As time continues my search for a perfect coil setup continues.. while tein continues to be on the top of my list, i'd love to hear about people's experience with kw's variant 2... randy seems to really love the unit, yet i;ve seen very few people with it...

i'd love to know about it's properties in autocross, track, street, reliability, and is it worth the money, finally, where is the adjustment ****? my biggest complaint against the tein setup is the location of the adjustment...

thanks

 

I think I read that the v2's are built for street and more towards comfort.

So perhaps that's why you don't see too many people running them. It's too luxurious for street since lowering springs do quite well on stock struts, and not enough punch for track (?)


I'd get them if it made more sense than just getting some Koni's for
my H-Sports...but for street, I really don't think I need a firmer shock.

 

We swear by them as well...especially for those of us in the northern regions. The V2's are a happy medium for the street/autox driver. Anything beyond that (ie. track), then take a look at KW's race suspensions.

The damper adjustments on the kw's are made on the top of the coilover. The fronts are easily accessible above the strut tower, but in the rear...removal of the wheel and the two bolts in the guide supports are required. It's not bad...you'll be efficient at it in no time

 

I say go with Tein.. good price and you can get the EDFC which will save you the hassle.

 

I'm curious why people are of the opinion that a track-worthy suspension necessitates an overly harsh ride. Aren't there any systems that have low- and high-speed compression dialed in to provide the best of both worlds?

Jeff

 

Probably not. If you have that much luxury in variation, the user would
prefer to use that luxury to concentrate on the extremes.

 

from what i've read here and heard, the Bilsteins are not as harsh as the Koni/H-sport setup, and they're adjustable softer or harder. i don't understand why the KW V2 is not considered godd for track duty. if the spring rates and dampers are higher than stock wouldn't that be enough to go out to the track? can someone explain this concept please? i do like that the KW are made of stainless for longevity. also i'm looking forward to any reviews on the Tein setup because their reputation is very good and the build quality and prices i've seen are pretty competitve. even though i'll probably end up going with just H-sports and Bilstein monotubes.

 

In my opinion, KW's are the best srteet coilovers I've ever had on a car or been in someone else's with. The ride is excellent! On my 03 S, I started with the V1's, which you can read about in some of my other posts, then went to the competition 2 ways. The V1's, V2's and V3's all come with the same valving and springs, only damping adjustability changes. The V2's are rebound adjustable and that seems to be the primary need to me in a car that must do double duty as a street/autocross car. I think that with any of the V's 99% of the people will be very happy with the MCS as a dual use car with just the addition of a large rear swaybar. If that, along with the usual alignment tricks isn't enougn for you, then I think I would up the rear spring rate 1 interval from 40 to 50. ie. from 222# to 278#

 

I'm using Kw V2 on my Mini... it's good for street use and couple of track days in the summer time, the INOX material is especially good for the winter in Toronto. Myself would preferr something stiffer since I love going to tracks in the summer time. As some of you might know that the John Cooper Challenge race car suspension is also made by Kw, I took some pix when I went to the Essen show in early Dec.

 

We had KW V2's installed last week and are very happy with them so far (about 500 miles on them). The ride is better than stock, but the true test will come as soon as the Nürburgring Nordschleife opens back up this Spring :smile: I don't think we'll be disappointed though since this is the setup recommended by a local BMW/Mini dealer who sets up a lot of Ring Mini's and builds their own MCS race cars. http://www.autohausschaefer.de/mini-clubsport/

I'll let you know how it goes.