The subframe to chassis bolts were tightened down.
The Magnus subframe has OEM style mounts so the stock camber adjusting eccentrics can still be used. There are other optional holes available to use different mounting points with spherical bearing equipped racing control arms so you can change the camber curve, track width, and roll center. The Magnus subframe also is compatible with the OEM sway bar mounts.
We bolted up the lower control arms and reinstalled the axles.
The Magnus subframe didn’t have any accomodation to hang the exhaust so we made an aluminum bracket so the stock rubber exhaust hanger could get bolted up. After it was all together, we did an alignment on the rear of the car.
Here is what everything looks like together and at ride height. What we would like to try on our own project car is to use the subframe to correct the roll center on our lowered car and to run a longer lower control arm to get more camber gain under roll using the alternative mounting holes.
The Evo is ready to go. It is a really clean example of a sleeper Evo. It is even more sleeper than our Evo IX project car!
So losing almost 35 lbs while killing wheel hop with improving chassis stiffness and the option to play with the suspension geometry is a winning combo. Even though the differential was now solidly mounted, the noise and vibrations were not increased too much. If you are really fussy and don’t care about how your car launches or handles hard shifts, this might not be your mod because noise and vibrations are understandably a little more noticable. The Magnus subframe is a win with the exception of the mod we had to do to remove the oil drain plug. We will be looking to add this mod on our own project Evo IX.
Sources
Magnus Motorsports
Spoon Sports USA
4 comments
Are rigid collars worthwhile on something like a GC Impreza that has a rubber bushing where the rear subframe mounts to the body? Relatedly, is there any disadvantage to a permanent installation of any of the various “lock-down” shoulder bolts in the same application?
No they work great, I use the Whiteline locks myself.
as a GC owner who also has the Whiteline lockdown bolts, I’m also very intrigued by the improvements made by these Spoon Rigid collars and their replicas.
Not to mention the improved fatigue life of steel. If you have any kind of off-road excursion those aluminum parts fail catastrophically. I have seen aluminum front spindles sheered in two.