My 370z "unicorn"

filip00

Woooo what a summer it was - still not the end of it though!

So, I haven't been posting a lot last several weeks, as we've been on a roadtrip through Italy (car hitting 40.000km!), where we did around 3000km, also hitting the Varano de Melegari racetrack. I'll make a separate post on that topic, but today I want to just post the KW V3 coilovers update first.



So, ever since I bought the car, I thought it was too soft and too high. I didn't wanna go all out immediately, and I went with the Eibach Pro Lowering Kit, which lowered the car -2cm in the back, and -2,5cm in the front. It also stiffened it approximately by 10%. It worked well, I can't complain, but I was always a bit annoyed that the car was just too low for my taste.

For comparison's sake, stock car:




The car on Eibach Lowering Kit (keeping the stock shocks):



It looks phenomenal, but I think the front is just a TINY BIT too low.

Performance wise, it was much better than stock. Less body roll, better handling. It did mean however, a LOT of being careful around potholes, any curbs larger than 3cm, and so forth. The underbody was ready to scrape on anything.



So then a few months ago I finally decided, after I worked on all other parts of the car that I initially planned for (brakes, diff, exhaust, cooling) that it's time for the last major upgrade, and that was sorting out and getting big boys suspension parts.
After thorough research online, I decided to go for KW V3, as I figured they should definitely give me what I want, and they should last the car's lifetime. Also, I'm not gonna break the bank, so let's do it.

I'll post a full update on how I did the install in case anyone's interested, but for now I want to post current setup pics and impressions:







This is now the height I actually wanted from the start. About 1.8cm lower than stock, but that's it. No need to go full slam, I want performance first, fashion second.
So, looks-wise, it's finally perfect.

Driving-wise.....oh man.
I'm a newbie when it comes to detailed setup of rebound and bump/compression, so last several weeks I've been studying how these settings impact the car's handling, and I think I wrapped my head around it well. Right now the car is on stock setup, from full hard: Rebound 9 clicks, Bump/compression 6 clicks. I thought it only makes sense to start from factory settings as baseline, and go from there.

The ride is now yet again stiffer, about additional 10-20% from the previous Eibach setup, I can't estimate better. It's harsher, but it's not "my kidneys hurt" harsh.

But handling....it's a LOT better. First thing I can feel well is that whenever there is a hole in the road, the car regains grip a lot faster. The rebound works much much better with these shocks and corners that usually started slipping around 120km/h, are now completely planted with same speed. I didn't yet go and test the limits, but generally I have a feeling now as if I'm driving with even better tyres (they're the same, of course).

So, my plan now is to now experiment a little bit with different rebound rates, 2 clicks at a time, and noting down differences I observe. I do feel like it's already perfect, but I want to see what's the actual impact of changing these parameters.

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