At Last ! Kw's Fitted

[Stuart_J]

At last after what seems an eternity since I ordered then the KW's are on the car.

Anyway on Friday they finally came out of the box & onto the car & my initial impression can be summed up in one word "Fantastic"

They apear to be exacly what I was looking for, the car sits better on the road, corners are fun again but the big plus & something I was really looking for is that they give a very comfortable general ride. OK harder than the standard 4x4 but not bone jarring like the STI 3 used to be.

I still need to experiment with settings. We stiffened up the rears a quarter of a turn as suggested by John following Colins comments of slight bouncieness & put the fronts on with the factory setting, lowered the car to what looks like RS height

The car feels so good at the moment I am going to leave it as it is for a while before I start playing & my guess is that the only changes may be to stiffen the fronts up for the odd "special day out"

[Stuart_J]

I have also fitted 17" wheels with Toyos which will also of helped cornering & a Godspeed big brake kit

The Toyos have given more grip & are so much quieter than the standard Pirellis, Its almost worth fitting them just for the quieter ride.

The brakes are still to be fully evaluated, I have only done 400 miles so are still bedding in & I will leave it for a few hundred more before I give them a work out but already they give a lot more feel.

Ian Godney really is the guy to talk to on Brakes. Unlike many people who sell other peoples kits Ian actually manufactures all his own brackets etc & machines all the discs & bells he can make a kit to suit your car & adjust offsets etc to suit whatever wheels you choose. The 335 discs fit really neatly inside the wheels & the callipers clear the wheels by a couple of mm

For the wheels I got the best price from South West Tyres & they even loaned me a wheel to take to Godspeed to see if the brakes could be made to fit before I bought them. They are worth a call even if you know what wheels you want for a price check

The only snag at the moment is a slight rubbing noise on full right lock which I noticed last night, sounds like something catching the back of the disc so it will be up on the ramp next week to investigate.

I would post some pics but have absolutely no idea how to, If anyone wants to volunteer to post on my behalf I will e-mail them some pics Monday night.

Contacts & thanks to the following

John @ Impresiv for the KW's 01268 410530

Ian Godney for the brakes 01656 660899

Simon @ South West Tyres 01275 335830

ALSO TO COLIN for all his advice & help with the KW's

Stuart

[Fabpreza]

Keep us 4x4 owners posted re the KW's and brakes !

Rob

[redbaron]

take some pics... would love to see the brakes...

the KW's are awesome... had mine on track yetserday and was comfortably the fastest cornering car on the circuit... (even faster than the 911 RSR)

[Delcac]

Originally posted by ffelan in this post

take some pics... would love to see the brakes...

the KW's are awesome... had mine on track yetserday and was comfortably the fastest cornering car on the circuit... (even faster than the 911 RSR)

Paul

Did you get the KW 2's or 3's.

Des

[TaviaRS]

2s. I'm the only muppet to get the v3

[redbaron]

only 2's but will i live to regret it?

[Delcac]

Originally posted by ffelan in this post

only 2's but will i live to regret it?

Paul

Did you change any of the factory settings before you took it on the track, if so what did you change.

Des

[redbaron]

turned fronts to "nails" havent changed rears cos cant find the adjustor? lowered front to nine threads from bottom. With the upper and lower braces this made the front really stiff and the rear light... just the way to get the back moving in the corner...

[Dutch4x4]

Excellent, Stuart, good you like them.

Now we want to see the pictures...

[SkodiRS]

Sounds good Stuart...just have to get them piccies posted.

BTW asked Jackson's of Basingstoke about warranty on modded cars.........they said that the warranty would be void for the area associated to the mod i.e. engine remap would cover engine and engine electrics.

So I suppose they are semi mod friendly and at least the whole warranty isn't null and void.

Cheers.

Adrian.

[mannyo]

Are they an easy install, in that do you need spring compressors and so on, or is the front strut fully assembled and ready to fit.

