if anyone happens to have a copy of the mag and can post up or let me know what is the manufacturer's recommended settings for KW Clubsports ( stated on the right hand bottom on the right sided page) I will be most grateful.

 

I have been looking everywhere and can't seem to find the article either. Please do post the article or web link.

 

Street (0 is softest) Front: 8 clicks, 8/15 Rear: 8 clicks 8/15
Track (0 is softest) Front: 8 clicks, 8/15 Rear: 10 clicks, 10/15
Ride height (inches from wheel center to outer fender edge) Front: 13.13 Rear: 13.13
Camber (deg) Front: -2.0 Rear: -2.3
Toe(mm) Front: 0.0 Rear: 0.0
Caster (deg) Front: Stock Rear: N/A

Hope that helps!!

 

Are you talking about the Sport Compact Car shootout? I saw a reference to it in the SCC 20th anniv. issue. (Can you believe SCC has been around 20 years?) I believe the shootout was in the August issue. My subscription started in September unfortunately. And this particular article is not on the SCC web site. (Although the site does have an editorial referring to the shootout and a review of the SPOON coilover, possibly from that article.)

 

Its the June 2008 - Volume 20, NO 06. I have it sitting at my desk at work, hence my post 2 above.

 

Sweet thanks I am going to purchase this issue, it should help me decide what coilovers to buy...

FYI, you can purchase old issues at sportcompactcaronline.com under back issues, just in case others are looking to buy this too. $6 per issue.

 

8/15 clicks and 10/15 clicks...but is that rebound or compression clicks?

I have the article too. I think if you take a closer look and read the ENTIRE article instead of just reading the data, you'll find out that the SETUP was to blame for most of the other cars performing unfavorably.

One showed crash damage. One had a slipping clutch and old brakes. One had a hasty alignment. Some suspensions had 18kg mm rates...but they were forced to run on crappy street tires.

Some of the alignment settings were also kinda wild. They were claiming that cars with negative toe were set up conservatively and understeering? Wouldn't that mean that they were toed out? That's not conservative..and they wouldn't understeer. Stock S2000s with positive toe have a tendency to oversteer. Some cars also had some crazy -4.5 deg camber spec. according to the spec sheet. The actual camber didn't look nearly that bad. Why the F would you run -4.5 deg of camber anyway. Obviously, the car won't grip...especially on shitty street tires.

I wouldn't put as much investment into the article as some people are doing. It is, however, a good guide if you're looking at spring rate data and damper specs and the shock dyno graphs as long as you know how to read them. That's really about it. I wouldn't buy into or discard any of the suspensions based on the lap time data.

If you want the manufacturer settings, look at your owners manual from KW.

 

[QUOTE=B serious,Aug 26 2008, 11:43 AM] 8/15 clicks and 10/15 clicks...but is that rebound or compression clicks?

 

Didn't the Spoon set-up (Alex's car) win the shoot out? Sorry I never read the article, but I thought thats what I heard in the post on the So Cal forums.

 

Yeah, they even said in the article that the condition of some of the cars was to blame for their poor performance. Maxrev also did a comparison btw these (the KW Clubsports) and the new HKS Supermax III (or whatever) coilovers, search that (or PM him maybe), it's a good writeup from a guy who races an S2000 competitively and knows what he's talking about (FWIW he picked the HKS for track coilovers, the Clubsports for street coilovers). He's actually selling the Clubsports that he used for the comparison for only like $2k (they go for $3k new)!