KW V3 Coilovers Released for FR-S / BRZ
 

http://www.tirerack.com/suspension/s...3&autoModClar=

• Front and Rear fitment
  Ride Height: Threaded Adjustment
  Avg low 20-50mm F & 20-50mm R.
  
  Price: $2,500.00 (kit)
  Estimated Availability: 06/05/12
  Manufacturer Part #: 35258004
  
  
• Adjustable (and independent reacting) rebound and compression damping

Attachment 7180

oh wow awesome

I wonder if they'll make Clubsports.

and of course i'm the only one who thinks KW V3s are grossly overpriced

They will sell for around 2k street price most likely. What makes them overpriced?

Yeah its pretty standard pricing for a quality coilover, with both rebound and compression adjustment.

i wouldnt really trust something with both compression and rebound adjustments for 2k to have any sort of repeatability in the valving and that makes these seem like a waste of money. on the other hand what are our options?

IDK, they have a pretty good reputation. Though the rear springs are progressive, which kind of sucks. Clubsports would definitely be better for tracking. That said I have never used them.

All steel shock body vs. Alum. They market it as being better and durable but they are in fact cheaper to produce and heavier.

They don't have an independently adjustable spring preload vs. height perch adjustment.

I also don't consider having the compression and rebound independently adjustable a plus. I don't know anyone that actually tracks their car as a (weekend track guy) who DOES NOT find having to remove your tire to adjust the compression convenient. It's actually a pain in the ass. If you like taking off your tire everytime you want to make a dial adjustment then fine.. this won't be a con for you. No, don't ask me to reach my hand in there cuz not everyone has small hands. I prefer to stick to the standard 1-knob fixed ratio compression/rebound adjustment. Yes, it's not perfect but i'm not Tsuchiya either.

Opinions will vary on this one.. but the spring rates are too soft for any serious track days. Yes, they ride great on the street. :clap: for that but put any soft spring with a properly valved shock and you'll have a nice ride too.

They do their homework on the valving (I wish more coilover companies did as much R&D) but there's nothing special about their valving. They don't have some crazy patent on something new.

Personally, i'm interested to see what BC Racing and/or DG-5 will come up with for this car at probably half the price. Ok DG-5s will be more expensive; sure. I'm not saying the KWs are bad per say... but for $2400? fine.. $2k..? no thanks. If i'm looking at a 2400 coilover set I might as well bump up my budget and look at Ohlins, Motons, JRZ. There should be good options for the BRZ/FRS at $1-1.5k but this remains to be seen. My biggest concern is that a lot of vendors will release parts just to see what sticks and will slack off on doing their due diligence (i.e. R&D).

My 0.02 pesos

Don't know where you buy your coilovers at but I have RCE Tarmac IIs and they cost me $3k, so $2.5k is reasonable for V3s. Ohlins and Motons, at least for STIs and EVOs cost around $5-6k. If you want a $1k coilover you are going to get what you pay for.

Agreed on a bit of that. I've driven v3s on Autocross and track and they've worked fine. They are easy to adjust without taking off the wheel and I'm not small nor do I have small hands. I've done so with v3s with no problem.

As you said they do their research at least unlike the majority of other low to mid level payers.

Spring rates are very easy to change and they can be custom valved at little expense.

Since they'll really sell for 2-2.1k I won't compare them to 3-6k shocks. For the 2k spot I think they are a good option though. It remains to be seen if anything else in that range will be better.

I would definitely rather have Clubsports over v3 though.

:confused0068:Excellent!!! I wonder if this has been updated on the aftermarket parts list thread! great post! great coilovers!

KW V3s have always been a great option for a street car that sees a lot of track or auto-x time. Durable, good valving, plenty of travel. Separate compression and rebound adjustment at that price point is very impressive and a nice plus if you know what you're doing.

FYI for a single adjustable you don't want the knob to adjust both of those...generally it's better when it ONLY adjusts rebound.

Also, I prefer coilovers that do not have independently adjustable spring preload vs. height perch adjustment.

There are a few things we like to change for our custom RCE Tarmac coilovers that makes them a little more hardcore but KW always gives us a great foundation to work from.

:thumbsup: to KW!

- Andrew

^^ re: preload, I know.. some people like the increased droop travel. Maybe i'm just old school :) *shrug*

I'm very eager to be proven wrong. That just means more selection for us; the consumer. I'm just shocked KW is selling their V3s for $2400. With all the volume this car should do i'd have thought their intro price would be closer to $1800. I'd consider them for $1800 and like I said, I don't think they are bad. It's just sometimes annoying to see the "Group Think" mentality from people who don't know what they're buying but see people on forums rave about a product to try to validate their $2400 purchase.

Btw... last I checked.. upgrading the springs on the V3 was something like a $300 option. That just puts your price at $2700 doesn't it? Perhaps i'm missing something.

2400 SRP doesn't mean 2400 street price.. S2000 V3s are also 2400 SRP but when I owned my S I almost bought them a few times for 2000-2100. Yes, there are plenty of places that list them for SRP but they'll make deals with buyers or they'll lose a sale.

