Coilovers: KW Variant 3 versus Driftworks CS2

[JoshuaLogan]

Okay, so I've done a lot of researching and it seems like the KW Variant 3 and Driftworks CS2 coilovers are two of the best options for a 240sx when it comes to real performance at a good value.

Have any of you ever tried both? Recommendations?

Is there anywhere in the US to buy the Driftworks CS2? I guess they are a UK company and pretty easily available in the UK and Europe, but I haven't been able to find a seller for them in the US.

Also, are Stance affiliated with HSD or Driftworks at all? I've heard that HSD manufactures the coilovers for both Driftworks and Stance, with different (but probably similar) specs for each brand, but it's hard to find a lot of info about it.

[slider2828]

Stance and HSD are the same.... HSD was distrbuted in Canada. Don't bother with anything stance cause they suck.... KW V3 are very good and the customer service isn't bad either... just if anything goes wrong its going to take awhile for stuff to arrive from germany...

KW also has offices in US, I am not sure if driftworks has any.... get something local is a better bet...

[JoshuaLogan]

Stance and HSD are the same.... HSD was distrbuted in Canada. Don't bother with anything stance cause they suck.... KW V3 are very good and the customer service isn't bad either... just if anything goes wrong its going to take awhile for stuff to arrive from germany...

KW also has offices in US, I am not sure if driftworks has any.... get something local is a better bet...

Driftworks CS2s are actually manufactured by HSD (but to their specs), and they are highly praised in the UK/Europe. I don't think Stance could be TOO bad if they are made by the same company.

Driftworks doesn't have any US offices or sellers though. They ship here, but nothing based here apparently. (Just talked to a sales rep through email.)

One question about the KW Variant 3 for S14s, are they only height adjustable in the front? I believe I read that somewhere...

[SoSideways]

People only praise Stance, Driftworks, or HSD stuff because they haven't actually been in anything better.

Yes, they can make your car go low, and they're plenty stiff, and yeah, they don't suck too too bad when you hit bumps, but compared to the REAL GOOD STUFF, like KW, Koni, Bilstein, etc., you will notice the difference immediately.

Too many people buy into a name and a fad these days, don't be one of the sheep in the herd.

[nathanong87]

what kind of driving are you doing? what is your price range?

you could piece together a koni g/c setup? you could buy dg5? you could get moton?

[JoshuaLogan]

Just all around, general good performance. Think auto cross.

That's why I'm interested in the KWs.

DG-5 are definitely out of my price range. haha.

[icedsole]

just buy motons

[slider2828]

Driftworks CS2s are actually manufactured by HSD (but to their specs), and they are highly praised in the UK/Europe. I don't think Stance could be TOO bad if they are made by the same company.

Driftworks doesn't have any US offices or sellers though. They ship here, but nothing based here apparently. (Just talked to a sales rep through email.)

One question about the KW Variant 3 for S14s, are they only height adjustable in the front? I believe I read that somewhere...

KW v3 are NOT independent height adjustable. So its a single perch, so in order to lower the car, the spring is compressed. THey are single adjustment which is rebound (someone can correct me on that).... Very very good spring rate....

But if you want to go low, don't bother with KW it doesn't go looooowwwww..... I think it only comes top hat in the front and none in the rear so you have to reuse them? I forget.... Great setup just it doesn't go low.....

[Aoshi112]

KW v3 are NOT independent height adjustable. So its a single perch, so in order to lower the car, the spring is compressed. THey are single adjustment which is rebound (someone can correct me on that).... Very very good spring rate....

But if you want to go low, don't bother with KW it doesn't go looooowwwww..... I think it only comes top hat in the front and none in the rear so you have to reuse them? I forget.... Great setup just it doesn't go low.....

The KW V3's do NOT come with front or rear top hats.

Okay, so I've done a lot of researching and it seems like the KW Variant 3 and Driftworks CS2 coilovers are two of the best options for a 240sx when it comes to real performance at a good value.

Have any of you ever tried both? Recommendations?

Is there anywhere in the US to buy the Driftworks CS2? I guess they are a UK company and pretty easily available in the UK and Europe, but I haven't been able to find a seller for them in the US.

Also, are Stance affiliated with HSD or Driftworks at all? I've heard that HSD manufactures the coilovers for both Driftworks and Stance, with different (but probably similar) specs for each brand, but it's hard to find a lot of info about it.

I vote for the KW V3s. I drove my friend's S14 with KWs and it was just amazing to daily in the harsh streets of San Francisco. San Francisco has some pretty messed up old roads but the KWs were very forgiving. I then took that same S14 into the mountains for a nice little canyon drive and the car was very nimble and made me want to push it harder through the turns.

