It’s time to turn up the heat on the chassis of our rapidly improving Pro-R demo car with a trip to Time Attack Champions, Cross Roads Garage and a chance to fit some swanky new springs and bushes.
Unlike Glenda’s dress sense (oi – Glenda), the handling of the STi floor is pretty hard to fault straight out of the box. A combination of symmetrical all-wheel drive, more rubber than the average family planning clinic and the low centre of gravity that only a boxer motor can bring, and you’ve got more grip than a bag of super-glued limpets.
That said, there’s nothing to say that the best can’t be made better though, which is why Pro-R also has a whole range of chassis upgrades up their sleeves for those that like to make their daily commute a little more exciting.
Suspension set-up is always best left to Jedi masters of the craft, so despite the fact that Midge still hasn’t really christened the socket set he got for Christmas, we decided to hit up the 2011 Club AWD Time Attack Champions at Cross Roads Garage, and ask them if they would do the honours for us.
Race tech Lee was on the spanners this time, and he has fitted more of these Pro-R upgrade kits than Slim has had hot dinners. You don’t need me to tell you that’s a mightily impressive stat right there.
The Pro-R springs are made by scene legends Eibach, and feature unique progressive winding, silicone wrapping and the kind of quality that would make Rolex technicians weep into their self-winding movements.
The kit even comes with shorter bump stops to make sure the damper retains full travel at its new lower ride height! We love little touches like that.
The SuperPro bush kit is somewhat of a marvel too, replacing the relatively soft OE rubber parts, and even offering a little more caster thanks to the control arm bush’s offset design. This allowed Lee to get our road car somewhat nearer the ideal race car settings that took the team to top honours on their all-singing-all dancing alignment rig.
Out on the road, the result of all of this hard work was a car that felt even more alive and responsive than before. Ride quality is still great, but around the bends the STi now sticks like Heather Mills to a millionaire, with nicely weighted steering and the ability to get on the power just a shade earlier as you come out of a turn.
It’s already got us raiding the Pro-R website to see what else we can add now. With so much grip on tap, we think we’re ready for more power. Well, it’d be rude not to right?
SPENT
Bushes £POA
Springs £POA
TOTAL SPEND
Total £POA
Contacts
Pro R
Crossroads Garage
See more of Fast Car’s 2013 Subaru WRX STi
