KW V3 Owners, What's Your Setup?

[qtwre]

I have a set of KW variant 3s on order and in the interest of clearing up some of my own confusion, I'd like to ask the current owners out there a few questions.

I first read that some people are running the springs upside down. Do you? Why?

I've already recently learned that some people swap the front and rear springs to have more rate in the front rather than the back. How many of you are doing this? Frankly it sounds like a good idea to me but I can't help but think about how people are so impressed with how much R&D KW puts into their products, so why mess with it? KW got it wrong?

Lastly, this question is less important but what compression and rebound settings are you running front and back and in what environment? I know it's preference but I'd like to try some recommended setups.

Thanks guys.

[Mitch]

1. I think you're talking about where the helper springs sit. I could see an argument for the helper spring being on top, but it could just be arbitrary.

2. I flipped springs for autocross. There's more of a focus on rotation in autox, and understeer is the enemy. I wasn't aware of people flipping springs for general track use, which is what KW developed them for.

3. I'm still trying to figure out my settings. I generally daily at either 4 off full stiff and autox on 2 off all around. I'm still a rookie and have a lot to figure out with my overall setup. I'm going to get a front sway, corner balance, then try to figure it out again.

[wparsons]

I think in general, if you don't know what making changes is going to do to the handling, you should stick with a suggested setup from the manufacturer. They should be shipped with a good baseline setup.

[Scooby South]

mine is pretty much like the manual suggests... maybe a couple of clicks different...


Bill

[Nardi330]

i used RCE's recommendation and adjusted to my taste.

[qtwre]

Thanks for the input, guys. I thought this discussion would be a bit more popular. Maybe people don't want to give away their secrets.

[djdnz]

Yes everyone is very secretive here, probably because...

A) They don't know enough about what they are doing

B) They know what they are doing, but are being coy because they have an edge on the competition they are in and want to keep it that way

I'm sorry I can't add more than this, I don't have my KW's yet! My suggestion to you is start exactly how the manual states and make small tweaks from there to suit your driving preferences. I wouldn't touch the springs until you know more about the current handling.

[gmookher]

I'd like to put 5 dollars on option a please

[Nardi330]

It's not secretive or anything, we have told u the process already ie. that most people used the base setting on the manual and fine tune it.

It's a bit meaningless to tell you our exact setting as you may/may not have other mods/parts which means our settings may not be right for you. My car has bigger wheels/tyres, sway bars and subframe bushes. I had to fine tune my KW every time each of these went on.

Another most important issue is driver preference and style. What I like might be undrivable for you etc.

[gmookher]

Originally Posted by Nardi330

It's not secretive or anything, we have told u the process already ie. that most people used the base setting on the manual and fine tune it.

It's a bit meaningless to tell you our exact setting as you may/may not have other mods/parts which means our settings may not be right for you. My car has bigger wheels/tyres, sway bars and subframe bushes. I had to fine tune my KW every time each of these went on.

Another most important issue is driver preference and style. What I like might be undrivable for you etc.

good points, tires temperatures, it all matters, even altitude when using a gas charged shock

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by gmookher

I'd like to put 5 dollars on option a please

Agreed... no one on here (that I know of) is running V3's on a competitive car and would be afraid to share their baseline settings for fear of losing their advantage.

Any real race car setup would be tweaked pretty drastically between tracks (possibly different spring and dampening rates altogether) as well, so they wouldn't have a "general use" list of settings for a street car on V3's.

[ModBargains.com]

Originally Posted by Scooby South

mine is pretty much like the manual suggests... maybe a couple of clicks different...


Bill

That's what I always suggest... It'll say what to leave the dampening/rebound at, sometimes customers want a bit softer than that, so I go two to three clicks lower, or for a stiffer ride, of course do the opposite.

For daily driving, I'm about 1-2 clicks lower in the back, about 3 clicks lower in the front - this is just for personal preference though, might be different for you, and your personal feel for it.

[qtwre]

Thanks for the discussion, guys. I've never had coilovers with separate knobs for compression and rebound before, so I'll have to do some serious reading to make sure I understand it. It sounds like some of you just adjust them to be the same. I thought I might see some people saying that have one stiffer than the other. Maybe a delta of a couple clicks top to bottom.

As far as swapping springs front to back, that may be a bigger discussion altogether in regards to this car needing more front or rear spring. Dampening I can of course always play with but if I was hearing that swapping the springs is generally regarded as a good idea, I would have done that during the install to save the trouble later.

[robispec]

in testing we have put heavier rear springs on the car and prob due to our lack of rear swaybar we are running the rear springs 2 KG heavier than the front. If it helps think of the Compression setting as "extra" hydralic spring this is most aparent on corner entry. If you find yourself with in on click of full hard on the compression we usually go up 1 KG/5olbs on the spring and reset the damping to the middle of the range..The absolute spring rate is most important in the middle third of the corner. rebound gets you off the corner and fine tuning this is pretty easy too. keep opening the valve up (faster/less spring control) untill that end of the car feels "twitchy" then close 1-2 klicks...the KW's are valved to handle 3-4 KG increase in spring rate on the rebound circut.
I aggree with the tires, etc changes anything you might do will effect the damping system