Koni & BMR Fabrication Suspension Upgrade - Shock And Awe - Tech

Last but not least, Kyle installed the BMR Panhard bar, which we also received in a poly/rod combination. Per BMR's directions, you want the rod-end on the rear end bracket and the polyurethane against the chassis, to help reduce noise and vibration.

With our install complete, we loaded our Camaro and drove over to our favorite test track at Gainesville Raceway. Within the first 30-seconds of track time, we knew we had made major progress, as the Killer felt solid, flat, and capable of big speed around the course.

Of course, nothing ever goes completely as planned. After a couple of laps, we noticed our rear tire rub issues were getting worse. Luckily, we were able to remove the wheel and use a BFH (big, well-you know) to gain some clearance. Unfortunately, this is just one of the necessary evils of running a large 18-inch tire on a fourth-gen.

Using our Racepak G2X GPS datalogger, we were able to record and compare lap times from this test session to last. On the right, you can compare our Main lap (this session) to our Reference (our best lap from last time out, on the stock suspension). Up top, you can see the mph difference exiting turn 3: 75.84-mph vs. 66.06-mph, an exit speed difference of 9.78 mph!

In the low speed, super frustrating 180-degree turn, you can see how much harder we were able to brake (23.46 mph vs. 45.15 mph) into the corner, as well as how much faster we were able to exit (51.55 mph vs. 26.53 mph). These amazing differences in speed were due to the suspension allowing much more traction during braking, cornering, and accelerating.

To put those numbers in perspective, our new suspension allowed us to cut 3.289-seconds off our total lap time, with entry and exits speeds that sometimes doubled our previous efforts. Whether on the track or the street, such drastic changes in the car's handling are obvious and highly recommended!

We didn't do any formal skidpad testing during this outing, but since turn 4 and 5 use the skidpad section of the track, we were able to extrapolate the data from our runs. Check out the Lateral G difference from stock (.94) to our modified suspension (1.13). As you know, anything above 1.0 is sticky and 1.13 puts us in a small percentage of really great handling cars.

We left Gainesville Raceway feeling great; the new suspension worked well, looked fantastic, and the Killer felt ready to do serious battle with other cars. Next time, we'll test it head to head with a real Subaru STI, but we may have some other tricks in store before then!