Project STi Part 2, We test and witness the birth of Our Suspension System
By Mike Kojima
Last time we made a simple introduction to our project, speaking briefly about our intentions for Project STi. Yes we are going to add more power but we first thought that a best first step would to be to start working to correct the STi’s major weakness when compared to its arch enemy, the EVO, its handling.
Now don’t get us wrong, the STi is a fine handling car bone stock but it doesn’t quite have the same bit of oh my god goodness that the EVO, perhaps one of the best handling cars out of the box period has. We plan on fixing this. By all means, the STi is no slouch on the road course and it turns about the same lap times at the track we sometimes use for evaluation, but what seems like effortless lapping in the EVO is hard work in the STi. It doesn’t have quite the same balance and poise that the EVO has.
When researching suspension modifications for the STi, we came upon the name of the Australian company Whiteline several times and when studying their website found quite a few unique and innovative suspension products available for the STi and many other cars as well. With this information in hand, we sought them out at the SEMA show and met Jim Gurieff, Whiteline’s General Director. Over Dinner we had quite an interesting conversation on the technical aspects of suspension turning.
Whiteline has an interesting tuning philosophy of moderate spring rates and stiff sway bars to control body motion, even for competition use. This is somewhat different from the approach that many Japanese and American suspension tuners use. We were a little skeptical that this was going to be the right setup for a serious Time Attack effort. Jim maintained that there setup would work well for track use while maintaining a reasonable street ride. What’s more, when sensing our skepticism, Jim took the big step and invited us to Australia to experience Whiteline’s prowess at suspension tuning first hand both under real world street conditions and on the racetrack. How is that for pride and confidence in ones work?
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| Whiteline’s Jim Gurieff, advises me on not messing up the P25. “It’s a long swim back to cali mate” |