[Slideways74]

I have KW V3's on my car, and no, they dont come with top hats. They are meant to be used with the factory top mounts. I plan on switching to pillow ball mounts with camber plates in the front. I believe the Tein ones fit.

Overall a great coilover. Much better ride than a stiff "drift" coilover.

[Michael Nolan]

Aren't most Tein's good?

[PooPoo240]

A lot of bashing of one brand to another.
Any reason to as why instead of just stating an ignorant statement as "they suck"

I personally don't think KW is worth the money at all. I've personally seen Aaron Losey's KW V3 front damper snap in half at Gateway international Raceway mid corner. No impact or anything.
My friend has an evo 8 with KW V3's and is now on STANCE gr+ pro. He says the car is much better geared towards the track and and still very smooth. He says the KW's are nice and soft, and was nice for dailying the car.
$1900.00 without upper mounts? twin tube design - what's so special about KW's? please school me. Only way to lower the height of the car is to preload the springs?

I agree, I wouldn't cheap out on some crappy taiwan / china made coilovers with absolutely no engineering behind it - car feels harsh and stiff and overly bouncy.
I have STANCE, and coming from Tanabe Sustec Pro and HKS HiperMax II, I can confidently say that stance feels great. it is firm, but you don't get any of the harsh bounciness. I've recently started to track the car on a more serious not with corner balancing the car and what not. Car feels stable and easy to control.

[e1_griego]

Buy Konis.

Look up 8611 install on here (thread that Optionzero made).

They're excellent.

Edit: here it is http://zilvia.net/f/chat/270829-writeup-custom-koni-ground-control-coilover-setup-assembly.html

[slider2828]

A lot of bashing of one brand to another.
Any reason to as why instead of just stating an ignorant statement as "they suck"

I personally don't think KW is worth the money at all. I've personally seen Aaron Losey's KW V3 front damper snap in half at Gateway international Raceway mid corner. No impact or anything.
My friend has an evo 8 with KW V3's and is now on STANCE gr+ pro. He says the car is much better geared towards the track and and still very smooth. He says the KW's are nice and soft, and was nice for dailying the car.
$1900.00 without upper mounts? twin tube design - what's so special about KW's? please school me. Only way to lower the height of the car is to preload the springs?

I agree, I wouldn't cheap out on some crappy taiwan / china made coilovers with absolutely no engineering behind it - car feels harsh and stiff and overly bouncy.
I have STANCE, and coming from Tanabe Sustec Pro and HKS HiperMax II, I can confidently say that stance feels great. it is firm, but you don't get any of the harsh bounciness. I've recently started to track the car on a more serious not with corner balancing the car and what not. Car feels stable and easy to control.

Compared to stance they have some stroke. THe spring matched with the dampner feels like the right combo. Also it depends want track you are running and car setup.... Stance has very stiff spring rates and when matched with their dampner it feels like you are riding on metal rods. Once again depends on how you drive and what track you are on.

Don't get me wrong, I run on Megan Tracks and I don't have a problem with quality, but realistically Stance's ride doesn't feel different to me on the street or the track and those were GR+ Pro SSDs with Helper springs... Blah... all the same....

I am sure if there was a spring change which I did with Swift and torrington's and lowered the spring rate it feels right. People on very smooth japanese tracks rarely ever run 12/10 or 14/12 spring rates, come on.... KW is yes a little on the softer side. But its not way over sprung and dampened... Plus most of us lower our cars a lot so really there isn't a need to have heavy spring rates if you have a lowered car and some matching sways....

Its all of the components put together, not one thing alone that is why suspension tuning is an art and each driver has their own tastes.... for someone who only sees autox (requires very stiff springs to be fast) or street (soft spring rate) depends which they run most. If you run 90% on the street then get something softer, cause you ain't winning autox's lol...

[s14freak93901]

im not bashing on any company. everyone has there own taste. KW,stance,and HSD all make great products.

crap make in china huh? china/taiwan is the biggest metal manufacturer in the world. thats why all metal components come from there. its just as good as most other stuff with a cheaper price.

did you want to drift or autoX/grip your car?

[Backintoans13]

Im building my car up for next seasons time attack here in my area and ive been trying to search for a good coilover. Everyone seems to be a "drifter" on this site which is cool but its hard getting an answer for coilovers for grip driving. I was planning on KW's, KTS, Silk Road and Cusco's. What other coilovers do ppl recommend for grip driving that i havent mentioned?

