Well, this thread ceased to be fun.
LabMonkey builds off-road suspensions designed to be literally bomb-proof, so I'm pretty sure he knows what he's talking about with regards to what decisions Subaru may or may not make that would actually improve suspension strength. Which is to say, the geometry has very little to do with strength. The thing he's missing is tact.
The fact is the rally guys are breaking parts because the *aftermarket* parts designed to work with the newer suspension designs aren't as strong as the older aftermarkets parts designed to work with the older suspension. Without the WRC and actual factory racing efforts to develop the racing parts (Subaru's current US rally support is *not* an actual factory team... it's just the factory giving parts to privateers), it takes a while to figure out how to make them strong enough to survive rally. Plus, without factory money involved, it's up to the much poorer race teams to fund this development. So, it's not at all surprising that newer cars break stuff more than the older, better developed cars. Christ, just typing that makes it seem obvious.
Wanting a better suspension design for racing should be about wanting the car to handle better. Because that's what the geometry can improve. Wanting the suspension to be stronger is a request better made to the folks at DMS or Ohlin, or to the FIA to allow people to swap out more factory parts in the rules. There's no reason you can't build a bomb-proof current gen Impreza rally car within the current car's geometry. The only thing Subaru can do is beef up factory parts so there are less things that need to be swapped on a rally car... which Subaru will never do because a) it doesn't help their bottom line and b) the more parts that need to be swapped, the more replacement parts they sell to privateers. If the current gen cars are failing, it's not Subaru's fault... it's the fault of whatever suspension parts have or haven't been put on the car. If you rally guys want to break less often, swap in better/stronger parts... you know, like every other rally team ever.
You're just spoiled because the WRX
used to be a factory homologation car.
Again, Subaru's "factory" effort here is just with the supply of cheap/free replacement OEM parts. They *are not* building factory race cars... you can't fault them for designing perfectly road-capable suspension parts and then not uprating them to survive rally. There is no incentive for them to do so like there was when they were actually building WRC cars. It's a shame, but like I said earlier, there's no real evidence that Subaru's policy is going to change with the new WRX. It's just a sportier looking version of the current WRX. It's not being built for a factory racing effort, despite that one comment made back in June 2011.
Also, what's with the talk of dual a-arm suspension? I *wish* the Impreza had dual a-arms. AFAIK, the Impreza still has a multi-link suspension of sorts. The MacStrut has been replaced with an upper control arm, but there is still a trailing link:
If the car had a true A-arm suspension (like the Miata for example) that
would be ideal for motorsports, since it means the camber change coupled to the vehicle roll can be totally controlled:
