If you have done the basics such as proper tyres, poly wishbone bushes renew all ball joints you will love a KW on the street. The no maintenance requirement was key for me but in all honesty the V1 I run did feel a little soft to start with. Having replaced the front and rear bars for eibach has made a massive difference and the car is very neutral now. You can feel the limit very quickly and hold it there.

I still need to dial out the preload with adjustable end links but have no doubt this will be perfect for the road. Straight line comfort and solid cornering with minimal roll.

 

^ Finally another post about COILOVERS. I was thinking people missed the point, I've got spring/shock combo. I was asking about coilovers.

I think I'd like something with adjustable damping while I hear the V1's are great coils.

 

I have the CROSS coilovers on mine, and frankly I find the ride to be a little bit punishing on the street (although it's great for autocrossing). My wife has a MINI that's the same year, make and model as mine with the stock suspension so I can make a good comparison between the two setups.

 

Those are the units I was looking into heavily. I have gotten good feedback from those with CROSS that if swapped with different spring rates it did wonders for the ride...

 

That may be true - I had one of the earlier CROSS setups, so they may have revised the spring rates since then. I think mine are 393 lb/in up front and 225 lb/in for the rears.

Also, one man's "punishing" ride may be another man's "just right". Coastal Virginia has some awful roads, but I may have been more willing to put up with the ride if I lived somewhere that had better roads.

 

That's the truth. Couldn't say that enough!

I think the KW v1 are the best bang for the buck coil-over. They are really all one ever needs for daily driving. Anything else would be overkill unless you like to spend that money for the full customization.

 

If your looking to save a few bucks the ST Suspensions coilover is a KW V1 but with a galvanized body and 5 year warranty.

 

Trying to be price conscience but not really interested in entry level coilovers. I want something that I'd have a bit more of adjustablilty over these, and stainless is practically a must in any climate that gets snow/salt.

 

The galvanized body holds up very well in the snow/salt. Just an idea I would toss out there for the guys looking for V1s but not wanting to spend the cash.

 

My setup is a custom KW V3, the ride is great and I drive in and around NYC no problem. I have swapped springs directly through KW My setup pictured is just under 2k if you have the money I say do it. That way you have the option to dial it in for the track as well

 

When you say you got springs through KW what exactly do you mean? Do you mean you got the setup through them or you swapped out springs through them?

 

I have KW V2's and they ride awesomely, i've done 60,000k's on them DD + a few track days and they've been nothing but wonderful

 

Can't go wrong with KW that's for sure!

 

My question now is what coilover companies offer special/different spring rates?

 

I run AST 5100 coils. They run interchangeable linear springs from swift or hyperco which comes in all different spring rates from mild to race. They are also dyno tested and either swift or hyperco will send you closely matched pairs.

Mine are 450 in/lb front and back which is in the middle of the full race setup. I would run them a little softer for the street.

 

Do AST's have adjustable damping?

 

Yes.

They are a full inverted mono tube design and all adjustments are done on the bottom. very well made coil, but kind of expensive.

 

Coilovers, as I said before, are for special applications, like racing. Some folks like to use them to "stance" out their cars (I find this to be a sin against cars, get over it). However someone looking for ride quality would be PERFECTLY satisfied running a good shock spring combo (a huge amount mentioned in this thread). Perhaps that's why the thread moved in that direction.

I'm pleased to see folks running really nice suspension setups, I'd be very surprised if these cars were only used for daily driving.

please dont take this as "youre doing it wrong", more like "your not going to get what you want this way"

 

I agree with you that perhaps many suspension setups are a little too of an overkill for the street. If someone wants to spend the money, I do not see anything wrong with it. It may not be the biggest bang for the buck.

However, most coils are made for the street. For a full racing setup, I would not be using coils such as megan, KW or H&R etc (just to name a few, I have nothing against them). They are just not made for that extreme environment and they are not easily upgradable and fully rebuildable. When you get into race, you should be looking at Motons, JRZ, AST, and perhaps kw competitions at the very low end.

 

I'll look into them. Yes expensive but if they're really worlds better than a Megan, ST, or H&R then I can do that...

I agree with what you're saying. Only problem is I'm not interested in a spring/shock setup. I have H&R springs with Koni adjustable shocks on my car right now. They are actually pretty dang nice. Yet the fact of the matter is I can't do what I want to with them. I can't get over 1.5 degrees of negative camber with them. While the car is a daily driver, it does see track time every year. I don't care for the fact that I can get good track alignment specs out of them.

So I'm looking for something with adjustability and that can get my there with camber as well. I don't want a full blown track coilover and thus I still need it to be comfortable on the streets. If there was a way I could get close to -3 degrees with my current setup I would do that in a heartbeat! But I can't so I've gotta look into other options...

 

I have the AST 5100 since the beginning of the year. I changed from the Eibach Multipro R1. And previous to that I had the MCS sport suspension. I have driven on megans, konis FSD, JCW and others. The Car is basically a track car that I drive on the street. I would highly recommend the ASTs. They are reasonably comfortable for the street when you dial the dampening down to 2-3. And it is transformed into a track hugger when you dial the dampening up to 6-9 (depending on the track).

Call Terry Fair at Vorshlag and talk to him about them. He and his wife races with ASTs. AST is a full no compromise race coil, built for the track by racers. But amazingly pliable for the street even with really hard spring rates. It is fully upgradeable to 5200 or 5300 and fully rebuildable if necessary. and they have a race friendly warranty.

But they are kind of costly.

 

Duvinclunk, forget to mention, if you use Vorshlag camber plates, you can get close to -3 camber but I think you are better off around -2 to -2.5, something in that range. With a lowered car, and a great suspension, the understeer front end seems to be a thing of the past wih those settings and you are not introducing too much initial turnin and thus have oversteer in a constant radius turn.

 

This makes me nervous.

Good to know. I don't necessarily want to run -3 but would just like to know I can get there.

All I know now is I'm running a close-to-factory alignment with my Koni adjustable and H&R springs and understeer is terrriibbllee. Just plain bad. I need to start fine tuning!

 

If you do not have camber plates now, adding those will help you get much more camber. Good valving on shocks or coils do really help too. But shocks or coils do not help you much with camber.

 

I've had the Kw V2 on the car now for about four months and I pretty satisfied with the ride quality and handling.

But the squeaking and clunking from the rear end is killing me. I've had the poly bushings lubed after about two months and that made it a little quieter but now the squeaking is back along with a clunking when I go over any uneven road surface. Is anyone else experiencing this?