I doubt I'd ever be happy with ANY OTS spring rates so replacing the springs with ERS or other options is going to happen no matter what option I go with (I'd be surprised if I found a OTS system I actually end up being happy with without changes).

When I used to heavily track my current DD I had multiple sets of springs that I would use depending on the track. I won't get that crazy with the FR-S/BRZ though..

My opinion is still that for ~2k these aren't bad threaded body coilovers. I'll either be running a lot less.. or more.. :) but that doesn't make these a bad deal if they suit your needs IMO.

Well if you're looking for something a little more track oriented and customized...you could just step it up to our RCE Tarmac 2's (based on KW) and get customized valving, customized spring rates, etc. ;)

Still working on them though. So I'll shut up.

- Andrew

No one pays full price... well, with my poor circle of friends we don't. I'm just using MSRP as a point of comparison.

Very interested to see your results :drool:

My buddy has a set on his STi and it was a lot of fun.

You can say that about anything though really. TBH from my forum whoring experience I tend to see it a lot when it comes to people buying the cheaper bc/stance/ect coils, though it's pretty obvious you are smarter than that.

While their pricing has crept up over the last few years, I think that is on par with most of their competitors as well.

On this car I will probably just end up buying springs and then upgrading to some nice struts/shocks.

Take my money please!

:bow: EPIC!!! :bow:

No, I was just think to myself.
How can KW possibly think that the materials and labor expense in 10 sets of springs be equel to the materials and labor expense of a complete GT86/BRZ?
10% the cost of the entire car?

That's kind of a pointless arguement. There are $6k shocks out there for cars that cost anywhere from $1k used to $100k+. The value of the vehicle doesn't define the R&D, parts cost, labor cost, overhead costs and profit for aftermarket parts.

Besides which, while they may or may not be unreasonably priced for their quality They're well within the norm if you compare their prices against their competitors.

And hell, people pay $2k for a single motorcycle shock/spring. :P

If you're going to bust out the psychology, be correct. It's not groupthink, it's actually a form of dissonance reduction in cognitive dissonance.

I think saying it's pointless is kind of harsh...

He does bring up a good point in that for a relatively cheap car spending 10% of the cars value on just a set of coilovers sort of makes you think twice. It certainly makes me think twice about just keeping the OEM set in there or go on the cheap and get a set of Koni or Bilsteins.

$2k range isn't asking much for coilovers that actually improve the handling. IMO it's best to stick with high quality suspension items or stay with OEM. I never understood why people would just use lowering springs on cars with handling as there high selling point

say what Willis?

http://www.notasupermom.com/wp-conte...ut-willis1.jpg

People validating their purchases by raving about them is not groupthink, it's a reduction strategy when people experience cognitive dissonance. Groupthink is the tendency for groups to prioritize group agreement over actually getting things done, which is not what you described.

at the risk of derailing this thread even further...what would you recommend is the proper terminology for what I described?

I suppose there's a better way to say "a form of dissonance reduction in cognitive dissonance"

Placebo?

It can be considered a type of effort-justification.
No, in the placebo effect you would tell a person that you changed to Brand X coilovers, but in reality you still have the stockers. Said person believes car to perform better than it did, despite nothing actually having been changed.

I'm certainly no psychology expert but I hope my point came across as intended.

I'm looking at it differently or maybe there's a difference between medical and psych "placebo" term. If you read on some forums Brand X coilovers improves handling but in fact it doesn't. Said person still believes there car handles better.

If the person knows the car handles worse but still goes on forums to say it handles better, I think the correct term is BSer :thumbup:

Still cognitive dissonance. They're experiencing dissonance between the perceived value/performance and what people think of the coilovers (read: junk).

Sorry, this just became interesting. The desire to want to purchase coilovers (in my poorly stated example) by bench racers on forums is what I originally associated with Groupthink. These are folks who blindly read reviews from owners/writers who are displaying a type of effort justification and it turns out to be a vicious snowball of propaganda (in a worse case scenario). So in effect I was talking about two phenomenons in my poorly stated example. Correct me if i'm wrong...

THAT is more precise, but only IF the purchaser believes themselves to be a part of the same group as the bench racers. Otherwise, it's just persuasion.

It does seem you were talking about two phenomena, albeit without proper clarity.

hope progress makes coilovers they are usually good and make stock quality coilovers

I don't think it was harsh at all. It's factual information. People put penske's on 86 CRXes, the value of an 86 CRX has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of Penske race shocks.

I'm not calling him cheap or stupid or anything else. If he doesn't want to spend 2k (or whatever) on a specific set of threaded body coilovers that's fine. If he doesn't want to spend more than $500, or $1000, or whatever, that's fine too, but it doesn't make parts outside of what he considers acceptable to be overpriced "just because".

His point was that they should be priced cheaper, just because of the cost of a BRZ/FRS, but the two are simply not related in any way. I would *never* pick parts based on a "maximum" % of my cars value, I pick my parts on what I need/want to accomplish, it costs whatever it costs. If I can't afford it I'll wait until I can, and if there are two equal parts in all regards that meet my needs I'll get the cheaper one (SS brakelines are a very good example of this).

Unless it's for exotics.

$900 value exhaust for a Ferrari = $3000