Lyle of Vinyl Styles tinted it for me. I am pretty sure that any good tint shop can do it for you, though. The reflector/housing comes out pretty easily, after which it can be handled for tinting purposes.

 

Nice man! We are like the only two slammed countryman in the states

 

When will we get a review and more photos?

 

Very soon! I have been working on a very large project for work and just wrapped up a big chunk today. If not sometime this weekend, then very early next week at the latest.

 

Good luck with work

 

Nice looks like you did my wheels and tires. What sizes did you go with and what tires and sizes did you go with? I need to know specs of your wheel and tire combo.

 

Yup. Tires are 245/40/19, but they are too wide for a very low suspension, IMO. I would go no bigger than 235 if you are running the KW. More on this in a bit . . .

 

Alright boys and girls, here is the long awaited review of the KW v3 on a FWD Countryman.

A. SPECS

2012 Countryman "S" FWD
19" NM RSe14 wheels (19" x 8" et45)
Michelin Pilot Super Sports in 245/40/19

B. INSTALL/SETUP

Shipping and service with Suspension Source was excellent. The kit arrived two days after Kris shipped it and was waiting for me on the doorstep without issues.The box arrived in perfect condition and was tightly packed.



MotoGreg help me with the initial install. He would probably be better at describing the install than me, but the coilovers bolted on flawlessly and we did not need to make any "accommodations" to get these on the FWD Countryman. From a fitment standpoint, they appear completely interchangeable between the All4 and "S" Countrymen.

The install also gave us an opportunity to see the build quality of the KWs up close and personal. They are beautifully made and of impeccable quality. The adjustment ***** for compression are on the bottom of each strut and the anodized adjustment wheels are easy to use with a very perceptible "click" when you make the adjustment. Adjusting the ride height is very easy and KW includes a special wrench for that purpose. To adjust the ride height, you simply need to loosen the perch with an included allen **** (the same **** used to adjust rebound) and then twist the perch up or down as desired.

We left the car on the factory settings, which was a "5" for compression and "9" for rebound; basically the middle of both ranges.









A day or so later, I had the car corner balanced by the guys at "Midnight Oil Motors" in Mira Mesa, California. Midnight is a specialty BMW shop that does 60% racing, 40% road work. They do 95% of their work on BMWs, but see the occasional Mini as well. Seth in particular is a Mini enthusiast and knows the cars very well. They had high praise for the KWs, complimenting their craftsmanship as well as their adjustability. The KWs combined with the build quality of the car allowed them to nail a 50/50 split from corner to corner, which they said was very impressive and rarely happens.

C. DRIVING IMPRESSIONS

Prior the KWs, I was running the NM Alpha Springs. The springs provided a pretty decent drop and vastly improved the stance of the car. The springs were a big improvement over the factory suspension insofar as they reduced body roll and cornering. Still, the rear felt a bit easy to bottom out and the springs seemed over sprung relative to the factory suspension.

I have now had over 2,000 miles on the KWs and can say, without a doubt, that it has been my favorite mod to the Countryman. I wanted to get a couple of thousand miles under my belt before doing my review, but to be honest with you, I knew the first time I drove the car with the KWs that it was the best thing I had done, and would ever do, for the car. I know MotoGreg will agree!

As I said, MotoGreg and I left the shocks on the factory settings. I'll be honest that I was a bit concerned it might be too harsh for me, since my impression of coilovers is that it is a hardcore, track-racer only suspension. I could not have been more wrong.

Indeed, the very first thing I noticed was that the car was much, much, much (can I say "much" anymore?) smoother than with the NM or factory suspension. You are low, but it feels very smooth. I cannot emphasize enough. It was night and day over the NM springs and I liked the NM springs quite a bit. But there was no comparison. All MotoGreg and I could say throughout that entire ride was how smooth it was. I was grinning from ear to ear.

It was so smooth in fact that, when we got back to his house we both immediately agreed that we could stiffen it up at least one click. We did two.

For the first few days, I continued to be impressed by how smooth the car felt. It also felt extremely well planted on the road. It is hard to describe but it truly is the best of both worlds: Extremely tight and sharp handling with no body roll, but without the "harshness" penalty. You truly don't feel like you are giving up anything either way.

Corner balancing the car kicked the handling up a notch. I want to stress that you do not NEED to corner balance the car in order to have a wonderful experience with the KWs, but doing so unlocks the magic handling. After corner balancing, the car is just scary tight through turns and corners. Understeering is greatly reduced and traction is there for days.

Here is a quick rundown of the biggest points I want to emphasize:

• I can take tight turns such as highway on-ramps and transition bridges at much, much faster speeds than before and, unlike before, I don't have to bleed over the lane lines to do it;
• The suspension smooths out "G-outs" in the road. While on the highway, for example, I would see cars in front of me go up and down one by one as they would go through a dip in the road. I would brace myself in anticipation of the dip, only to fly through it with barely anything. It just irons out the road in front of you;
• Understeering is greatly reduced; the rear pushes you through the turns a lot more than before;
• Body roll is virtually nonexistent;
• Brake dive is now a thing of the past. The car just does not seem to nose dive when you get on the brakes like before;
• Power transfer to the ground is enhanced

The best part is that it accomplishes all of the above while being as comfortable or more comfortable than the OEM suspension. If you take nothing else away from this review, I hope to at least convey how impressed I am that the suspension offers supreme handling while being extremely street comfortable. I have no doubt that if you stiffened the suspension up, it would be a phenomenal track suspension and would be hell on the highway. By that same token, with the settings in the midrange or even slightly beyond, it is an extremely sporty but practical and comfortable suspension.

