I was browsing my latest copy of EVO and found a advert for KW Suspensions in Germany

Here is their website for the US

KW USA

They have have a 2-way (rebound and compression) damper set for our car for under 2K (list price $1975). Not sure about the spring rates though.

Anyone wanna try a set?

The company at least looks top notch from the info on the website.

 

I had a set of their coilovers on my VW....they were very good coilovers and use Konis for shocks. I had nothing but good things to say about them, but be ready for a pretty rough ride....they dampen the fool out of their systems(you can adjust it though).

 

I just had a set of KW Variant III's installed on my 04. I really like them alot. The handling is much more predictable & neutral. The ride is a *little* stiffer than I'd like for street use, but I'm actually going to KW in Vancouver, BC to have my car fine tuned by their engineers to see if we can get a more "streetable" set-up.

The springs rates I have are 515lbs all around, and the variant III's doesn't use Koni inserts. Some of the V2 applications use Koni dampers. The V3's use KW's proprietary dampers, valving and stainless steel in the construction.

They are a top-notch company to work with.

-Gary

 

Those are what I am interested in. I am curious on how your tuning goes.

I am also curious on how these compare to the JRZ's, Penske etc as they appear to be a real motorsports company offering a damper set that is priced out near the Japanense stuff. I would like a better set of dampers with more consistent damping then the JICs I have now.

George

Maybe the S2KI marketplace guys could pick them up as a line to sell?

 

well, I have a set of JRZs for sale in the For Sale section, if you want those... they are single adjustable, and are valved for fairly soft springs but will give you a really nice street ride and good control on the track.

 

I think I need stiffer springs than that.

My Original post was to determine if the KW dampers are a viable alternative to the JRZ's, and other high end dampers, considering their cost.

 

Since someone raised the issue...we're inquiring about becoming KW dealers and are waiting to hear back from them.

On the surface these look like a decent entry to the market but I don't think you can reasonably expect a sub $2000 system to compete with the JRZ or Moton triple adjustable setups costing twice as much.

Since KW makes full-race systems with custom valving, I'd expect those might be on par with the full-blown race systems from others but the real secret is in calibrating the valving and that's something that our specialists here in the States have done. I'm not sure if anyone out there has done the math for the KW systems.

 

Thanks for looking into it Lude. These certainly could be a better alternative than some of the JDM crap on the market.

I emailed them as to spring rates etc, hopefully they will get back to me soon.

 

Then revalve them -- one of the benefits of high-end shocks like JRZs and Motons is that you can revalve them to match the damping to your application and spring rates.

Steve

 

Being that KW is a German company and has to meet TUV testing requirements you might well be right. At least they have to prove they're good enough to put on the road on the autobahn (from a manufacturing quality standpoint).

Let us know what you find out as well