Ride quality, from my experience with Rick's KW V2s and Hotchkis sways was that minor road imperfections were smoothed-out. Major bumps, etc., didn't really encounter while driving. The car is DIALED-IN, in the handling dept., however. Another thing I noticed with Rick's car is that you don't 'bounce' in it... meaning, you go over a dip in the road, and with his, there is a significant decrease in the up and down motion, compared to stock. I'll let Rick reply more thoroughly, but he has Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas, 275's on all 4 corners. Its like driving on glue through the twisties.
I agree with baldy... to me, in the two cars I have ridden in with the KW's, the ride seems to be a little "smoother" if you will, and the handling is definately better.
See, I have the exact OPPOSITE reaction Jason, smooth over bumps (no bouncing) stock but all kinds of bouncing with the Mopars, it's odd. I know they're installed correctly and everything is set right it's just I'm not seeing the results everyone else is. The car DOES handle better, so much so that I need a better tire, but the daily drive now is already getting to me. Doh! :sad: Hopefully he'll pipe in so I can ask him about the KWs vs. Mopars.
Yeah, I'm sorry I can't compare the two, let alone I don't have daily driving experience with his car. As for the tires, there are multiple threads, even here I believe. Its pretty much a given that the "V" tire is better than the F1 and equal to, if not better than, anything else for our LX's.
Thanks for the info bro. I'll do a search on tires, I always thought Michelins or Pirellis were the best so that's why these "V" tires perked my interest, never heard of them. BTW, love the sig! That smoking squirrel is a riot!:grin:
Thanks for the input Rick, I know you're the expert on this stuff and I don't want to insult you at all buddy but ... I really don't think it's the tires. It wasn't like this stock at all and I've only got 4500 miles on it. It's gotta be the setup on the Mopars is just different than that of the KWs even though they're made by KW. They're just not the same as the V1s, they're stiffer or something. Driving around now for a couple of weeks to let my initial impressions slide ... it's still not good. It's too harsh and bouncy sorta, kinda hard to explain. It's just too "tight" I guess, I'm feeling every little ripple or bump in the road, and I mean EVERY one, because the suspension is so "tight" and that's why I say harsh and bouncy. Does that make sense? I've run a few twisties around here and it definately handles better no doubt, I definately need a stickier tire, but for day to day driving it's too much. Have you any experience with the Mopar coilovers? Ever seen the front coils? There's 2 per shock, one small one and one large one. The small goes on first with a perch/divider and then the larger one goes on top of it, it's very interesting. The small one compressed down to actually nothing under load so I don't quite get it, I've never seen coils like that before, have you? The KWs aren't like that are they? One other question quickly bro, would ride height make that much of a difference in ride quality? Stock my car sat at 30" all the way around ground to fender lip. I only wanted to drop about an inch but they've settled and the front is now down to about 28 3/8" and the rear is just under 29". It looks bad a$$ that way but it's too low to drive everyday so I was gonna raise it back up to about 29" all the way around. Do you think that will help the ride quality? Shiate, this went on too long, sorry. Maybe we can get in a chat room sometime to talk more. Thanks again bro. BTW, I like how your sig is "wider" than Jasons, lol! Gotta raz him about that! Hey Jason, I notice Rick's sig is bigger than yours, it's wider (what the ladies call "girth"). Don't want to start anything here but ... lol!! Hey, your's is wider than mine!! LOL!!
Cheatek, it doesn't sound like you're complaining about the spring rates (that would be the idea with the dual coils). What it does sound like is that the damping (compression) is too stiff for your liking and the maybe the rebound damping not stiff enough. It sounds like those (as well as the stock ones) are made by KW to DC's/Mopar's specs. They could be radically different in design, materials, and tolerance.
cheatek - actually the KW's have the same spring configuration with a small "spring" under the normal looking one. it was explained to me that the small is there to soak up the small bumps and the larger to deal with more severe road issues as well as car loads under cornering. as to the ride hieght, yes, it will have an effect. i know when mine was fully slammed in the front, it had much more "bounce" when hitting any kind of irregularity in the road. raised it up in the front only, about 1" and it made a big difference. the lower you go, the less travel the shock has. hope this helps!! :grin:
Chris, call me Scott bro, I hate the Cheatek user name but there's an inside joke on it ... Anyway, thanks for the input, I was hoping someone would tell me if the kws had the same dual spring set up in front. I wonder if mine got installed reversed, if that's possible, cause the ride is really NOT what everyone else is saying. I'm gonna try raising it up some and see if that helps but it's not THAT low. How low is yours? Thanks again bro! :thumb:
scott - mine is set full drop in the rear and about 1" from full drop in the front. it is almost impossible to set the fronts up upside down. now the rears is a different story!!!! (i speak form experience when doing mine in the middle of the night! hahaha)
From stock height mine is dropped 1 1/2 inches front, 1 in the rear which really isn't that much and that's why I'm wondering about the whole thing. Why my ride quality seems to be OPPOSITE everyone else's I don't get. I'm old but not that old, lol!! :flipout:
Quick, thanks for the input, that's really what I was thinking, different specs. Hey, I see you're in SJ, so am I, west side down in the Los Gatos/Saratoga area. Wanna meet up some day? Mabye take a ride?? :thanks:
