KW ClubSport + APR ARB's review, Or Meet Variant Poko

[Poko]

Ok , it's time to move on with my project.

I moved to the second phase of my project which also includes some more power mods, but since I am still waiting for parts I will update later.

Right now it was time to start upgrading my suspension setup.

Since the car project definition is a "Race car for the road" I was going to go for an extreme setup ,but one that can still cope with daily driving on Israeli roads, which are not renowned for their paving quality (very bad)

After much contemplation between JIC Cross competition , Bilstein and some TEIN options I have decided to go with KW.

The decision to go with KW is not only due to their high product quality but also because of their amazing technical service which is extremely important in a part like suspension.

Of-course I went for the Club Sports due to the option to have them with pillow top s , camber plates and linear springs.

Pic :


In order to complete this suspension setup I have chosen to go with APR's front and rear anti roll bars , 27mm diameter and with 3 hardness levels :


The entire setup :


And going on the car :






Now to the important part, how do they feel.

Let's start with the good stuff.
Body roll becomes something you read about, no matter at what speed , no matter how hard you take the corner, there is absolutely no body roll.

The nose also keeps pointing straight forward, no matter how hard you accelerate or brake, it is absolutely awesome.

handling wise, this is now purely a race car. It feels it just came off the world championship and was allowed to drive on public road, everything is sharp and immediate , nothing like the stock suspension.

However (you knew it was coming didn't you ?)
With Israel's horrible road , such a track based setup is not so ideal for public roads. And I am really not discussing comfort issues here.

The combination of very short suspension travel with extremely quick rebound and damping doesn't allow for safe handling of bumps and potholes , and let me explain.

the car never loses its grip, but the driver does. Without racing harnesses and an FIA approved bucket I have already met the ceiling not once or twice and found myself hanging on to the steering wheel instead of choosing a corner line.

hitting a bump at very high speeds will even cause the car to lift all 4 wheels off the road. The cool thing about it is that the land is perfect and it never reached the bump stop.

all that I could have accepted , but the real problem is the grip , which is too high for the public road.

you have as much traction as you want as long as the tires hold , but once they let go the car will just "jump" a lane until it gets traction again. It will stay composed , but nevertheless you are now in the next lane.

on the race track that is desirable and fine , but on the road , that's not something you wish to happen , especially if there is a car in the lane you just went into.

So what do I do ?
With the help of Pit stop, the local KW distributor we had several long discussions with the MOTORSPORTS division about a solution.

after clarifying that this is really a matter of national security and they are putting the peace in the middle east on the line if they don't sort out my suspension , they have told me to wait a day and they'll get back to me.

after internal discussion they thought that the clubsports can be set up in a good way for my needs , but not excellent , and being German engineers , that wasn't really accepted.

Therefore as I write those lines, the Clubsports are being taken off the car to meet a plane to germany and give birth to a new KW variant.

now you all know Variants 1 , 2 , 3 and the clubsports.

MEET VARIANT POKO :
1) Club sports shell , retaining pillow tops and camber plates.
2) shortened and re-valved V3 shock fitted to CS body.
3) Linear , Race springs with lower spring rate , fitted for the V3 internals.
4) custom tuned for my cars exact weight (by axle) by KW themselves.

I guess that in 3-4 weeks variant Poko will be on the car and I can update you some more on how good they are.

but I must give it to KW for some awesome customer service.

[ik1015]

Look nice. Your RSB has APR logo on it why mine doesn't??????

[Poko]

Originally Posted by baseline

Look nice. Your RSB has APR logo on it why mine doesn't??????

i have both front and rear and both have the logo , maybe earlier productions didn't have the logo.

[bostonaudi]

Any idea what spring rate you started with and what the new one is? Did you try running with stock bars and the club sports? That's a lot of suspension!

[Poko]

Originally Posted by bostonaudi

Any idea what spring rate you started with and what the new one is? Did you try running with stock bars and the club sports? That's a lot of suspension!

KW motorsports technical manager mumbeled something , but i don't remember correctly.

tell me if that sounds right :
around 700nm front and 600nm rear ?

[bostonaudi]

Originally Posted by Poko

KW motorsports technical manager mumbeled something , but i don't remember correctly.

tell me if that sounds right :
around 700nm front and 600nm rear ?

I'd take those big APR sways off and put stock ones back on. Then when KW sends back the shocks put those back in and try it out again. I really doubt you'll need those big bars with the clubsport KW setup. The bars are overkill for street car.

[itskv]

What are those extra small springs? I have KW Variant 3 and they're awesome, but I may want to change the springs for different spring rates... and I'm not sure of what spring rates are good.. Your springs look a little different from the Variant 3.

[Poko]

@ BostonAudi -

You are right, the combination of the APR + Clubsport was an overkill.

when going back to stock to ship the CS's i kept the APR's and i was amazed at what they did to the stock suspension

body roll was reduced at around 90% or higher and it actually felt like i just installed some expensive Coilovers with just the ARB's. they are simply amazing on standard / street suspension.

however the CS's are Race suspension and i presumed that the combo was just too much.

therefore i removed the ARB's and re-installed the KW. so currently they are on the car.

i am still not at ease with them , since although the bad traits have softened down they are still misbehaving at very high speeds over bumps.

i am currently waiting to get my wheels set up right (i am rubbing) and then i will try to set them up again and see if i get good results before shipping them back , because them seem already to have an amazing potential.

once i set them up right (or ship them) i will re-try them with either the APR arb's or might try smaller KW arb's since the KW are a lot of suspension by themselves.

will wait and see. what i have learned until now is that people underestimate what an ARB can do and on softer coilovers (Koni etc) or stock an aggressive ARB is a whole lot of difference.

@ITZKV -
The Clubsports have Linear Springs (race springs) while the V3 use Progressive springs (Road springs). also the shock body and therefore spring length on the clubsport is much shorter compared to the V3.

[itskv]

Where did you order this kit?

[fuscobal]

Do they do the clubsport custom for free or are they charging extra if you want it custom tuned by the car's weight on each axle ?