Custom KW's - whatevah you want!

Should you not agree with our choices of spring rates on our own 'packaged' Variant 2 and Variant 3 KW's, feel free to contact us to get a custom set of your own... Our packaged V2's and V3's are designed with the daily driver/track rat in mind - meaning that you can kill it at the track, and yet still maintain functioning kidneys if you drive it on the street.

Are they optimized for the track? Yes, actually, KW met Dr. Mike at the track with their 18 wheeler and they tuned-and-tested-and-tuned until they got what Dr. Mike wanted, all the while scaring the bejeezus out of the KW lead engineer (who puked, I believe, at least once). Are they optimal for a race car? No. But, let's face it, nobody really likes to blood in their pee, do they? And how many people can really say that they "Don't care how their car rides on the street because it's just for the track, anyway, and I gotta have insane spring rates"? Our already-spec'd units are in stock and maintain your urinary health and meet 99.99% of a track junky's needs.

But, if you're in that 0.01% that need something different - give us a call. We've shipped a couple of completely custom sets already, with more in the works - mainly to people that either don't daily drive their MINI or don't have/like functioning kidneys.

 

Absolutely...

Variant 1's are stock, off-the shelf KW units. They are 'factory' present with valving that maintains a specific damping/rebound ratio that matches their 'cone' shaped springs (sorry, don't know how else to describe them). As such, they are ride-height only adjustable. They re-use the stock style OEM upper spring perches. They're a good choice for someone that wants to install and forget, drop their car, and still get better performance in the twisties - they are NOT designed for the track. They ride pretty nicely, IMHO.

Our Variant 2's have different valving and springs than off-the-shelf KW's. We yanked the coney-shaped springs in favor of 60mm ID KW Race Springs. We supply a 60mm upper perch, so you can re-use the OEM upper strut mounts (but why?) or the camber plate of your choice (our new ones will be coming soon). And, we tweaked the valving to match the spring rates that were bumped from the off-the-shelf units. We used to use Swift springs - until KW proved that their Race line of springs had the same great characteristics for a lower price. Our KW's come directly from KW built to our specs, using 6 kg/mm rates at all 4 corners (that's ~342 lb/in for us in the States). The Variant 2's allow for ride height adjustment and are single-adjustable units - this means that you can crank up the damping as you would like (e.g. less for the street, more for the track), and the valving will maintain a preset ratio of damping to rebound. These ARE designed for the daily driver MINI that also sees autocross and track use. Single adjustables are recommended for the vast majority of people, since they're pretty fool-proof... They are hands down better than an off-the-shelf V2 - just our not-so-humble opinion.

But, if you want to have more adjustability...

Our Variant 3's also have different valving and springs than off-the-shelf KW's. Our KW's come directly from KW built to our specs, using 7 kg/mm rates at all 4 corners (that's ~400 lb/in for us in the States). Yep, just ~60 lb/in difference, but it makes a difference in ride quality on the street and a significant difference on the track. In other words, the V3's are more track/AX oriented, but still quite liveable on the street. In our opinions, anything more than 7 kg/mm is not necessary for a dual use MINI - if the system is right, you'll get all the track performance you want and still have a liveable ride on the street (for a race car or completely dedicated track car, 7 kg/mm is marginal). The Variant 3's allow for ride height adjustment and are double-adjustable units (DA)- this means that you can independently adjust damping and rebound. There is NO preset ratio of damping to rebound, and you can tune it to your driving, the course, and conditions (e.g. dry vs. wet, asphalt vs. concrete, etc.). This also means that you can ROYALLY screw it up, too, if you don't know how adjusting these independently will change the attitude of the car. More adjustment is generally not good for a majority of people, who end up a lot of time chasing settings and getting frustrated. If you do know what you're doing, these are a major step up from the V2's. We have solid baseline settings and can make recommendations for setups, but ultimately you should understand what the adjustments do and how changing them will change handling. These ARE still designed for the daily driver MINI that also sees autocross and track use. They are quite spectacular on the track...

Our V2's and V3's have helper springs in the front and the back to keep the main spring in contact with the perches, since we don't run the same springs as the off-the-shelf units... We told KW we didn't need them, but they insisted in order to maintain TUV certification - in case sets get shipped back to the EU.

And finally, if you want KW's Club Sport coilovers, we can also get those. They're kind of like a V3, in that they are DA's, and come with their own camber plates. They are not cheap. We have no experience with them, but have heard that some track junkies in the EU like them. I would have to get specifics on spring rates, etc.

Oh, and - we can get KW's for any vehicle that they have an application for, too. Of course, these would be off-the-shelf units, but we can volunteer our services to drive and tune your GT3, Viper, etc. if you are blessed enough to have the bank to pull that off... :arf:

 

Even shorter than they already are? I can check...

 

Thanks, Ryan... You are right, we do spec a softer rear bar, mainly because we want a car that changes directions without waggling the rear and allows throttle input for things like slaloms and high speed offsets (in other words, autocross). A much stiffer rear bar causes issues with keeping the rear settled in those scenarios, and we're trying to cover as many applications as possible with one setup (e.g. street, autocross, and track). We came to this conclusion after instructing at several autocross schools, where a really stiff rear bar caused many, many people to loop it in fast slaloms (including instructors) - we went into the paddock and softened up several rear bars, and wallah, rotation WITH control. You want the car to rotate a bit as you ease off the throttle, in order to change directions for the next cone or gate, but not uncontrollably... Same for the track, where you sometimes want to position the car with throttle inputs, but don't want the bootay stepping out too much or too quickly - most people panic in the situation, and instead of rolling back into the throttle, they lift more, which will definitely make for a fun ride on a car with a neutral setup... We err on the side of caution. With our V3's (properly setup), a stock front swaybar, and a 19mm rear swaybar (full stiff), you can expect a neutral car that will take your input and place you in control (which can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on the driver - hah!). With a 21mm or bigger rear bar, you will need to do some fine tuning to get it right - starting on full soft and then changing the effective rate as you desire (again, err on the side caution at first, then tune to your desire).

As Ryan said, if you wanted a stiffer rear bar for the track, you would want to bump the front rates up OR use a bigger front swaybar - either way, but we do prefer to let the springs do most of the work and fine tune with the swaybars.

We'll contact KW and see if we can come up with a different custom set to trim the ride height more... Right now, our setup provides about 1.5" of lowering if you set the perches right in the middle, IIRC. Dr. Mike can chime in about that, since he played with the setup on his to see how much adjustment there was...

 

We're decidedly not a 'big box' company...

Thanks for the feedback, Ryan!