I recently swapped out my coilovers from ZEAL Function V6's to KW Variant 3's. The ZEAL's were no doubt an awesome coilover. My particular setup was mostly custom and dialed in for a drift car. 16kg/12ks spring rates with true rear coilover. You can imagine how stiff and rough the car drives but it handled like no other.

One of the main reason's why I opted for the KW's is because of driveability. While the ZEAL's handled great, it was just way too much for daily driving and my particular commute. Realistically, I had no reason to have this aggressive of a coilover for daily driving. I go to the track maybe 4-6 times a year and it just didn't justify driving a car this rough. A lot of my friend's in the industry told me great things about KW so I decided to try it out.

George from KW Automotive had a set of Variant 3's shipped over to Performance Nissan directly from Germany. The Z then went to Steve at M-WORKZ in Gardena for the install. M-WORKZ installed the coilovers then aligned and corner balanced the car. I must say that M-WORKZ did a SUPERB job on the work. Steve and his crew are very professional and with Steve's motorsport background, his expertise came into play perfectly and its not a wonder why chassis tuning is his specialty. Steve has many car's under his belt. He has built Verena Mei's JWT TT 350Z and he also has his own personal 350Z's and a NISMO R32 GT-R. He was even kind of enough to loan me a set of upper pillow ball mounts off of a APEXi coilover he had laying around.

Once my friend's over at M-WORKZ had everything dialed in, George from KW had recommended me to leave the dampening at mid setting and adjust from there. I drove the car for a week and there was definitely a difference. The Variant 3's were a lot more bareable for daily driving. Stiff and responsive yet subtle enough for Southern California road conditions. The dampening settings were still a bit too stiff for me so back to M-WORKZ I went.

The only complaint I had about the Variant 3's are that it does not come with upper pillow ball mounts and the factory strut mounts needed to be retained. This reason is because upper pillow ball mounts are not TUV approved in Germany, therefore was not offered. George tells me that later this summer, KW will release a optional upper pillow ball mount for the U.S market but nothing is set in stone yet.

After the second time the Z came out from M-WORKZ, WOW! I had M-WORKZ soften up the rear dampers by HALF A CLICK on both rebound and compression and there was a significant difference in the way the car handled and drove. The ride quality is bar none and is VERY comfortable. I have never driven a Z that had this comfort of a ride yet still have responsive and nimble handling. I must admit that it does not handle quite as well as the ZEAL's but the sacrifice was well worth it. I'm sure that on track days, I can adjust the dampening stiffer and I'll still be able to have lots of fun at the track.

Compression is adjusted from the bottom of the shock casing and rebound is adjusted from the end of the piston rod. Accessability is not any easier or any worse than my ZEAL's. There is way too much technical detail about the Variant 3's but the most important attributes are the patented valve at the bottom of the damper casing and the low-speed pressure adjustments.

At the end of the day, if you're looking for one of the best coilovers for daily driving needs, consider the KW Variant 3.

I'd recommend my friends over at M-WORKZ to anyone on the boards. Alignments, corner balancing, camber/toe settings, etc. These guys can do it all!

READ MORE ABOUT THE VARIANT 3'S HERE

ORDER VARIANT 3'S HERE

Special thanks to George at KW Automotive and Steve at M-WORKZ.

KW Automotive, North America Inc
1075 North Avenue
Sanger, CA 93657
1-888-713-5566

M-WORKZ
16400 South Avalon Boulevard
Gardena, CA 90248
310-713-8386

Pictures coming soon....

 

+1, I recently had my car aligned and corner balanced at M-Workz, and they did a very good job at a very reasonable price.

Just wondering, but why did you have to take your car to adjust the dampening? Could you not have done it yourself?

 

Yup but at the initial time of install, I didn't have my stock mounts and like I said in my post, Steve loaned me a set of APEXi rear upper pillow ball mounts for the time being. So I went back a second time to swap mounts, lower the car more and align the steering wheel because we weren't able to finish everything the first time.

 

sweeet. your going to love the variant 3's man. i had them on my audi before, the best setup for a daily driver IMO

 

So far, so good.

 

Nice.

 

Pics as promised...