[speedmonkey]

Hey Everyone...Please post those pictures up and comments of the Prodrive RB320 suspensions anyone has installed. I know alot of people (including me) that would love to hear more real world feedback about this great set up and see the suspensions that have been installed on cars and how they look!

[RyanLee]

wow.. it is weird that nobody talks about Prodrive RB320 Suspensions.
Isn`t it what many peps waited for?

Anyone ordered it yet? It`s $1999.00
Hum...

[flatthump]

Originally Posted by RyanLee

wow.. it is weird that nobody talks about Prodrive RB320 Suspensions.
Isn`t it what many peps waited for?

Anyone ordered it yet? It`s $1999.00
Hum...

What?

[Rootus]

Originally Posted by RyanLee

wow.. it is weird that nobody talks about Prodrive RB320 Suspensions.
Isn`t it what many peps waited for?

The OP asked for for pictures & comments from people who have installed the RB320 suspension. As far as I know, that list is exactly two people long right now. I doubt anybody else has received theirs yet, even if they ordered them the very day Dan@Prodrive announced availability.

[Rootus]

Pictures of my newly arrived RB320 struts & springs. I put the struts up against the grimy OEM ones for comparison. The front spring perch is identical to OEM. The rear perch is just a tiny bit larger than the OEM perch and the springs (JDM STi Pink in this case) did not quite seat. We knew that already, though.

Back:







Front:






Springs:

[flatthump]

Are you going to use your lowering RCE plates with that set-up?

[wrinklefree]

NIce! Now hurry up and finish the installatio so we can get some driving impressions!

[stretch]

Thanks, Rootus, it's easy to see how the RB320 can lower the car yet still have just a little more bump travel than stock. I also see your stock struts are well lubed, mine look like that too (grease all over)!

The spring perch doesn't look that different- does a stock spring really not fit in it?

[05_GD7]

Looks very nice - interested to see the results.

[BigSky]

that's odd they would change the rear perch- do they provide a "prodrive" lower rubber seat?

would be worth measuring the outside dia of the lower rear springs vs the Prodrive rears to see if there is a difference in diameter

might be the pic, but the Prodrive frnt spring looks considerably more progressive than the oe front

be curious to see if Bilstein gets the inverted strut right in the rear (ie stiction)- KYB obviously has had issues

[grippymonkey]

Nice name SpeedMonkey!

[Rootus]

Originally Posted by flatthump

Are you going to use your lowering RCE plates with that set-up?

Not initially. We'll see how it looks with stock top hats. Yes, stock. I don't have any Group-N fronts handy and I'm not feeling inspired to drop $150 on them right now. We'll see how it works out. I've always thought bobble head had more to do with seats than anything else, and I've got that covered, so I think it'll be okay for a while.

Originally Posted by stretch

The spring perch doesn't look that different- does a stock spring really not fit in it?

The rear pink spring definitely didn't fit. The pinks were too narrow, and they would not seat flat against the perch. I'm 99.99% sure that the front perch is identical to OEM.

Originally Posted by BigSky

that's odd they would change the rear perch- do they provide a "prodrive" lower rubber seat?

Dan @ Prodrive gave two reasons for the different spring perch. The first was so people wouldn't use the struts with non-Prodrive springs and then complain about the strut quality. The second reason was that Bilstein didn't have tooling for OEM Subaru perches and getting set up for it would have added too much cost.

I do not see any rubber seats for the rear struts included with the kit.

would be worth measuring the outside dia of the lower rear springs vs the Prodrive rears to see if there is a difference in diameter

The Prodrive springs are just a hair smaller than 6 3/8" O.D. The pink springs are just a hair smaller than 6 1/8" O.D.

[sti2relaxxin]

I can't wait to see pics of these installed on the car. I am interested to see how the aggressive "rake" looks.

[jaydubya]

Rootus - thanks very much for documenting the differences between the OEM and RB320 struts!

My only concern about this setup for my own use is the ride height. Prodrive says that it lowers the front 30 mm and the rear 10 mm. In my area 30 mm of lowering at the front will make my car into a snowplow during the winter

Here is a photo of the setup installed from the NASIOC thread here:



It certainly does look like that much lowering...

However, if the front struts are indeed identical to the OEMs, I wonder if I could use my existing Prodrive '05 springs on the front? I guess it is possible that those springs would coil bind before the struts ran out of travel...

I look forward to hearing your impressions of the RB320 setup once installed.

If you get a chance to test-fit a "regular" front spring to the front struts I would be very interested to hear if they fit ok.

Cheers,

Jeff

[BigSky]

Originally Posted by Rootus

The rear pink spring definitely didn't fit. The pinks were too narrow, and they would not seat flat against the perch. I'm 99.99% sure that the front perch is identical to OEM.

Dan @ Prodrive gave two reasons for the different spring perch. The first was so people wouldn't use the struts with non-Prodrive springs and then complain about the strut quality. The second reason was that Bilstein didn't have tooling for OEM Subaru perches and getting set up for it would have added too much cost.

I do not see any rubber seats for the rear struts included with the kit.

The Prodrive springs are just a hair smaller than 6 3/8" O.D. The pink springs are just a hair smaller than 6 1/8" O.D.

^ interesting indeed, the oe rubber lower seat is pretty flexible so will probably stretch that little extra amount.