KW V3 vs KW Clubsport - Track and road use

james911996 · 1 Apr 2019

Hi all,

Looking at doing a full suspension refresh on a 996.2 C2 manual.
Usage will be 50% track days/ 50% weekend fun.

Does anyone have experience of the KW V3 and Clubsport kits?
I'm wondering if:
- the V3 might feel to soft for the track if i progress well?
- the Clubsport will be unbearable on the road even playing with the rebound and compression settings?

Any views based on experience would be great.

thanks
james

Paz · 2 Apr 2019

Admittedly not a 996 but years ago I had a daily 968 Sport in which I did fourteen UK trackdays in two years, I had Center Gravity install/setup the KW v3 kit.

For coilovers they're supremely comfortable on the road.
They were progressively tweaked as I gained more experience on track and the kit proved to be excellent on track and not unduly harsh on the road (for a coilover kit).

I gather the Clubsport kit is sold without a warranty.

For the very slight increase in price I would probably go for an equivalent Bilstein kit, purely because I find the build quality to be better imho.

Good luck and enjoy.

james911996 · 3 Apr 2019

Paz said:
Admittedly not a 996 but years ago I had a daily 968 Sport in which I did fourteen UK trackdays in two years, I had Center Gravity install/setup the KW v3 kit.

For coilovers they're supremely comfortable on the road.
They were progressively tweaked as I gained more experience on track and the kit proved to be excellent on track and not unduly harsh on the road (for a coilover kit).

I gather the Clubsport kit is sold without a warranty.

For the very slight increase in price I would probably go for an equivalent Bilstein kit, purely because I find the build quality to be better imho.

Good luck and enjoy.

Thanks for sharing the experience Paz. Very helpful.

I spoke with the guys who look after my car - they use KW and know how to set these up with the rest of the suspension, hence i am not looking at other brands. Their view was that:
1. the Clubsport being motorsport equipment needs a lot more regular maintenance. They mentioned the CS has a bigger strut with less lateral movement and as a result the seals are more likely to leak
2. the V3 will be great on the road and very capable on track. This is consistent with what you say
3. on build quality they rate KW highly and as my car sleeps outside they commented that they were less likely to rust than other brands

I'll likely be going with the V3 with ARBs, etc to match.
Will report with impressions when i get it all done, but hopefully the above is helpful to whoever has the same question in the future!

911UK · 3 Apr 2019

Stick to the KW v3 not the Clubsport models

This is from experience from a 996

james911996 · 3 Apr 2019

911UK said:
Stick to the KW v3 not the Clubsport models

This is from experience from a 996

Thanks for the advice!

Are you able to elaborate on the performance of either for track and road use respectively?

snb993 · 3 Apr 2019

Hi
I had mine changed to KWv3 within the first year of buying my 996T. that was 12 years ago now and I still think that it's brilliant.

Mine are set for bump and rebound at just over half (from memory as the details are at home) and heightwise at approx. 3RS

Mine gets used for about 4,000 miles a year - 2 or 3 track days and the rest on our EU drives

I would say that the ride comfort/quality feels spot on - not harsh at all . plenty of feel. Could easily be OEM

Geo wise it was reset by CG last year having had new coffin arms. They commented that the springs had dropped a bit (normal apparently) but otherwise it is still in great condition. Also gave me a chance to try H&R ARB's

Recommended IMHO
:thumbs:

Paz · 3 Apr 2019

Just my humble opinion but I'd be inclined to recommend Eibach anti-roll bars purely for the fact that they are tubular and thus give a progressive rate of stiffness in use, they're also extremely light.

The H&R anti-roll bars tend to be solid metal and ridiculously heavy in comparison, one has to wonder, are they actually flexing enough to give you the adjustability in your road and track driving?

Martin996RSR · 4 Apr 2019

Anti-roll bars are just torsion springs, with no real difference in terms of complexity from a coil spring. The problem with them comes from the manufacturers rarely publishing figures for their stiffness/rate. They are normally just published as having a certain diameter. Solid bars are a lot heavier and for that reason alone should be avoided, as there are plenty of hollow bars to choose from. Don't get hung up on brands, just buy a second hand OE hollow bar that's thicker than what you already have for £20 from ebay and get it powder coated for £40 and hey presto you'll have something for a fraction of the price of a Whiteline/Eibach/H&R bar.

It's also very easy to modify a hollow rear bar to make it adjustable. I had mine done for £10 at a local engineering place.

james911996 · 4 Apr 2019

@snb993 - just what i wanted to hear, thanks!

@Paz - the plan right now is to go with Eibach hollow ARB and lower arms, new top mounts and RSS engine mounts. Need to figure out how bad the engine rebuild bill we be before pulling the trigger on this though ... :sad:

@Martin996RSR those are some interesting insights. Since I know nothing about suspension I am going with the recipe that my independent uses, having tried and tested combinations over time

KW V3 vs KW Clubsport - Track and road use

james911996

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