Review of KW Variant 3
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From: Sunnyvale
Review of KW Variant 3
Hi guys,
I did my last track day in the s2000. I wanted to give the KWs and my Wilwoods a workout before I sold the car.
I'm running the KW variant 3s, with a Gendron front sway bar, 225/255 18" dunlop supersports on 18x8/18x9 OZ Superleggeras. Lowered a little over an inch. I am using the B compound pads on the 6 piston 13" rotor wilwoods.
This is the track config we used:
First, the suspension.
As a background, I've run a lot of suspensions. On my car, there have been JRZ singles, Tein Flex with EDFC, Penske D/A, and the KWs. I've about 10 different spring rates on the various shocks, too. Thus far I haven't found something that was both comfy on the street and worked well on the track. The Teins basically sucked on everything but perfectly smooth surfaces, (which we all know don't exist on the racetrack or on the street), the JRZs were decent on the street but didn't have enough travel to be lowered at all or enough damping to handle stiffer springs (they could have been revalved), and the Penske beat me up on the street at anything lower than stock height (autoX valved and stock length), and had too much low speed rebound (which I couldn't adjust out) which resulted in packing down in bumpy corners (like turns 14/15 at thill). I'm sure I could've changed the Penske's to digressive valving to make them better in both regards.
Anyway, I got some KW Variant 3s from the Go Fast Labs. They are extremely nicely built, everything fits nicely, etc. They reuse the stock spring perches, which is a bit of a pain because you have to take your stock suspension apart, but not too bad. The install went very smoothly. A tip, make sure you stick the rear rebound adjustor on before you install the coilovers, it works just fine under the fuel filler neck but you gotta get it on before you stick them in. The bump adjustor is a pain to get to, but possible with the car on ramps both front and rear, but you end up adjusting it kinda blind. The bump adjustments are on the bottom of the shock and pretty hard to get to, you adjust it by sticking a pin and turning it, 1/4 turn at a time.
I initially set the KWs to the recommended settings (1.5 turns from full stiff on front rebound, 2.5 turns from full stiff on rear rebound, .75 turns from full stiff on compression front and rear). After some on ramp tuning, I increased the rear rebound 1/2 turn, to 2 turns from full stiff. This suspension is firm but extremely well damped, small bumps get soaked right up, big bumps are cushioned nicely. What really impressed me was that they seemed completely oblivious to bumps in corners, the car just soaked them up and kept on going. There is very little body roll, and the car takes a set immediately.
When I went to the track, I decided that I'd just try out things where they were and ended up being extremely happy with the suspension the way it was. It's very confidence inspiring. The on track behavior is very similar, the car is very stable and forgiving. Turn in is extremely crisp, the car takes a set immediately and is very predictable. It's easy to catch when you goof, and seems very neutral and stable even under trail braking. It even puts power down really well and smoothly. The Star Mazda turn was a problem for my car before, it had trouble putting down power smoothly, coming out of it. With the KWs, it was very stable underbraking and transitioned to throttle without any drama at all.
Pulled off the track and drove home. This suspension is without a doubt the one I'd recommend. It's the first sub $2500 suspension that I've had on the car that seems to work on the track... AND, it works well on the street. Can't ask for much more!
I did my last track day in the s2000. I wanted to give the KWs and my Wilwoods a workout before I sold the car.
I'm running the KW variant 3s, with a Gendron front sway bar, 225/255 18" dunlop supersports on 18x8/18x9 OZ Superleggeras. Lowered a little over an inch. I am using the B compound pads on the 6 piston 13" rotor wilwoods.
This is the track config we used:
First, the suspension.
As a background, I've run a lot of suspensions. On my car, there have been JRZ singles, Tein Flex with EDFC, Penske D/A, and the KWs. I've about 10 different spring rates on the various shocks, too. Thus far I haven't found something that was both comfy on the street and worked well on the track. The Teins basically sucked on everything but perfectly smooth surfaces, (which we all know don't exist on the racetrack or on the street), the JRZs were decent on the street but didn't have enough travel to be lowered at all or enough damping to handle stiffer springs (they could have been revalved), and the Penske beat me up on the street at anything lower than stock height (autoX valved and stock length), and had too much low speed rebound (which I couldn't adjust out) which resulted in packing down in bumpy corners (like turns 14/15 at thill). I'm sure I could've changed the Penske's to digressive valving to make them better in both regards.
Anyway, I got some KW Variant 3s from the Go Fast Labs. They are extremely nicely built, everything fits nicely, etc. They reuse the stock spring perches, which is a bit of a pain because you have to take your stock suspension apart, but not too bad. The install went very smoothly. A tip, make sure you stick the rear rebound adjustor on before you install the coilovers, it works just fine under the fuel filler neck but you gotta get it on before you stick them in. The bump adjustor is a pain to get to, but possible with the car on ramps both front and rear, but you end up adjusting it kinda blind. The bump adjustments are on the bottom of the shock and pretty hard to get to, you adjust it by sticking a pin and turning it, 1/4 turn at a time.
I initially set the KWs to the recommended settings (1.5 turns from full stiff on front rebound, 2.5 turns from full stiff on rear rebound, .75 turns from full stiff on compression front and rear). After some on ramp tuning, I increased the rear rebound 1/2 turn, to 2 turns from full stiff. This suspension is firm but extremely well damped, small bumps get soaked right up, big bumps are cushioned nicely. What really impressed me was that they seemed completely oblivious to bumps in corners, the car just soaked them up and kept on going. There is very little body roll, and the car takes a set immediately.
When I went to the track, I decided that I'd just try out things where they were and ended up being extremely happy with the suspension the way it was. It's very confidence inspiring. The on track behavior is very similar, the car is very stable and forgiving. Turn in is extremely crisp, the car takes a set immediately and is very predictable. It's easy to catch when you goof, and seems very neutral and stable even under trail braking. It even puts power down really well and smoothly. The Star Mazda turn was a problem for my car before, it had trouble putting down power smoothly, coming out of it. With the KWs, it was very stable underbraking and transitioned to throttle without any drama at all.
Pulled off the track and drove home. This suspension is without a doubt the one I'd recommend. It's the first sub $2500 suspension that I've had on the car that seems to work on the track... AND, it works well on the street. Can't ask for much more!
) from getting all I can from the stock suspension but it's still nice to read some good first hand experience with what's available.
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Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 2,061
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From: Sunnyvale
The stock tophats and spring perches are reused. gfactor did a great install write up and I didn't duplicate his efforts, just search for "coilover install" in under the hood and you'll find his thread to see what I'm talking about.