My Review Of The KW V3 Coilovers On My GT86

About a year ago I decided to get my set of KW V3 coil overs from the official KW website. The actual reason why I got them was just to lower my car. But of course, I didn‘t want to miss out on the performance aspect. The GT86 has a good suspension, so I wanted very good performing coil overs and in Germany, this mostly leads you to KW.
KW has so called Brand Weeks where you get a sale on coil overs from different brands like VAG or in my case the Asian Weeks. Normally you would pay 1799€ for the V3. But because of the Brand Weeks, I got them for 1557€. So if you want to get coil overs from KW I would always recommend to look out for sales or those so called Brand Weeks.

The delivery time is five to twelve days. The coil overs were safely packed up and in a very good visual shape. The metal, the paint, the weldings. Every part of the coil overs just looks perfect. But the purpose of them is not only to look good, they have to work as well.

When I finally had time on my hands, I decided to build the coil overs in myself with the help of my friends. I strongly recommend somebody helping you out and a car lift would be also very advantageous. I got two of my friends helping me out and it took us about two days in which we worked an estimated time of three to four hours. I have to say too that there is no real build manual or we didn‘t use one. You have papers which describe how to set up the coil overs but that‘s about it. So it‘s a good Idea to have somebody on your side who knows how to work on cars. But if you have a lot of time, it is also possible to learn and do it on your own. If you have doubts or questions, there are a lot of helping tutorials or videos on how to build in coil overs.

On the first day, we started with the front axle. Removing the old suspension and building up the new one on the front of my GT86 wasn‘t really hard. You can reach every bolt easily and it is really comprehensible what you need to do. The hard part is when you have to switch the strut bearings from the old to the new coil overs. You can actually buy new ones from KW but I didn‘t feel like it and just used the stock ones. This is the part where you definitely need two people. We used a spring spanner to secure the springs and then removed the strut bearing from the stock suspension to put it to the new coil overs. When that was done, we were ready to build them in.

We decided to do the back axle on the next day and that was a much harder job to do. You need a lot of force to remove the suspension, especially from the wishbone. Also you need to work from the trunk and from the wishbone to remove and install the suspension. Here I would recommend two or even three people.

After the build was done we were inspecting how low my GT86 actually got. We were lowering the coil overs before the build because it‘s easier obviously. You can also set up the rebound and pressure on the V3 with winders on the top and on the bottom. But you don‘t have to do it. The V3 has a standard setup which you can use right away. In my case, I just lowered the coil overs to their lowest point. What I instantly noticed is, that the front is higher than the rear. The front was still able to get lower from the wheel well while the back was stance nation low with a lot of camber. That was a bit weird for me but I still liked the result.

I took my GT86 for a test drive and I already felt that everything is harder and stiffer. The suspension works good, even when it feels hard to drive over potholes, they still do a good job in damping. But after a few days, I noticed that the coil overs on the back are a bit too hard and keep blocking on some bumpy roads.

To set up the pressure and rebound, I didn‘t even have to lift or take off the wheels of my car, I simply laid down and reached my hands to the pressure winder of the V3 and turned them one step softer. For the rebound winder, I opened my trunk and went behind the paneling right where the back wheels are. For the front it‘s the same process, expect the rebound, which you can reach easily by opening your engine bonnet. After that, the back didn‘t have any issues anymore. I also had to increase the right height on the back because it was too low. And that‘s a big advantage of the KW V3. If it‘s too hard, too soft, too low, or too high for you, you can set it up to how you like it. You can even go to KW and let them set it up for you. The only thing which you can‘t adjust is the camber and track. For that, I had to go to a car mechanic.

Aligning your coil overs is a very important part and is essential for a good handling. The mechanic could set up everything, expect the camber on the back. For some reason, you can‘t change the camber on a stock GT86 on the back. You either have to get camber correction screws or an adjustable wishbone. So keep that in mind, unless you don‘t mind a lot of camber on the back, when you are low.

After aligning my GT86 it was finally time to test the full potential of my coil overs. And I was impressed. The stock suspension of the GT86 is already astonishing. But the KW V3 is even better which I couldn‘t believe. It is much more direct and stable than it already was and you have much more speed in corners. The sharpness of the 86 is very impressing now and its definitely an improvement. At first, I didn‘t have issues with how low my car was, but as the car was setting itself more, I noticed the car was scraping here and there and I had to higher it…. again. Since then only a few incidents happened but the suspension still works wonderfully.

In conclusion, I‘m very happy with the result, the performance of the KW V3 is brilliant. I would also recommend them for track use, KW is known for its Motorsport experience. For the street, it may be too hard for one or another, but for that, you have amazing handling characteristics. For the GT86, the V3 blends in really well. I was a bit skeptical if it will make my handling better or not, but I can say that it‘s definitely an improvement and a must have, if you want performance and looks combined.

Here is a list of the pros and contras to sum up everything

Pros:

• very good material quality
• outstanding handling and performance
• a good compromise between street and track use
• adjustable pressure and rebound
• ability to lower/heighten your car
• not too hard to install

Cons:

• camber on the back can not be adjusted on stock GT86 (you need aftermarket parts)
• at the lowest point, the front was higher than the back in my case
• a bit too hard and firm to drive for normal street use