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Adding all of the Cusco chassis braces was a decent amount of work. The question is, was it all worth it? The answer is a resounding yes; it seems like an exaggeration, but the car is very much improved. With no other adjustments at all, the car rides much better on the broken pavement around MotoIQ headquarters.
The freeway ride is also much improved and now freeway hop is totally eliminated. The car's handling is much effected as well. Turn in and steering response, in general, is much improved to the point that we kept finding ourselves turning in too soon and have to get used to the car's improved response.
The car is also much improved in bumpy turns. Anyone familiar with how a greatly lowered GD does in bumpy turns knows that the rear suspension starts to bind and contributes to a hopping motion in the chassis which reduces grip. In severe cases, it can cause the entire chassis to pitch. We are happy to report that with the bracing this is greatly reduced, and with our future chassis refinements, which will include softer rear trailing arm bushings, we are hopeful that we might even be able to eliminate this.
Is the car as solid as the new VA chassis? The answer is no. The VA is a modern design with the shock towers closely integrated into the cowl as well, as many strengthening unibody design features to help the car with the new narrow offset barrier crash, and nothing outside of a weld in roll cage is going to get the GD on that level.
Are we done? Not quite. We are looking to add a little more bracing to the front of the car soon. Stay tuned.
Read more about Project GD STI!
3 comments
After installing all the Cusco parts do you think that if you could do it over you’d have chosen Cusco instead of Whiteline for the parts you replaced in “Part One- Rebuilding the Suspension” ?
I’ve looking to do the same suspension things to my 04 STi as you did with with this 05. I’m tempted to be just as snobby as you and go all Cusco. coilovers, bushings, ends, links, bracing, etc.
Do you think that would be too far and its better that you got KW, Whiteline and Cusco in various parts?
I like the Cusco braces but prefer the other brands for those parts, especially the shocks.
Ok, thank you for the response and all the articles!