[Surly73]

Writing back in this thread after ~6 months on the road with my KW v3s.

I started with the KW recommended compression and rebound settings. After the first week I reduced compression two clicks all around and have left it like that ever since.

My ride height is lowered 1"-1.25" from stock. I still have at least one finger gap all around. It is level and not raked. It has been corner balanced. At that ride height I end up with -1* camber in the front which cannot be dialed out. The shop reports that rear aligned to spec.

Balance wise I feel that it likely understeers more. Between the front camber, my H&R 20mm rear sway bar, and how the rear feels stiffened more than the front by the KWs, this surprises me. When dialing up to 6-7/10s the car was way more predictable and solid. Going above 7 I kept running into stuff that felt "funny" and didn't give confidence (compared to even an E90 with 100k mile factory suspension).

Months later, for whatever reason, me or the car is coming more into it's own. I'll divide my observations into a couple of categories.

Balance - I think it understeers but you need to be pushing in tighter corners to feel it. With on ramps and stuff it just feels planted. It's a big, heavy, long wheelbase car. I'm going to keep working on that.

ride height - even though my drop is mild, I often feel things that seem to say that it's been lowered beyond what design intended. Suspension travel has been limited, it feels a little "wound up". It's possible that there may be bushings not involved in the replacement which I should release and retorque in normal position - maybe something is actually a little wound up. I like the looks, greater stability etc... but from the driver's seat it feels "modified" as opposed to "how it should have come from the factory" like my option 704 BMWs in the past. I am also concerned about winter.

[EDIT: I'd have to look it up, but I had a 704 E39 and normal E39 in the family at one point. My 704 model was a good 1.5" if not 2" lower than the standard suspension model with the same overall design. Both had a factory feel, the 704 clearly better. It never felt "wound up" or too low. A 704 F10 is only 10mm lower - maybe there's something about the geometry leading BMW to be so conservative with lowering this platform. My E39 certainly didn't have -1* front camber that couldn't be dialed out compared to the standard suspension model ]

Low frequency and body control - Obviously this is the first thing one notices. You feel bumps, the body is tight, the rear end is no longer a wallowing bounce machine requiring mid-corner corrections to stay on track. The KW initial compression setting was a tad aggressive for what I was looking for but two more clicks out is pretty great. It's not always doing what I consider ideal but it leads to a much higher degree of confidence.

High frequency - I'll call this 'keeping the tires on the road'. This isn't stuff you feel in your butt necessarily, but represents the suspension's job of maintaining contact. It's only in the last couple of weeks/months that I realized how truly phenomenal this package is. Driving "the back way" on some city errands along cracked industrial roads I started to push and it was unshakable. All of the original wheel hop, little step outs and upsets are completely gone. With this package you can simply ignore the less than perfect pavement and go - it just sticks. I did not initially have appreciation for how great this was compared to stock. I do now.



I still have work to do. I still need to play with changing sway bars. I have done no rebound tuning at all and I really should. I could try to reduce understeer by clicking rear compression harder again, but I don't really want to do that from a ride quality perspective.