sawood12
New member
Well it's actually three weeks on but I rounded up!. Well there seems to be quite alot of interest about KW in the worldwide 944 community so I thought i'd provide a bit of an update now i've been driving the car for a few weeks now.
First of all the car feels like a completely different car since i've had it fitted so i've been pretty conservative while i've got used to it again. The ride is definately significantly more firm, but i'm not sure what settings Promax have set my shock absorber settings to but to be honest I do quite like the firmer ride, although I do find myself navigating around potholes a bit more than I used to. But despite the firmer ride I think the ride quality is improved, which sounds contradictory but although I'm feeling every blemish on the road surface there is no shocks sent crashing through the chassis like there was before so the car rides over the bumps robustly. I hope you all get what i'm trying to say here!
In terms of the handling, well all I can say is unbelievable. The car just feels so so much more composed and grippy than it did before it is definately much more competant than my driving skills! As an example there is a bend off a dual carridgeway slip road that is one of those nice constant radius bends that is a little more than 90 degrees. Pre-KW I could take the bend at 70mph maybe a bit more (80 if I use both lanes and take the racing line) and the car always felt well balanced and composed once you had allowed the body roll to settle. However the surface is slighly off camber and the tarmac is old with a few minor surface pockmarks so the car felt a little 'skittish' at these speeds and it sort of 4-wheel drifted slightly as the car rode over the peaks of the pockmarks. Now when I take this bend at the same speed the car just feels planted with no bodyroll and feels as if it could take another 10mph at least although I will never test this theory!
The car also feels as if it has much more drive. In a straight line there is much much reduced squat under acellaration so it feels as if the rear wheels dig in under boost and it's as if you can almost feel the rubber yeilding under accelaration as the torque tries to tear it off the tarmac. When accelarating in a turn e.g. when accellarating out of a junction or a small roundabout, again the car feels like it is digging in and there is so much more grip. I suppose this is because the inside wheel is no unloading as much as it did before due to the reduced body roll and despite my lack of LSD I feel that I can give the car so much more without the inside wheel breaking free.
Well as I expected my braking performance has improved to no end. I installed my Big Blacks last year and have been slightly underwhelmed by them, not really noticing a vast improvement in braking performance and not being able to get the ABS to cut in on track days. I put this down to my soft shocks at the front and it seems I was spot on. As there is much less dive under heavy braking it is the same story as what i've described about how the car feels under accellaration but in reverse. It feels as if the front tyres are digging into the tarmac and trying to tear its surface as if you are skidding on a carpet on a polished wood floor and it is ruffling up, and now in the dry on a new tarmac surface I can get the ABS to kick in at will. I also think i'll need to replace the rear bias valve as the rear does seem to want to lock up easily with the increased braking upfront. Just goes to show how important good shock absorbers are upfront in terms of braking. It is a point of safety.
Anyway sorry for the long thread and I hope some of you at least found it informative and interesting. Of course i've cannot directly compare to other aftermarket systems, fresh M030 or even a fresh standard system but i'm pretty confident that it would stand up pretty well against all these other options.
EDIT:-
Just thought i'd list all the things I had installed at the same time as the KW:-
M030 Torsion Bars, Racers Edge camber plates, new front ARB bushes (standard), Rennbay geometry correcting control arm ball joint kit with Phospher Bronze cup bearings instead of the polymer ones.
First of all the car feels like a completely different car since i've had it fitted so i've been pretty conservative while i've got used to it again. The ride is definately significantly more firm, but i'm not sure what settings Promax have set my shock absorber settings to but to be honest I do quite like the firmer ride, although I do find myself navigating around potholes a bit more than I used to. But despite the firmer ride I think the ride quality is improved, which sounds contradictory but although I'm feeling every blemish on the road surface there is no shocks sent crashing through the chassis like there was before so the car rides over the bumps robustly. I hope you all get what i'm trying to say here!
In terms of the handling, well all I can say is unbelievable. The car just feels so so much more composed and grippy than it did before it is definately much more competant than my driving skills! As an example there is a bend off a dual carridgeway slip road that is one of those nice constant radius bends that is a little more than 90 degrees. Pre-KW I could take the bend at 70mph maybe a bit more (80 if I use both lanes and take the racing line) and the car always felt well balanced and composed once you had allowed the body roll to settle. However the surface is slighly off camber and the tarmac is old with a few minor surface pockmarks so the car felt a little 'skittish' at these speeds and it sort of 4-wheel drifted slightly as the car rode over the peaks of the pockmarks. Now when I take this bend at the same speed the car just feels planted with no bodyroll and feels as if it could take another 10mph at least although I will never test this theory!
The car also feels as if it has much more drive. In a straight line there is much much reduced squat under acellaration so it feels as if the rear wheels dig in under boost and it's as if you can almost feel the rubber yeilding under accelaration as the torque tries to tear it off the tarmac. When accelarating in a turn e.g. when accellarating out of a junction or a small roundabout, again the car feels like it is digging in and there is so much more grip. I suppose this is because the inside wheel is no unloading as much as it did before due to the reduced body roll and despite my lack of LSD I feel that I can give the car so much more without the inside wheel breaking free.
Well as I expected my braking performance has improved to no end. I installed my Big Blacks last year and have been slightly underwhelmed by them, not really noticing a vast improvement in braking performance and not being able to get the ABS to cut in on track days. I put this down to my soft shocks at the front and it seems I was spot on. As there is much less dive under heavy braking it is the same story as what i've described about how the car feels under accellaration but in reverse. It feels as if the front tyres are digging into the tarmac and trying to tear its surface as if you are skidding on a carpet on a polished wood floor and it is ruffling up, and now in the dry on a new tarmac surface I can get the ABS to kick in at will. I also think i'll need to replace the rear bias valve as the rear does seem to want to lock up easily with the increased braking upfront. Just goes to show how important good shock absorbers are upfront in terms of braking. It is a point of safety.
Anyway sorry for the long thread and I hope some of you at least found it informative and interesting. Of course i've cannot directly compare to other aftermarket systems, fresh M030 or even a fresh standard system but i'm pretty confident that it would stand up pretty well against all these other options.
EDIT:-
Just thought i'd list all the things I had installed at the same time as the KW:-
M030 Torsion Bars, Racers Edge camber plates, new front ARB bushes (standard), Rennbay geometry correcting control arm ball joint kit with Phospher Bronze cup bearings instead of the polymer ones.
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