D. PICS

Before (NM Alpha Springs)







After (KW v3)











E. "BUMMERS"

A review would not be complete without a couple of "downsides." There are only two things I could think of as "issues" with the KW v3:

Wheels and Tires:The KWs on the Countryman are not lovers of super wide wheel and tire setups. My front tires were rubbing ever so slightly on the perches on the front struts and I had to raise the suspension slightly in order to clear the perches. A more aggressive offset will not help matters as you will start to rub excessively on the wheel arch on the outside. The solution would be to run narrower tires, and when the 245s wear out, I am going to bump down to 235 or 225 tires.

I don't think this has anything to do with the KWs per se; mostly just a cautionary tail that if you are going to go really low, the Countryman's wheel wells just won't let you get too crazy with the wheel and tire widths.

Rebound Adjustment: My only real gripe with the KWs is that the rebound adjustment for the rear struts cannot, as far as I can tell, be accessed without removing the strut since it is located on the top of the strut. The compression adjustments for both can be reached fairly easily simply by jacking the car up a bit. And the rebound on the front can be reached through the open strut towers in the bonnet. But the rears are inaccessible, at least to my eyes. There might be a way to cut a little access hatch in the boot liner so that you can reach the top of the rear struts (this is very common for people who run KWs on their M3s, for example) but the guys at Midnight weren't sure if this was possible.

F. FINAL THOUGHTS

I see a lot of debates on the forum about whether to go with coilovers or springs for lowering. The paradigm seems to be that springs are for street and daily driving and coils for track. In my opinion, the KW v3s put that logic to rest: If you want to lower in comfort, I cannot see anyone doing any better than the KW v3. You get all the benefits of a performance suspension (razor sharp handling, snappy responsiveness, cornering on rails) but with the comfort of the factory suspension. It's seriously freaking magic.

The only real "drawback" of coilovers like the KW v3 is the cost. But the money is worth it. In fact, as much as I have obsessed about go-fast parts like exhausts and intercoolers, the KWs have made me realize that, from this point forward, suspension will be my very first mod and the thing I prioritize over everything else. Let's face it: You can't mash the pedal around town too long before you are well above the speed limit. Horsepower and torque are fun, but there is a limit to its practicality on the street. But your suspension is constantly in use and a quality suspension makes a big difference in your comfort and enjoyment. For me, it will always be a priority and, having been spoiled by the KW v3, I don't see myself ever settling for anything less than a good set of quality coilovers.

Hope this helps and thanks for your patience! Questions? Fire away!

Edit: I forgot to add a bit about how I feel the KWs ride on the FWD given that they were officially intended for the All4. Obviously, I can't speak to how the suspension would feel on an All4 versus a FWD car. But as my failure to mention this in my initial post should indicate, the best I can say is that I don't notice anything that feels odd or out of place. It's ironic I would forget to mention this since it was my biggest concern going in, but the suspension does not feel out of place on the FWD at all. It feels perfectly matched to the car, in my opinion.

That said, the guys at Midnight Oil Motors reassured me that if the springs felt overmatched for my vehicle, it would be as easy as buying some aftermarket 60 mm springs like Swift springs and putting them on there. I don't feel this is necessary, but the option exists for those of you who are thinking of throwing these on there but afraid it might be a tad off for your liking.

 

Great review Hujan, thank you! And as I read that review, somewhere at another location, my wife got a cold shudder, like something was about to happen..

 

Yeah, I guess that is the third "bummer" about the KWs: High potential for causing your significant other to roll her eyes and sigh.

On the other hand, while she might complain about me spending money on the car, she very much likes the ride on the KWs. So smooth!

 

Just to clarify, the "before" photos are of the car lowered with NM springs, not stock.

As far as the install goes, it was basically the same as stock components, nothing had to be modified or done differently. And that's good news because the instructions were in German.

As Hujan said, we put them on, set the ride height to a setting that was even lower than the NM springs, left the damping in the standard settings, and went for a ride. There is a stretch of road by my house that was being worked on, and it was in really bad condition, so bad that I literally have to crawl through there in my lowered Genesis, so I suggested we drive through there to check out the worst case scenario, road wise. To say I was shocked at the ride quality is an understatement. I've had a lot of lowered cars in my day, but never one that rode plusher than stock. I was blown away.

 

Yes, good point, Greg. I edited the original post above the pics to clarify that I was on NM springs prior to the KW install. Sorry for any confusion; thanks for clarifying that.

And thanks for the help with the install. MotoGreg is a terrific mechanic and an asset to the community in many, many ways, folks.

 

Kristina "Kris",

I've got a All4S, I'm interested in the CO kit, any specials for a fitment try?.

Cheers

Flavio

 

KW makes a kit for the All4S. Sorry. The part number is 35220096. It is a V3 coilover kit. These are out of stock til the beginning of the new year.

 

Thanks for the very thorough review... It was a nice read.


Has anyone else tried this and have an opinion?