[TaviaRS]

Front strut is fully assembled and ready to fit, apart from the top mount. They are easy to fit, with the aid of a lump hammer, a crow bar, a soft faced hammer and a trolley jack or 2. All in all it takes about 1/2 hour per corner (at the most).

Jon

[MrkyMrk]

BTW asked Jackson's of Basingstoke about warranty on modded cars.........they said that the warranty would be void for the area associated to the mod i.e. engine remap would cover engine and engine electrics.

Where I bought my car from

Extremely friendly but I could not get a solid answer on their feeling towards mods. I suspect they are more used to selling to grandparents, so my interest in having more than 180 bhp perhaps wrong footed them?

Regards,

Mark

[SkodiRS]

Mark,

I talked to Kelly the workshop foreman.

I also asked about retro fitting cruise control and he said "No!".

[Delcac]

Originally posted by ffelan in this post

turned fronts to "nails" havent changed rears cos cant find the adjustor? lowered front to nine threads from bottom. With the upper and lower braces this made the front really stiff and the rear light... just the way to get the back moving in the corner...

Cheers m8

Des

[Stuart_J]

Rubbing noise finally found & sorted, one of the 3 bolts at the bottom of the suspension assembly was just catching the inside of the disc on absolute full lock, took about 20 minutes to find with the car on the ramp & about 30 seconds with a grinder to cure, just shaved about 1mm off the top of the nut.

It appears then when the car is lowered the angle of the bolt leans in slightly & that with the combination of the bigger discs caused the noise

Stuart

Pictures on thread entitled Stuart-Js Skud missile just in case anyone missed them

[Fabpreza]

Stuart (and Colin ?!)

What do you think so far now that you've sorted the bedding in ?

My questions are on these lines:-

- Do they retain the decent (but firmed-up) 4x4 ride ?

- Is there any 'high frequency' jiggliness in the ride ?

- Does it corner flat ?

- Do you think it still could do with better Anti-roll bars/bushes ?

- How much trial and error has there been ?

I'm sure that all the 4x4 owners are interested in KW (and M.A.D)

coil-overs experience ?

:cheers:

[Stuart_J]

Havent had time to adjust mine since fitting them, all we did was to turn the backs up 1/4 turn before fitting them following Colins initial comments.

Overall I am very pleased with them as they are & they are certainly a vast improvement on the standard ones.

The ride is fairly comfortable but when you go into a corner it dosent roll & corners a lot better.

On high speed corners with undulations it feels a bit odd but I am sure when I find time to stiffen up the fronts some of thiswill disapear.

As I have said in previous threads I did not want the ride of my earlier STI3 which was far too hard, was generally uncomfortable & if you hit bumps in a corner it would sometimes hop sideways which is a tad un-nerving. I have only had one hard bump with the KW's & that was on one of those notorious fen land roads at about 100 when there was a big dip followed by a rise & I was still going doewn when the road was coming back up

as for the anti roll bar question I have absolutely no idea, I guess it would be better but I am very happy the way things are. I JUST NEED TO GET MORE HORSES NOW.

Stuart

[Fabpreza]

Tell you what, I'll lend you my Jabba chip if you lend me your KW's

I have to say that you will have a pretty complete car when the ECU gets changed, as it handles the power surprising well (if you make allowances for softness and roll) in standard trim. It's been said before, but think Legacy Turbo rather than Impreza Turbo in feel.

[Stuart_J]

Got to get the Holidays out of the way then its going to be time to work on the power, as with others it looks like a trip to Peterbourogh will be planned.

[Delcac]

A bit more than a remap is on the cards me thinks.

[Stuart_J]

Delcac,

Hope its a typing error, if not whats a "remap me" & how do I get it done, is this a way of making you a better driver ???????

[Delcac]

Ooops.

Apparently denis is having this procedure done very soon......err, have I let the cat out of the bag.

Des