A 5Post member shares his experience and review of KW’s Variant 3 Coilovers. From an RD Sports Spring set up, Lacster installed KW Variant 3 Coilovers on his F10 5 Series. Here is his reaction, followed by the photos of the installation process and the finished look:
The car is completely different. The car “feels” lighter, like it lost a lot of weight. Body roll? Whats that? The F10 now tackles corners like a BMW should and not the boat feeling I had for the first month or so with the stock suspension. The RD Springs helped reduce that but I was not completely satisfied. It feels so flat around a turn. It took some time to re-learn how to drive it, it’s that different. Coming from completely stock to this, makes me feel like I’m back in my E92. Okay well not that far but 100 times better now.
Ride quality. My settings on the KW’s are the out-of-box settings. I have not messed with the rebound/compression yet. The ride quality is not bad at all. I’m lucky enough to live in an area where we have very nice smooth roads. The V3’s are stiffer then stock, thats for sure, but it’s not annoyingly harsh or rough, and I’m on 20’s. But the suspension has a tiny bounce to it. And I mean a tiny bit, no where near the bounciness of stock or the RD’s. My wife was following me in her SUV on the way home from Bavarian, She said she could see a slight bounce, but it was not really noticeable, that it looked like a race car. It’s not a constant bounce, it only really happens when their is some sort of dip in the road, and it like bounces back into place (1 bounce). Does that make any sense?
“75” on the freeway feels like 30, the car feels so planted on the ground. The stock ride was boat-like to me, very “floaty” and I felt disconnected from the road. Now I feel like I’m in full control of the car. The steering feels tight, I feel like there is a new tighter steering rack on the car. The steering wheel snaps back into place after a turn. My braking feels tighter as well, no nose dive, and I feel the F10 stops faster for some reason.
The F10 now feels neutral and light. Like it’s ready to fight.
Was it worth it? YES!!!!! I definitely recommend the KW’s, if you want the ability to dial in your height and stiffness, and get awesome handling with out spending an arm and a leg, this your ticket.
Source: Lacster of 5Post