boostinpsi]

can i run bsp with the exedy or is that a no doubt SM? its already installed and i REFUSE to do the tranny drop again. haha.

what is a good set of budget coilovers? i dont have the funds to drop like 2k on coilovers. same for R-comps. Im thinking of the rt615s in 255/40/17 since there are allowed for bsp/sm

personally i would rather go TBE+testpipe, mbc, fuelpump, and flash for the go fast part but i was thinking of maybe trying to do a budget stu build but thats not gonna happen.

I will have about a $3500 budget. im going to drive on the stock setup for most of this season.

600$ for the rt615s, 1600 for the buschur/warrtalon package. that only leaves about 1300 for coilovers... any ideas?

[Warrtalon]

I think you have 2 main choices for coilovers:

- Megan Tracks for ~$800 or...
- PIC/Pure Tuning Coils for ~$1500, which is the next step up

With the Megans, you just slap 'em on, get the car corner balanced then aligned, and you'll be fine. With the PIC coils, they have done a lot of R&D and provide direct support, although they are in the Midwest. This is a setup similar to my Vishnu/Gerrard Ohlins except that the shocks used are not as high quality as Ohlins and are not re-valved. Still, they're probably the best you can do for under 2k and without knowing how to do all your own cutomization.

The RT-615s are great daily drivers, but you by no means can expect to be competitive with them in BSP or SM, so you need to think about that.

[boostinpsi]

whats a website for those PIC coils.

edit: nevermind i found them. for that price 1500 i would be satisfied with the warrtalon/buschur package, the PIC coils and some better tires? maybe the RE01 245/40/17? they dont have a 255 for 17 inch wheels :/ maybe the yokohama AVS ES100? i like the price but is it a decent tire? im not looking for the absolute best. just something that will work.

what would be a good tire that would be not ridiculous expensive but still be competative?

[russjnco]

The Bridgestones in a 245/40 are your best bet. If you have a SCCA membership then you qualify for the $100 rebate from Bridgestone. Shipped from Tire Rack is about $700 normally so knock a hundo off of that and that's only like $60 more than the Falkens.

Keep this in mind, whenever you're trying to figure out how to spend your alotted budget always choose handling first. Ask any road racer, I did at one point, and the answer was "last year I spent ~$2K on handling upgrades and went 3 seconds quicker, this year I spent $4K on power upgrades and only went a half second quicker, you do the math...." So, what I'm saying is that with $3500 you could have a pretty mean handling STU machine that may not be the biggest fire breather out there but will still be competitive at the local level. Just my .02 worth though.

[Warrtalon]

AVS ES100???? NOOOO. Listen to Russ. You don't have to get 255s just to get 255s. The 245s are fine, however, none of these tires will be competitive in BSP or SM. You _have_ to use race rubber to even do remotely well.

The only competitive tires will be V710 or Hoosier A6. After that, you just go down the list of r-comps, which would be Nitto NT01, Toyo RA-1, Kumho V700, etc.

[boostinpsi]

i *can not* afford race rubber and i dont want to mask any bad habits. maybe partway through the season i will get some. im just trying to have some fun because the fusion HRIs im on now suck so bad. I just want a grippy tire that will be decent for autox but usuable on the road as well. i im also getting an agressiveish alignment as much as i can get up front w/ 0 cross camber and 0 toe then like -1 - -1.5 in the rear with 0 toe and 0 cross. caster isnt adjustable right?

re reading russ's post i think i will go with the bridgestones since i am a SCCA member. how do you redeem the discount?

[Warrtalon]

It won't make sense to go aggressive with camber unless you have a race tire. Camber is only useful on a tire that can handle camber, which requires a very stiff sidewall (e.g. r-comps).

[boostinpsi]

wouldn't camber help on a street tire because of the more flexible sidewall? instead of the tire rolling over onto the sidewall it would be rolling over onto the tread.

on my subie i ran proxes4 with -1.75 f and -.8 rear and that worked great.

[Warrtalon]

No, camber will kill a street tire because of the sidewall not being stiff. Camber relies on extremely stiff sidewalls.

-1.75 is not aggressive.. If that's what you mean by "aggressive," then you'll be fine. We typically push out our stock suspension to -2.0 (max). On coilovers, "aggressive" would be -3.0 or higher, which is what I thought you were talking about.

[boostinpsi]

if i can get -2 id be pleased. thats pretty agressive for a street car. sorry next time i will clarify.

if i could get -2.0 with 0 cross up front what would be a good spec for the rear? -1.0 with no toe or cross? or would you go a little less like -.75 or something like that?

i was thinking maybe i should just save for a 2.2l jun stroker so i can rev to 9k and a gt30r since with the stroker itll spool decently haha i wish.