I wrote this review up for both NASIOC's brakes/suspension forum as well as here, hoping that many of you can learn from my mistakes and benefit from things which I found positive. The mods I did were pretty basic in nature in comparison to some of the stuff I've seen here, so maybe this will help out some of the beginner guys more than anyone.

2005 Saab 9-2x Aero (WRX Wagon) - Daily Driver + 1 PDE track day every other month.

I'll list mods in the order which they went on the car...

Alignment:
-.9 front / -1.2 Rear (max for stock hardware on my car)
Definite improvement on turn-in. Less understeer.

HAWK HP Plus Pads:
Held up great at the track until car went stage II and I began lapping faster. During my last couple outings (with stage II power), I had to be extremely disciplined with timing of brake zones to avoid having any fade.

Motul RBF 600:
Absolutely necessary to have it freshly bled before an event (speed bleeders were a great convenience item). I tried getting away with not bleeding when I had events 3 weeks apart once and ended up needing to bleed at the track.

FHI 20mm Rear Sway Bar:
For the price, absolutely wonderful. Got rid of rear transitional slop. Less understeer.

Swift Wagon Specific Springs:
I searched plenty before choosing Swift springs. The decision of using this spring ended up being the motivating factor for the sale of my car (will explain more later). This spring's mild spring rate, "wagon specific" and linearish design and conservative ADVERTISED drop really appealed to me, as it seemed like a spring well matched to stock dampers. Initial handling at the track and comfort on the street was superb. Problem was that these springs couldn't last more than 4 months without losing their integrity altogether (I went through 2 sets - the second being the "revised" version which was supposed to deal with excessive drop of the "original" spring). When I mean "lose integrity," I mean these springs would go slammity slam slam in ride height (settle excessively). Ride comfort and handling would suffer as a result.

Stainless Steel Brake Lines:
You know, I really didn't notice anything here.

Wheel/Tire Upgrade (17 x 7.5 wheel w/ 225 45 17 Hankook RS2 Z212 tires):
Slightly wider wheel than my stock Aero 17 x 7 and slightly wider tire than my stock 215's.
No fender conflict.
For the price... Great turn-in. Great grip. Good communication. Great heat cycling capacity. Tire had decently high limit, yet one must be on toes for when the limit was exceeded as immediate throttle modulation and steering input would be necessary to bring things back into check (not much wiggle room).

Kartboy End Links (Front and Rear):
Front links were great. Crisper turn-in.
Rear end links worked. Crisper transition, yet the shorter length of the links than stock caused the sway bar to hit the axleback during bumps in the road. KB extra long exhaust hanger would have fixed the problem but instead I got.....

Whiteline HD End Links (Rear):
Get these and be done. Great links. No brainer.

Whiteline Rear Strut Tower Brace:
Really tightens up the rear. Greater communication as to what's going on back there.

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This is where I'll give some advice to anyone interested in maintaining a decently trackable daily driven wagon....

1) Purchase a Big Brake Kit before anything else (stock rotors are simply too small for our cars).
2) Purchase a set of KW V3 Coilovers right after the BBK.

It sounds like a lot of money up front, but these two mods will be easy to maintain- long term, and will put your car to where it needs to be for long term sustainability at the track. Sure get some sways and endlinks and other smaller items, but these 2 will be a sound base for you to have fun, repeated tracking experiences in your daily driver. We are limited to Koni inserts for damper selection. This is why I say go ahead and do the coilover instead (a decent coilover). Koni + (insert your spring here) are a great setup, but from what I've read and the people which I sought advice from (some of our board's sponsors), it seems like doing the coilover investment makes the most sense in terms of what you get in return (and for just a few hundred dollars more than Koni/Springs).

As for why I sold the car.... I simply got tired of having to mod cars to get them to do what I want them to do. I've been modding cars for years now and I'm tired of being on my back in the garage. I was going to do brake ducting, DBA 4000 rotors front, HAWK Blue front, H6 rear upgrade as my next round of mods on the wagon when my 2nd set of Swift springs decided to give out on me- and that's when I had enough. Went out and got me a new RX8. Big rotors & good handling turn-key. All I want to have to do is bleed brakes before a lapping day and nothing else

Last edited by SouthFL_9-2x (2006-12-11 12:54:05)