what route to go.

[Martian]

Hi,

I own a 1993 WRX Wagon that apart from the exhaust and brakes is standard. Its really good to drive at an everyday speed. I dont need to brake to go around corners at sensible speeds, there are no knocking sounds, the suspension is old, my mechanic reckons its either the oe setup or well over a decade old. The car has done 75000ish miles in total. I guess all the bushes etc are original items.  The Wagon suspension is very soft, loads of body roll, and also understeers a lot, at speeds it shouldnt really. I have 16" speedlines with toyo proxe t1r tyres with loads of grip left.

The roads I drive in shropshire are shockingly bad, pot holes and folds in the tarmac, dips that jar the suspension, I also go into Wales where the roads are much better but mountain B roads. I will probably never go to a track day.

Im not sure what to do first.

Replace all the bushes, ive heard people say that polyflex? bushes are best for bad roads, rather than the hard nylon bushes.

I cant afford the really expensive coilovers and dont want a rock hard ride for obvious reasons, so coilovers are out. Im thinking koni yellows with a spring set, not sure what yet.

Ive also heard pro's and cons for the whole arb upgrade. Im leaning against it at the moment. If my front is stepping out possibly too early, I dont want my back end to go aswell. I would rather get a possible problem sorted then further down the road try upgrades.

Front and rear strut braces. Some people swear by them, others dont. Has anyone tried them on a standard suspension wagon?

To give some more background info,  A friend was in a Kia Seoul and cornered faster than me on nearly every single corner on a 9 mile stretch of road. I was just understeering every single one of them. In the correct gear as fast as possible with no understeer he made quite a gap between us. The Kia Seoul was bog standard but only a couple of years old. 

I have never needed to do anything like this before, So any advice or experience would be very welcome!

Thanks