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smartzuuk

The lifted 451 thread

47 posts in this topic

Daystar who makes the kit never ever fessed about about the pitch issue. No issue on my, or rather the future owner's car as we caught this and used the right bolt to be sure.The undertray fits, but not great. In a perfect world, you would modify the tray to make it longer, as you now have some contact on it, and it had developed a small crack. You just dropped things 2" lower.But all in all, and I just don't have enough money or room to open a Volvo, Suzuki, Subaru and smart car lot, the lifted 451 with 4 rear wheels and all the same size tires was a great success. The last trip down from PG I managed in 7 hours and 25 minutes including a half hour of stops. The cars handles well, and the bigger snow tires were awesome. Fuel economy was 6.8 L/100 km over 6,000 kms in January... that's a bit worse than the 6.3 to 6.5 I recall getting before the lift. This is at high speed. (100 kmh real trip average, meaning you did 120 when possible)I'll get better fuel economy in the Impreza with regular fuel, not that that was a motivator per se. That 451 was the longest I kept any of my smarts time wise (3.5 years).

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I think it has a home on the island, not sure if in Nanaimo or elsewhere, but someone is getting a nice car.... Yes... someone else spotted me and lifted my wipers up I think... or was it the Corolla I parked close to?I am back in Abbotsford now.My new name at CsC will be smartzuub I guess. But I still have a Grand Vitara kicking around.

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"Replacing the 451 is a 2012 Impreza sedan, silver, base model, 5 speed manual"I'm curious. Why not CVT? Better rated fuel consumption, and you have it on your other Subaru IIRC.

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Years ago, I came within a hair of buying a Subaru Impreza - lovely car - for my wife. Went to the dealership with $30,000 cash in my briefcase (ah, those were the days!) but in more than 15 minutes of "kicking tires", not one of the three coffee-drinking sales people so much as acknowledged my existence. So I went across the road and bought a Chevrolet. Bil :sun:

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Because I have a CVT in the Legacy is precisely why I didn't want CVT in the Impreza. Base model does not come with paddles on the Impreza CVT... another reason. Also, the AWD system is different between each transmission. I love how the manual drives. It is the wickedest handling car I have ever owned. The Legacy is nice, but still has squishy tires that really wander. That must be remedied.

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I shared your "TPM Victoria does not order BRABUS cars" story with them today, so it is the supreme irony that about a year later you got a Sube from their Nanaimo shop. I will look out for the ex-Keith mobile.

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A year ago, the pure was offered $11,000 trade.... this year, a CL ad running for months at $8500 yielded one reply by e-mail. What can I say. The Sube lease residual is 50% after 4 years and 96,000 kms! The payment with ZERO down is $332 including the 12% tax.

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Smartzuuk ,can you phone me at 604-250-0236 about lifting my 2008 ? Many questions. I'm in Burnaby.

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On 2019-12-16 at 10:54 PM, HRD said:

Bought a kit , hope to do it after Christmas .

can you advise me where you bought the kit and how much, I am wanting about a 2 inch lift for my 2011

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Bumping this one back up, as I get requests once a year from someone interested in lifting their smart up a little bit and putting in some larger tires...

 

 

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Gotta love a good flaming....lol
I didn't get past the second page and gave up...lol.   I have been building off-roading Jeeps for 40 years, and yes back in the day folks would flame anyone who didn't drive a Jeep or Toyota.....or a military vehicle of any kind....lol.  Screw 'em..! 

The best Jeep I had was a 47 Willy's Cj2a.....you could go anywhere with it besides deep muddy ruts left by a set of 44's. You just straddled them and went around them while they winched out!  Or wiggled my way through the trees to get to the front...lol.

I also have a lift kit,ready to install when the time comes, also the steel rims for the taller wider tires.  All done to run up past inuvik to Tuktiuktuc and back. 1000 kms of gravel road....why not! Before you ask why...lol.

 

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On 11/2/2011 at 3:49 PM, smartzuuk said:

Well, perhaps... especially if I pay per person at the alignment shop here in Abbotsford.But a beater wouldn't be as fun, or reliable....Okay, really quick, here's some initial photos, car is not clean, alignment wasn't done yet, and yes, I have a small rub on the bottom edge of the spolier, but other than that, I was reasonably satisfied. I haven't driven it yet with the alignment done (and they said it was out of whack big time, but is now good...)

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how are you rubbing? Everyone I have talked to that had the rear steelies on all four swear that it never rubs! Was this the front fender? What size are the tires? Do you think the spacers have something to do with the rubbing?

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On 11/2/2011 at 6:06 PM, smartzuuk said:

Okay, back from a short drive with the alignment done. I will post the alignment result too, just so you can see.Handles pretty close to stock now. It had a decent amount of sway before the alignment was done.I am running 25mm spacers on the rear, and none on the front. I am going to see how I like the handling on a longer distance tonight or tomorrow before I spend more time playing with spacers.We trimed the front spoiler which cured 'most' of the rub, but there remains a tiny bit of rub on the moulded mount on the front panels that the spolier attaches to. so a bit of playing around yet to resolve that. Most US owners have been installing 175/65/15 on the front and 185/65/15 on the rear. I wanted the same size all the way around, so I went with 185/65/15. Now, one vendor in the States states you can fit 175/70/15 on the front with no rubbing, but there are no 175/70 in existence that I can find. And 185/65/15 have a slightly smaller diameter anyway. Well... I'll get this small issue resolved.I've a few more pics to post later tonight.

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OhOk get it now. You were thrown off by the tire sizing. The first to number both contribute to the height of the tire, not just the middle. Here’s how I found out:

 

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

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5 hours ago, Podracer22 said:

OhOk get it now. You were thrown off by the tire sizing. The first to number both contribute to the height of the tire, not just the middle. Here’s how I found out:

 

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

What size tires are you running and what rims....just asking as it's the next purchase when the time comes. I am either thinking 195/65-15 or 205/70-15  with the daystar lift on the front and sub frame spacing for the rear of the equal amount.
Also what tread pattern did you decide?  Make etc..?

Thanks.

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