Hey guys, ive been reading around here for a bit, trying to find the answers to my questions, but couldnt find them. First off, im into rally more than anything else, and i didnt think that my ralliart was too low for it at the time of purchase, but it is way to low now that im actually into it more. so anyways, i wanna do two things, stiffen up the suspension, and if possible, raise it up just a bit. mostly in the back if i could. So what im wondering is, do the megans allow you to raise the car at all? or at least keep it at stockish ride height, or what? like, basically what would the range be on them? I know i wont get exact answers to this stuff, just an idea so i know if i should get them or not. Is there actually anyone out there with these on an RA? Ive heard good things from the evo guys with them, but thats a different beast anyways. any insight would be great. thanks

Greg

 

not sure why you want to raise the back seeing how its high enough already. heres a link for all the info about them https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...hp?t=291125are you sitting at stock height now? also if your really into rally racing you should go with the sway bar from rrm. i have the rear strut bar and lower tie bar and im happy with that but a lot of ppl say the sway bar does wonders for handling.

 

The back is high enough? the tires are almost tucking from the factory on Ralliarts. I guess thats not such a big deal though, theres nothing that it can hit moving up and down in there. as for sway bars, i've never been into tuning a cars handling with sway bars. i think the reason people love sway bars so much is it allows you to eliminate some body roll and stiffin things up a bit without haveing the car throw the occupants around so violently like if you were to go the right way and do coilovers. Im not looking for a compromise between performance and comfort. im looking for a setup that will take some punishment and keep my car from bottoming out. also. i like how adjustable they are. Thanks for the link fkdrcrs. thats really all the info that can be found on these things though. but after reading it again, i now see they claim you can set them to stock rideheight, which is what im looking for more or less. Maybe a little higher, but i can make due with stock hight if they are stiff enough i guess. Now the only doubt left in my mind is the durability and life of them.

Greg

 

i forgot the stock ride height, yeah it does sag in the rear. my cars already lowered and my back end sicks up more compared to the front now. i know that some guys here run tein damper kits plus a sway bar and they love it. im content with my rear strut bar and tie bar, i dont feel like spending all my money on suspension b/c i want to do some other stuff with my car, but i would love to have a megan setup..........maybe when my shocks go bad.

 

im comfortable dumping all my modding money into the suspension. for now, the brakes are good enough, and it has too much power stock, being only FWD, the 162ft/lbs are pretty much useless anyways on gravel so i figure more power=more wheel spin in the gravel, so why waste the money. Maybe once i own the car i can turn it into a purpose built rally car, but i doubt it would be competative. There has been a yellow RA in the canadian championship since 2005 IIRC, but they rarely do very well. They are running a turbo setup on it too. I guess because of the class that the car gets dumped into its already out matched (because the engine is so big yes, 2.4 is alot in rallying). I think they are in group 5. not sure if thats beause of the corrected displacement or if thast beacuse they ended up putting a turbo on, but like i said, they have few great results, in fact, i think i've only seen them in the top 5 over all once. I want to make the switch to a subaru, but its just not going well and it looks like that wont happen, plus, i do like the ralliart still so...megans after the winter i guess. haha.

greg

 

Sounds like you're really serious about rallying...why not (like you said) dumb it all it's the suspension? Get a real set; I'm sure there are others out there that do this and have a "custom" setup. Cost for this might be in the 1500 to 2000 range though. Why not do it right the first time though!

 

if you want to dump a lot of money into your suspension thats fine. it seems that your really getting into this and thats a good thing. i was just giving you some ideas about what to get for your RA.

 

fkdrcrs, i didnt mean to say your setup wasnt good for what you want, or even a decent general setup overall. Im just saying, that sort of setup doesnt have what i need. biggest thing being adjustability. megan coilovers have tons of adjustability. height, camber, adbsorber and at a very economical cost IMO. I would definitly do rear upper and lower braces at the same time and probably some sort of H brace up front, but i doubt uprated sway bars would do any good.

according to eclipse2lancer (who i think knows what he's talking about and appears to have researched the suspension thing alot) the stock springs are 171in/lbs in front and 122in/lbs in back. megan coilovers are an insane 450 front and 337 rear. thats more than 2 and 1/2 times stiffer on both accounts. these cars dont have a ton of roll to begin with (when compared to other cars out there) so i cant imagine there would be hardly any roll with megans on there. also, remember, we are talking about driving on slick conditions. to have roll, you have to have alot of traction and momentum and then add in a change of direction, right? well, there will be plenty of the last two.

