KW V3, Height and Setups.

[Requiem240sx]

BTW oe height at the fender is 26.5" looks like in the picture you're at 25" up front which is a pretty deep drop already, these are not designed to go super low.

The picture with the 25" was with the RSR Lowering springs, the one with 26" was the KW's (Bottomed out as low as they could go). That was my concern, is that I only had a 0.5" drop and couldn't go any lower. FYI, the photos have comments added, but you can also look for the yellow KW Spring behind the wheel since it was lifted so high!


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SOLUTION:
Thanks @strat61caster, you are correct the KW Spring Perches are a lot taller then the Raceseng ones.

I measured the Raceseng to be about 16MM smaller, so I expected a 16MM drop, however in reality (since the spring wasn't completely compressed) it dropped ~21mm (0.8"). Which is fantastic! I was able to raise the perch and still have the same ride height, with flexibility of going lower or higher now and not seeing bottomed out. My target is ~1" drop, I'm not interested in slamming the car, I want it to be functional and be able to drift properly, so this is solved my issue.


FYI, here is the exact measurements of the KW vs Raceseng spring perch, with side by side comparisons. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0v5Uzl7Vd35HN

2 things to consider if you decide to go with KW V3's with Raceseng top hats.

1) If you don't use their spring perch, you will not be able to get enough threads on the topcoat bolt, to properly hold the strut with the 9MM and then Tighten the 18MM. The nut can't travel down far enough. If you use their spring perch/bushing, it will give you a few more mm of room, so you can properly tighten the topmast on.

2) Raceseng tophats will raise your car about 0.5". If you don't use Racesengs spring perch/bushing setup, it will raise the car an additional ~21mm (0.8") for a total of 1.3" height gain!
Note, I didn't do this, but you should be able to remove the helper spring to help lower the car some. I adjusted the Coilover slightly to counter the .5" raise, the KW's come with a 0.8"-2" drop by default, so now they are simply 0.3"-1.5", which is better for me, as I didn't want to go lower then that.

Overall I'm very pleased with them, I got the car aligned and took it for a quick drift. I'm always so shocked how under-rated coilovers are on cars. It transformed my FRS, it is now able to hold 2nd gear and even rev up through 2nd while drifting! I'm likely going to swap in some slightly stiffer springs and change up the F/R spring rate, and then set ride height after I get tires on my new wheels. As for daily driving, they are a much better ride then the OEM Strut + RSR Lowering springs. Highly recommend if anyone is on the edge of buying a pair.

Thanks everyone for the help!

[strat61caster]

I think I had 26.5" for both front and rear, the fenders don't follow the same contours and the rear actually sits about a 1/4" higher off the top of my head, maybe it's 26.25F and 26.5R, memory is hazy, notes are lost.

Glad things are working now, oem damping on these cars is adequate but easily improved upon.

[smg1138]

Originally Posted by dsc_pat

Looks amazing man. Stock rear LCA ? Thanks.

I replaced the stock LCA's with the Whiteline stamped steel version. Not sure if those are even still being made though. They're mechanically just like the SPC version but have STX legal bushings.

[marco_mc22]

Is there anyone here running Kw v3 or CS with Kw lowering camber plates and solid rear mounts with a soft springs setup? I’d like to try 30nm or 40nm squared but since those mounts would lower the car quite a lot I’m not sure about the correct spring length, Kw sells 30x250 and 40x250 or even 40x290, what do you think? Any suggestions?

[Tatsu333]

Originally Posted by marco_mc22

Is there anyone here running Kw v3 or CS with Kw lowering camber plates and solid rear mounts with a soft springs setup? I’d like to try 30nm or 40nm squared but since those mounts would lower the car quite a lot I’m not sure about the correct spring length, Kw sells 30x250 and 40x250 or even 40x290, what do you think? Any suggestions?

Weird thing is, looking at KW's documentation, the ClubSports actually run SHORTER springs than the V3's despite having the "lowering" camber plates - they're 60-170 front and 70/170 rear.

ST XTA's (which also run the lowering camber plates) have 60-170 front and 50-200 rear springs.

ST customer service was very responsive when I had some questions - maybe contact them to ask about what spring length to run with the softer rates?

[Racecomp Engineering]

I used 200mm 4k springs in the front and 250mm 4k springs in the rear on my RCE SS1s. With a maybe 30mm drop on OEM top mounts, I had enough spring travel. Probably could have gone longer in front to make it easier to adjust and removed the helper spring. And I probably could have used 200 mm rear springs.

But I didn't really love it...even on the crap city roads I drive on, the standard 6k springs just felt better overall. With V3s 2 way adjustability you could probably dial it in a little better but I would not bother with the 3k springs at least.

- Andrew

[marco_mc22]

CS springs are shorter because of higher rates I guess, they also have different helpers up front.
The rear isn’t a problem, 40x220 should be ok for oem mounts and 40x250 without helpers for CS mounts, the main concern is the front, I’m not sure if 40x250 without helpers would be enough to run the car at the highest setting recommended by Kw, -20mm from stock if I’m not wrong. Going with rubber mounts would be easier but I like the bump travel adding feature of CS camber plates…