[SoSideways]

Im building my car up for next seasons time attack here in my area and ive been trying to search for a good coilover. Everyone seems to be a "drifter" on this site which is cool but its hard getting an answer for coilovers for grip driving. I was planning on KW's, KTS, Silk Road and Cusco's. What other coilovers do ppl recommend for grip driving that i havent mentioned?

Custom Koni or Bilstein setup will be your best bet.

KWs aren't bad either, but for KW money, you can have a set of real nice Koni or Bilstein setup on the car.

Go over to nissanroadracing.com if you want more grip related S-chassis tuning advice.

[Backintoans13]

Custom Koni or Bilstein setup will be your best bet.

KWs aren't bad either, but for KW money, you can have a set of real nice Koni or Bilstein setup on the car.

Go over to nissanroadracing.com if you want more grip related S-chassis tuning advice.

Thanks man, will definitely check out the site

[s14freak93901]

Im building my car up for next seasons time attack here in my area and ive been trying to search for a good coilover. Everyone seems to be a "drifter" on this site which is cool but its hard getting an answer for coilovers for grip driving. I was planning on KW's, KTS, Silk Road and Cusco's. What other coilovers do ppl recommend for grip driving that i havent mentioned?

Cusco would be your best pet out of these companys but are wayy overpriced. don't bother with teins. they make good struts but they have shit for springs and are overpriced. id go for something more proven like koni,bilstein,and aragosta. even motons but they are $$$$.

[97240TB]

I always find these arguments to be quite funny...

Do a little research call the company and ask them about their product if they aren't willing to talk to you about it then clearly they aren't willing to provide quality customer service and that should immediately X them off your list.

Bashing a company like stance is completely ridiculous, there's always going to be something better available out there. Stance makes a solid coilover and it performs well, Find a price range and find a coil at the top of your price range call the company and basically have them "Sell" you on the coilover. Then work your way down the list. Simple as that.

[Backintoans13]

Cusco would be your best pet out of these companys but are wayy overpriced. don't bother with teins. they make good struts but they have shit for springs and are overpriced. id go for something more proven like koni,bilstein,and aragosta. even motons but they are $$$$.

Some buddies of mine run the V3's on there Evo 8 and Supra and they love em. I havent ridden in a 240 that has them but am thinking that if there good on those cars im sure there good for s13's. I want the Cusco 2R's but fuck there expensive....$1800 iirc and V3's are lik $1400 or something like that. I dont need to be super low like most like to be on here so i may look into the KW's. Everyone swears by KTS's on 240 forums also, that and SPL likes em and all of my links are gonna be through them so will see what i end up with, have 2 months till i get some coilovers, gotta finish up the rest of my suspension first.

[JoshuaLogan]

Some buddies of mine run the V3's on there Evo 8 and Supra and they love em. I havent ridden in a 240 that has them but am thinking that if there good on those cars im sure there good for s13's. I want the Cusco 2R's but fuck there expensive....$1800 iirc and V3's are lik $1400 or something like that. I dont need to be super low like most like to be on here so i may look into the KW's. Everyone swears by KTS's on 240 forums also, that and SPL likes em and all of my links are gonna be through them so will see what i end up with, have 2 months till i get some coilovers, gotta finish up the rest of my suspension first.

The KW Variant 3 retails for like $2000. The lowest I've found them for is $1700. Where are you seeing them for $1400?

As far as going with a custom Koni or Bilstein setup, I've thought about it and I'd love to, but it looked like that comes out to more around $3000+... The KWs are easier on the wallet.

[SoSideways]

If you're going 8611s all around, then yeah I can see that going over $3000.

If you're just going 8610 front and Koni yellows in the back, it shouldn't be more than like $1500, and that set up will be much better for the street and track than some of these other coilovers that were mentioned in this thread.

Most of these way overpriced JDM coilovers have valving that's basically like stock, but at least 10 times stiffer, and matched to springs that are basically just whatever other popular spring rates it is for a particular chassis is, so for S-chassis, it'd be 8/6 or 9/7, even 12/10, while the valving stays the same.

That's why they're crappy.

For those of you that are still sitting there saying Stance is awesome and this and that, well, I thought the same when I first got them, but after having them for awhile, and having an open mind and willing to learn more about dampers and other things, it's easy to see why they aren't considered any good in the grand scheme of things.

[JoshuaLogan]

If you're going 8611s all around, then yeah I can see that going over $3000.

If you're just going 8610 front and Koni yellows in the back, it shouldn't be more than like $1500, and that set up will be much better for the street and track than some of these other coilovers that were mentioned in this thread.

