As a birthday treat to myself, I've been to Awesome GTI today to have the KW Variant 1 coil-over kit fitted.
Must say a huge thank you to Andy, Al, and especially John for all his hard work on my car. Not forgetting all the team at Awesome GTI always a pleasure to do business with you and the work as usual was conducted with the up most professionalism. Very pleased with the KW kit and the result.
I have opted for the Variant 1's as I only really wanted to adjust the drop to suit my BBS 19's. After some consideration I didn't bother looking at the V2 or V3, though undoubtedly fantastic kits. I simply don't have the know how or compulsion to be fiddling with them and don't do enough track days to warrant the extra premium for those kits.
However don't dismiss the V1's the quality of the V1 kit is just as superb as you would expect from the KW Inoxx stainless struts, highlighted by the bright yellow springs and anodised purple adjustment parts.
John had fitted the KW kit in a couple of hours. I had a few extra things done today also such as having an up-rated dog-bone mount fitted I sourced a while ago from Issam at INA.
Though I expected it might not be a simple job to fit the mount, I was able to give John some good pointers from a visual guide posted on Vortex and he sorted that out too.
The sub-frame assembly had to be removed to fit the mount. That ultimately added another 1.5 hours to the job and then John did a geometry realignment afterwards and full road test.
How do they drive?
Well as I expected they are a firmer ride than the stock setup, but not earth shattering hard. They are very smooth on the road, but with a firmer rebound over stock so I found the car communicated the road conditions more precisely than before. This makes me more confident to release more of the power in my right foot than before.
As with the Eibach coilovers I had on my old Cupra R, though they might be firm you still try to avoid the potholes where you can. Though they are a lot less crashy than stock when you do discover the potholes, so they unsettle the car much less.
Cruising home on the motorway was more comfortable with less swaying motion in the cabin, the coilys really do smooth out the road surface but lessen the roll, far less braking dive and acceleration lift. Feels a lot more nailed to the road.
Pressing on through some of my favourite roundabouts, I couldn't get it to break away on me, (might be different in the wet) but today in sunny dry conditions the car was effortless to control and felt like a much nimbler car than it's size would convey. The Cupra has a good chassis under it anyway for a hot hatch at least, and the KW's do aid and compliment the handling rather than change it too radically.
Though under boost you still suffer from the inevitable under-steer but it's reigned in much more than before and is more easily controlled. I'm sure the 19's do effect the sharpness of the steering and 18's would no doubt be more suited for track conditions, however no complaints from me the KW's really hit the mark in fast road conditions.
The Density Line mount I sourced from Issam@INA is a superb investment a solid rubber mount, it does have the slight negative drawback of increasing the vibration in the cabin as you pull away but this effect soon disappears as you get under way. I expect the full polyurethane mounts such as the VF Engineering kit would be even harsher than the rubber DL mount.
The wheel hop is controlled now and everything feels far more solid when you give it some right foot. The most surprising improvement was gear changes, they feel more solid now and easily engage where as before it could at times feel sloppy as the engine rocked back and forth.
Bottom line, I totally recommend the V1's for the Cupra and a good dog-bone mount such as the Density Line further compliments the kit.
Pics to follow.
Must say a huge thank you to Andy, Al, and especially John for all his hard work on my car. Not forgetting all the team at Awesome GTI always a pleasure to do business with you and the work as usual was conducted with the up most professionalism. Very pleased with the KW kit and the result.
I have opted for the Variant 1's as I only really wanted to adjust the drop to suit my BBS 19's. After some consideration I didn't bother looking at the V2 or V3, though undoubtedly fantastic kits. I simply don't have the know how or compulsion to be fiddling with them and don't do enough track days to warrant the extra premium for those kits.
However don't dismiss the V1's the quality of the V1 kit is just as superb as you would expect from the KW Inoxx stainless struts, highlighted by the bright yellow springs and anodised purple adjustment parts.
John had fitted the KW kit in a couple of hours. I had a few extra things done today also such as having an up-rated dog-bone mount fitted I sourced a while ago from Issam at INA.
Though I expected it might not be a simple job to fit the mount, I was able to give John some good pointers from a visual guide posted on Vortex and he sorted that out too.
The sub-frame assembly had to be removed to fit the mount. That ultimately added another 1.5 hours to the job and then John did a geometry realignment afterwards and full road test.
How do they drive?
Well as I expected they are a firmer ride than the stock setup, but not earth shattering hard. They are very smooth on the road, but with a firmer rebound over stock so I found the car communicated the road conditions more precisely than before. This makes me more confident to release more of the power in my right foot than before.
As with the Eibach coilovers I had on my old Cupra R, though they might be firm you still try to avoid the potholes where you can. Though they are a lot less crashy than stock when you do discover the potholes, so they unsettle the car much less.
Cruising home on the motorway was more comfortable with less swaying motion in the cabin, the coilys really do smooth out the road surface but lessen the roll, far less braking dive and acceleration lift. Feels a lot more nailed to the road.
Pressing on through some of my favourite roundabouts, I couldn't get it to break away on me, (might be different in the wet) but today in sunny dry conditions the car was effortless to control and felt like a much nimbler car than it's size would convey. The Cupra has a good chassis under it anyway for a hot hatch at least, and the KW's do aid and compliment the handling rather than change it too radically.
Though under boost you still suffer from the inevitable under-steer but it's reigned in much more than before and is more easily controlled. I'm sure the 19's do effect the sharpness of the steering and 18's would no doubt be more suited for track conditions, however no complaints from me the KW's really hit the mark in fast road conditions.
The Density Line mount I sourced from Issam@INA is a superb investment a solid rubber mount, it does have the slight negative drawback of increasing the vibration in the cabin as you pull away but this effect soon disappears as you get under way. I expect the full polyurethane mounts such as the VF Engineering kit would be even harsher than the rubber DL mount.
The wheel hop is controlled now and everything feels far more solid when you give it some right foot. The most surprising improvement was gear changes, they feel more solid now and easily engage where as before it could at times feel sloppy as the engine rocked back and forth.
Bottom line, I totally recommend the V1's for the Cupra and a good dog-bone mount such as the Density Line further compliments the kit.
Pics to follow.
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