KW Coilovers // General Suspension Question as well

[dnova89]

Hey guys,

So first of all I'm saving up for coilovers and my budget is around $1500 (willing to put down 2 g's MAX), I'll probably be ready to purchase in 2 months, but I want to know exactly what I'm gonna get before that time comes so I'm here asking for advice.

I'm interested in the KW coilovers variant 2, everywhere i'm reading online people only have good things to say about that, but I hear there's not that many people running them, some people are saying they don't go as low as a GC setup but i'm not terribly interested in slamming my car, I just want it either flush or a little higher than flush is fine too. As long as they perform well and look nice that's all that matters.

This car (1990 325i) is going to be my semi-DD (I also have an automatic civic which is my main DD) so it's gonna be on the street quite a bit with all sorts of trips whether short 10-15 minute local road trips to work or half-hour to one-hour trips on 680-280 to school. A few trips back and forth between norcal and socal are gonna come up during summer too. It's also going to be a track car eventually (mainly autoXing, with some drifting in mind for the future) so I'm looking for something that handles really well, I don't mind giving up comfort but I will be giving rides to friends from time-to-time so hopefully it will still be bearable, obviously the comfort will have to suck a bit no matter what though.

So I'm wondering what you guys think, are the KW's worth the money? I have no problem with the price as long as their are good quality and are track-worthy. I go up to the mountains such as hwy 9 and page mill quite a bit so hopefully they'll be good up there as well. Are there any other brands of coil-overs you guys like? The only thing making me look away from GC is the welding part, and I heard you even have to drill through the shock or something, I'm just not interested in messing around with things like that. I just want to order a full 1-piece coil-over set that I can just install by myself (Well a set for the e30 is not going to be 4 coilovers right? It's going to be 2 coilovers for the front and then springs/shocks for the rear?). Like I said with my variance in what I use the car for, ride-height adjustability is an absolute must. I'm also interested in something that's single adjustable since it's going to be a track car, though I don't think I'll know enough about what I'm doing to get something that's double adjustable.

I plan on going through my entire suspension and modding as much as i can to have something really great, so I was wondering what you guys would suggest as the next step for my suspension after I get the coilovers. Would it be wheels/tires? Bushings? Adjustable Camber Plates? Sway Bars? I'm pretty sure the strut bars would probably be the last thing on the list from what I hear.

Also I want my tires to wear properly, so I should probably purchase the camber plates to install at the same time I slap on my coilovers correct? Any suggestions here?

I'm not very knowledgeable about car in general, so any information/advice to get me headed in the right direction is much appreciated.

Thanks a lot guys,
Darius


This is the variant 1, but I'm having some trouble finding the variant 2 for the e30. Are those spring rates any good for autoX?
http://www.tunershop.com/Suspensions...r=4&modell=837

[BraveUlysses]

Without question GC is better in every regard. Plus, for the same price as that KW kit, you'd get high quality camber plates too.

[Kingb]

And with GC you wont have to worry about the welding part. You can get the while kit put together already, No need to do any welding yourself

[87e30]

Everyone here loves GC, I've been curious about KW opinions though as well.

[scbmw017]

Go with the KW. Ground Control is nice and everyone has them (I even have them on my M3) but for around $1700 that's a crap load of money. That $1700 includes no welding involved just uninstall old and install the new and you get camber plates. For $1300 shipped you can get KW Variant 1's that are a pretty good coilover and you won't have to do any welding or turning in of parts to tunershop just uninstall the old and install the new. You won't be disappointed with KW V1.

If I would have had the extra money KW is what I would have went with instead I chose HR Race and Bilstein with GC camber plates.

[BraveUlysses]

Go with the KW. Ground Control is nice and everyone has them (I even have them on my M3) but for around $1700 that's a crap load of money. That $1700 includes no welding involved just uninstall old and install the new and you get camber plates. For $1300 shipped you can get KW Variant 1's that are a pretty good coilover and you won't have to do any welding or turning in of parts to tunershop just uninstall the old and install the new. You won't be disappointed with KW V1.

If I would have had the extra money KW is what I would have went with instead I chose HR Race and Bilstein with GC camber plates.

1750 gets you the GC kit, fully assembled.

[Jesse30]

1750 gets you the GC kit, fully assembled.

yeah.. he just said that.

lets hear your reasoning as to why you the gc is better. because honestly.. kw does a whole lot of r&d. i'd go with them over gc any day. helps that theyre cheaper too.

its always bugged me that gc uses a strut designed for a completely different car with their kit

[nando]

can you choose any spring rate/length/valving with KW like you can with GC?

if you have a problem, is their headquarters located in the same country where you can make a quick phone call to resolve your issues?

[ck_taft325is]

As mentioned above, GC has amazing customer service and I've heard/seen NOTHING but amazing quality. Also, the new GC camber plates are tits.

For the budget ($1,500-$2,000), I'd go GC all the way.

[dnova89]

actually I decided GC is not worth it for me. I figured if i'm gonna spend that much on GC, and since I'm going to have this car for a very long time, i'd rather save a few hundred more and go with AST. the only problem i'm hearing about that option is that when I go to track I will be paired up with people that are way out of league since I'm just a beginner. can anyone explain this to me please? I don't really understand the whole class thing, does this apply to all tracks or only like NASA events? hopefully someone can shed some light on this for me. thanks guys for all the input so far :)

[BraveUlysses]

Are you talking about doing Track Days (HPDE's aka instruction days) or actual racing?

Don't worry about your equipment compared to your peers at HPDE's, since you're there to learn, not race.

Typically at your first HPDE you're placed into a newbie group, regardless of how fast other cars are.

[dnova89]

Are you talking about doing Track Days (HPDE's aka instruction days) or actual racing?

Don't worry about your equipment compared to your peers at HPDE's, since you're there to learn, not race.

Typically at your first HPDE you're placed into a newbie group, regardless of how fast other cars are.

Well I'm going to begin with HPDE, but what about after that? My friend said that most tracks are just whatever whoever as long as you got the money. I don't think I'm planning to compete, I just want track time, but what happens when I do get comfortable enough with the track and decide to go to a competition if I have expensive mods?

[nando]

if you are going to be competing in your car on the track, you're probably going to be doing something like SpecE30 or Pro3 where everyone has a similar suspension setup.

if it's just for an HPDE - whatever you have as long as it's not broken. I do like ASTs though and wouldn't argue for you not to get them. That's my future goal actually, but GC is a great place to start.