Most of these way overpriced JDM coilovers have valving that's basically like stock, but at least 10 times stiffer, and matched to springs that are basically just whatever other popular spring rates it is for a particular chassis is, so for S-chassis, it'd be 8/6 or 9/7, even 12/10, while the valving stays the same.

That's why they're crappy.

For those of you that are still sitting there saying Stance is awesome and this and that, well, I thought the same when I first got them, but after having them for awhile, and having an open mind and willing to learn more about dampers and other things, it's easy to see why they aren't considered any good in the grand scheme of things.

So, what's your opinion on the variant 3 versus an 8610 front + yellows rear setup?

[SoSideways]

It's about even I think, but the 8610 will probably be a little better damper than the front KW damper.

Problem with the KWs is that, they come with pretty soft rates IIRC, and you have to have them revalved for the slightly higher rates, whereas for the 8610/yellow setup, you can pretty much go with a 9/7 setup right off the bat without revalve.

However, 7k springs for the Koni yellow in the rear would probably be as high as you'd want to go though.

[s14freak93901]

KW wants $1600+ with no top hats and on top of that the struts aren't inverted. no likely.

[SoSideways]

KW wants $1600+ with no top hats and on top of that the struts aren't inverted. no likely.

Wow.

So I suppose Koni twin tube inserts like 861x are garbage as well because they're twin tube and not an inverted monotube design?

[s14freak93901]

koni is a different story. they are the only company that makes awesome twintubes. i just don't see anything special about kw's for the price.

[SoSideways]

koni is a different story. they are the only company that makes awesome twintubes. i just don't see anything special about kw's for the price.

The fact that they actually do real R&D and develop a piston for their dampers that's worth anything, and come up with vehicle specific valving for their coilovers that's worth money?

Versus your $1700-$2500 JDM coilovers that were "developed" by 1 racing driver that was paid to say "these are nice", and every car has pretty much the same valving on all of their coilovers, with only spring rates being different?

No, no thanks. I'll buy KW before I buy those high priced JDM coilovers again.

[motorsporttc]

Valving is what people seem to forget where the R&D and money is, a strut can be high quality inverted blah blah but without the correct valving it's basically an expensive paper weight. I'm relatively new to the 240 community and I recently just installed some KTS coilovers, and have ridden in stance man they both felt like crap but oh well coils were cheap, my other FWD track car runs Bilsteins PSS revalved (No fancy adjustment knobs here), swift, torrington bearings etc.. and it seriously feels like stock almost driving around the street. I was also going to get KW3 which I thought was really nice, good valving, yes a little soft but great road holding without the typical hop skip and jump low speed dampening a lot of japanese coils have. Only reason I went Bilstein... Cheap and local access for rebuilds.

[JoshuaLogan]

Has anyone here tried out both DG-5s and KWs? I can't seem to find anyone who's tried both.

[SoSideways]

Has anyone here tried out both DG-5s and KWs? I can't seem to find anyone who's tried both.

DG5 has serious linear valving, much like Stance coils.

KWs have digressive valving, much like the Bilsteins and the Konis. Good for hitting bumps and not feeling like you just split your car in two going 50mph or faster.

[JoshuaLogan]

DG5 has serious linear valving, much like Stance coils.

KWs have digressive valving, much like the Bilsteins and the Konis. Good for hitting bumps and not feeling like you just split your car in two going 50mph or faster.

Well, I know that much already from reading about them, but from what I've heard the DG-5 are supposed to have better dampening and valving than your typical JDM style coilovers.

I was just looking for personal opinions from anybody who may have tried both... I guess that's unlikely though since they are completely different designs, one's from Germany & one's from Japan, they're probably for the most part used by different types of drivers, etc.

Still though, I'm curious. Both DG-5s and KWs (usually custom spec'd competition versions) are being used in Formula D & D1 by a large number of drivers... A lot of the top drivers are using DG-5s, but that could have more to do with Keiichi Tsuchiya being involved with the company than the DG-5s being superior to KWs. Obviously the name helps the sales, but I'm sure the DG-5 have a lot of R&D behind them and have great performance. At $2500, they are a bit cheaper than KW Clubsports...

[idriveattz32]

It's a shame JRZ doesn't have an application for the 240SX, they make some impressive setups you can get on the Z/G, EVO and STi.

http://www.jrzsuspension.com/uploads/2010/JRZcatalog2010.pdf

[SoSideways]

S13 guys can run the Z32 rears, and so can a low S14.

Fronts, might have to base the housing on the Evo housing or something, and redesign the brackets a little and it should work.

Valving will probably way off though, so probably not the best idea to just throw these on lol