Applicable to: '99 + 1.8 liter
KW Variant 1 INOX stainless steel height-adjustable coilovers from Goodwin Racing
I've had these coilovers installed on my '99 for nearly a week now (as of 2-18-05). I also performed the installation myself.
I previously had KYB AGX shocks with Racing Beat Street springs installed on my car and would have to say that these coilovers are a far better choice for a daily driver. With a stiffness setting of 1 (out of 4), the KYBs were acceptably comfortable, if not painfully jarring when encountering large potholes and the like. The body control was adequate as well, but nothing to write home about. These KW Variant 1 coilovers lack any adjustability other than height (which is quite a nice addition), so their performance characteristics are constant. Overall the comfort on normal roads is about 2/3 of the way between stock and the KYBs at 1. The body control, however, is closer to 3 or 4 on the KYBs. For hard street driving and occasional track usage, this seems nearly ideal to me. After my April 4th track day I’ll be able to comment more on the track performance of this setup. For reference, I also have Racing Beat tubular sway bars with RB adjustable end lin! ks, front sway bar bracket flanges, and the front sway bar brace. The nicest change from the KYBs is the way that harsh, sharp impacts are soaked-up much more comfortably. No more worries about a pothole breaking my back. Installation took me around 6 hours including height adjustment and fiddling. The directions from Goodwin Racing were very easy to follow. As always, I asked Brian Goodwin for his honest opinion and once more he was right on the money. If you have the option to buy products from him, I would highly recommend it. Note: I am not in any way connected to Goodwin Racing or Brian personally; other than as a very satisfied customer. One piece of advice though is to call KW's North American distributor in Canada and have them email a copy of the included instructions in English rather than the supplied German. Overall I'm VERY pleased and for the price that you can buy these now (under $900), you cannot go wrong. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about these coilovers.
Over 30 minutes to remove completely
| Back to Product Reviews | 23 August, 2003 |