Superstruts, Are they better?

[andy]

Yep 15's are the MIN. I have not seen anybody get away with 14's.

Um, I think there is a thread on the old forums about the design and differences re norm vs Super Struts.

THIS IS TRUE. my 14s actually fit on there. but before lowering the car i gave the wheel a spin and it got stuck.

i have air vent thingy on the inside of the rim so it was caught on that. and if you have a balancing weight on the inside you can forget it as well. cos i got another set of rims to tide me over till i got another set of rims, they didnt fit at all. so i get another set and the weights inside stopped them for working.

6 hours of work down the drain, had to put old ones back on till i get new rims......
spewing cos i got $500 worth of tyre that is of no use to me now.

[3sgte]

AE101 in North America "got" the missing hole as of 1996 MY, as the design of the control arm changed.

I fit a superstrut suspension on a Canadian built 1996 Corolla, it actually went on really smooth.

[Mr Revhead]

15" are needed. 14s DO NOT work

also the ball joints in the s/s arms are notorius for wearing. they can seize and make creaking/groaning noises and replacment arms can be $$
the ae111 arms will cost about $800nz per side.....
and the difference isnt that great... on the TTE rally cars they removed it....
so really if you dont have it, i recomend NOT fitting it. the benifits do not justify the cost

yes the brakes are bigger, these can easily be adapted to non s/s hubs.

[edgar_raphael]

I have a friend back in Malaysia, who managed to swap the whole engine from the ST205 GT4 with SuperStrut into his AE101 Corolla (Malaysia Model).

He regard the SuperStrut as a good suspension designed for rally/track use, but not as a daily driven car on normal roads. They are high maintanence as well and hard to get replacements as we know that most aftermarket suspension are made for McPherson suspensions.

How did the workshop in Malaysia managed to swap the entire SuperStrut suspension off the ST205 GT4 into an AE101 Corolla chssis is something that I have never thought would be possible. The brakes are huge as well, 15" and requires a set of minimum 16" wheels still with just milimeters of clearance from the rotors.

From his experience (not sure how true is that), the handling and steering turning characteristic of the Superstrut is different from the normal McPherson and is more precise and better, again the only drawback is the high maintanence of these setup.

Here are some pictures as proof


AE101 chassis in Malaysia, different from the rest of the world


Rotors and Rims, just few mm clearance


Here is the view from under the car, the Superstrut suspension sucessfully modded into an AE101


And not forgetting, the engine


And also a 4wd gearbox setup in a AE

[mrshin]

The superstrut setup certainly does handle better than the 'normal' setup, but I can confirm it is high maintenance. They love to wear out the moving parts on a regular basis. Kind of like an old Falcon...
Also, I'm pretty sure some of the Jap ST20x Celicas had superstrut setups in FWD form, not just the 205s.

[The Witzl]

ummm... the leftovers of the STS205 frontcut in my garage tell a different story Mr Shin; im quite certain they are supersluts.

p.s. that AE101 is farken awesome. I demand more pics. picsorban

[myne]

p.s. that AE101 is farken awesome. I demand more pics. picsorban

Yes.
I demand to see the rear end configuration and specs!

[edgar_raphael]

Here is the problem with using Superstrut and ST205 parts in a Corolla AE101, the front wheels actually extended about more than an inch for each side. Some said this is dangerous and could lead to damaging the gearbox and some said this will give strain to the driveshaft, but until today (2 years after conversion) everything is stil alright, just fcukin ugly that's all




I havent got much picture of the rear axle setup, but I can confirm that they are not of original ST205 rear axle, but off some Corolla Wagon 4wd setup which bolts on directly to the AE101 chassis without even having to drill holes to mount them. Here is the picture of the rear shaft.



Here is the not-very-clear view of the rear diff, with the small anti-roll bar



Not forgetting also the dashboard from the ST205 that was sucessfully modded into the car, with some cutting and trimming of course.



This is the last picture I have got, the engine, boosting at 0.9bar high boost making around 270-280hp on all 4 wheels.

[Mr Revhead]

yes the fwd celicas had s/s

and no, i dont believe the handling is that much better. iv driven many examples of both (i own a non s/s ae101) and for a road car its neglible, and for the track it wears too fast... lowered suspension and hard cornering ins hell on them

i still recomend avoiding it if at all possible

p.s thats a very very cool corolla!

[The Witzl]

Mr Revhead...

.... have you ever seen the suspension setup on an Audi A4?
Imagine double wishbone superstruts.

The steering response and turning ability of the car (standard) is amazing!

[Mr Revhead]

yikes what would that cost!!??

[-==L=a=N=c=E==-]

http://gtfour.supras.org.nz/superstrut.htm

some excellent reading on the superstrut setup.

Superstrut was an option on the 6th gen celica. Often found on the BEAMS variant of the celica. And was *i think* standard on the gt-four.

As far as being 'better' would only come down to some interesting suspension changes when turning. But apart from that, a lot of moving parts, which would wear out considerably faster then the same macpherson strut setup.

For all intents and purposes, they are interchangeable as well.

[mrshin]

Witzl: yes I know 205s had them, what I meant was that some of the FWD Celicas had them as well.

[3sgte]

That Corolla really reminds me of an AE110, as opposed to an AE 101.

[edgar_raphael]

Sorry could be my mistake. There is really no true model number for that corolla. Some claimed it to be an AE111 First Generation (in Malaysia) , others regard it as AE110 (like you said) and some regard it as AE101.