SLVROZ_03, dumping that much into it wouldnt be worth it at this point. I mean, that sort of setup is for the pros. also, those suspension setups cost alot because they are fully rebuildable, as you need to rebuild them frequently because of the beating they take with all the bumps and weight shifting. I said im comfortable dumping "all my modding money" into suspension. not "all my money" lol. At this point, ill be doing 4-5 rallycrosses next year and alot of back road tours out in the country where my girlfriend lives. clearly not worth spending 2 grand on suspension that does a great job, but will have to be rebuilt after that.

and yeah, im really getting into this for sure. im sorting my other finances out right now to buy a prebuilt paseo rally car to compete in some regional rallies next year. but thats not a car i can drive around to rallycrosses and have fun on a daily basis. thats why im looking to make the lancer that car.

I appreciate you guys throwing me you advice. keep it coming.
Also, still waiting to hear from someone who has actually had megans on a ralliart. anyone ever rallycrossed a ralliart?

Greg

Edit: another thing im really trying to elimiate is that terrible noise you get after a bunch of rocks make there way into the spring perches on the front struts. lol. these cars are prone to collecting little rocks there for some reason and with my obsession with gravel, you can imagine how often i have to jack up the car and wash those perches out. lol. just a little pet peave. i know ill probably gain other noises switching to coil overs, but thats quite alright. it will be worth gaining 5 other noises to permenantly eliminate that one. ha

 

just got back from a brutal navigational rally and im wishing that i had megans the hole time. nav rallies are heavy on the timing and navigation and suposed to be more or less an easy drive on some nice twisty roads. the roads were rediculous! rocks, ditches. i hooked a couple ditches trying to maintane the insanely high average speeds. Three general rules to rallying, On Road, On Route, On Time. in that order. i have to say, i failed at all three on more than one ocassion. took a wrong turn, nearly got stuck in some deep mud/puddles, got back on course, made up some time (checkpoints were so far apart, you could actually make time back when you screwed up) found the right road and it was worse than the wrong turn we took. lol. came across a jeep that was doing some rec off roading. Rocks everywhere. and if i had coilovers, im sure my rear bumper lip wouldnt be cracked right now. i was pretty upset with the hole thing. Cant wait until tomorrow morning to get under the car and see what other carnage has gone on. But its not all bad, a 3rd place finish is nothing to cry about.

greg

 

A) Take a photo of your courses, I'm just curious since they don't have this stuff in Massachusetts...
B) Does anyone on here even have the Megan Coilover setup yet? I really want to look into them in the summer because I know mines are going to be shot by then...
C) The Progress sway bar is very good mod for its price especially if you get the perches.

 

With TSD rallies like this, there really isn't a course to take a picture of. They take place on back country roads (usually, but there are "street" courses.) The idea is, they give you a route and an average speed to maintain, and the idea is to finish each section in the time it would take if you were going that exact speed the whole time (no faster, no slower.) However, you have to slow down for corners, obstacles, etc, so you have to make up for that lost time, without getting to the checkpoint too quickly. It's a good idea to have a good navigator/timekeeper with you.

 

exactly otter. Ive done alot of TSDs, but nothing like this one. like i said, we were on some major roads. and sorry, cant take a pic of those roads because i will NEVER be going near them again. the hole time, im wishing i had skid plates and stiffer suspension. I know if i had just gone slow through it i would have been okay, but a two wheel drive car with lots of torque and rocks covered in mud and leaves make for quite the sticky situation. if i had gotten stuck, it would have been hours before a tow truck could get to me, the car might of had to even spend a night there. There was a mini cooper S in the rally as well who was employing the same tacktics as me. I was passing WRXs and STIs left right and center to get out of that hell hole. it was funny though, despite the one huge mistake we made, it was an exalent result. we would have only had 4 minutes of penaltys over a 4.5hr rally. and yes, i have a good navigator. we just had a mix up. lol. as for the topic of sway bars again, look at it this way, if i had stiffer sway bars, especially on the front, you lose some axel articulation. Which isnt a big deal for a street car, but say i did have those sway bars on and was doing that same route again. i would easily have gotten a wheel in the air and gotten stuck. megans are the only mod that i want to do really. stock sways, stock everything, just megan coilovers. At this rate, i might be the first to get them. I will be getting them after the winter though.
Greg