KW 배리언트 3 코일오버 성능에 대한 장기적인 검토

Richard는 12년, 10만 마일의 내구성과 성능을 강조하며 KW 베리에이션 3 코일오버를 꼼꼼히 리뷰합니다.

### 12년, 100,000마일 후의 KW 베리에이션 3 코일오버 종합 리뷰
* 👋 채널에 다시 오신 것을 환영합니다. 저는 Richard이고, 오늘은 다양한 지형과 온도에서 거의 **12년 동안 10만 마일**을 주행한 92년형 NSX에 장착된 KW Variant 3 댐퍼에 대해 심층적으로 검토해 보겠습니다.
* 🛠 2010년 8월에 설치된 이 댐퍼는 **최대 8,500마일의 장거리 도로 주행**과 **30개 서킷에서 8,000마일 이상의 트랙 주행** 등 광범위한 사용을 견뎌내며 **내구성**을 입증했습니다.
* 🔍 물리적으로 KW 댐퍼는 스테인리스 스틸 하우징이 **심각한 부식을 보이지 않는 등 매우 잘 견뎌냈지만, 장기간 사용 후 약간의 누수와 부싱의 마모가 발견되었습니다.
* 📊 쇽 다이노에서 구형 댐퍼와 신형 댐퍼를 비교한 결과, 구형 댐퍼는 여전히 댐핑 기능을 수행하지만 시간이 지남에 따라 오일 성능 저하로 인해 **일부 불일치가 발생**하는 것으로 나타났습니다.
* 💡 주관적으로 승차감은 매우 좋았으며, 코일오버는 성능과 편안함의 균형**을 제공하여 트랙에서의 핸들링을 희생하지 않고도 장거리 주행이 가능했습니다.
* 💰 KW 베리에이션 3 코일오버는 약 **$2800**의 **강력한 가치 제안**으로 **매니아들에게 **좋은 성능과 수명**을 제공하여 투자를 정당화하는 것으로 간주됩니다.
* 🔄 이제 새로운 세트가 설치되었으니 더 많은 테스트를 해보고 싶고, 위에 링크된 **설치 동영상**을 통해 더 많은 인사이트를 얻으시길 바랍니다.
* 👍 이 리뷰가 도움이 되었거나 재미있었다면 **좋아요**를 누르고 더 많은 콘텐츠를 구독하고 **트랙의 향후 업데이트**를 기대해주세요!

[Music] Well, hello everybody, and welcome back to the channel. I'm Richard, and this is Lap of the World. You are currently watching what may be the most thorough review of a set of coilovers that exists on the internet. This is one corner from a set of KW Variant 3 dampers that we have run on our '92 NSX for the last 12 years and nearly 100,000 miles. First, we're going to briefly touch on what they've been through in that period of time, and then we aren't pulling any punches. We are going to talk about how they have held up physically, and then we're going to throw them on the dyno next to a brand new out-of-the-box KW Variant 3, and we're going to see how far out of spec the old one might be. After that, we're going to cover some of the subjective stuff like ride quality, performance, and finally, we will talk about some of these small design differences that you might see between a set of vintage KWs and something that

you might get if you ordered some today. In full disclosure, this video is not sponsored by KW. Let's get started. Installed in August of 2010, these dampers have seen nearly 12 years and nearly 100,000 miles of use. These miles have included numerous trips across the country, covering as many as 8,500 miles over a single 15-day trip. That's, of course, on top of the something north of 8,000 track miles around 30 different circuits, ranging from super smooth Formula 1-grade tarmac to test tracks normally used for commercial vehicles, and in temperatures ranging from 25 degrees and snow to 115 degrees in the California interior. So, it's safe to say we've put them through their paces. Now, let's see how they've held up for physical condition. We will start with the damper housings. KW touts their NX line stainless steel housings as having 100% corrosion resistance and an unlimited lifespan. Looking at these housings, I actually don't have any grounds to question those.

claims even the pistons, which aren't technically covered by that statement, show essentially no corrosion, save for what could be some surface corrosion near the threading at the top. But that is probably really just staining from the actual corrosion of the upper bushing sleeve, hoping the structural integrity cause is a clever bump stop design that incorporates a dust shield that covers the piston housing interface on the top side and has kept those areas shockingly clean, considering the time and mileage involved. These spring perches and collars are a composite material with stainless steel reinforcement, and they also show no signs of degradation. And they still move on the threading, albeit with a little resistance. On even a completely unwashed housing, the right rear, aka the most abused corner of the car, did start to leak from the top adjustment point. I only noticed this after returning from our most recent track outing at PBIR. Had I done this over the winter as planned, they might have gotten a clean bill of health at that time. Leaks aside, on the list of things that

have seen some degradation. The lower bushings are probably chief among those with respect to a point of actual concern. You can see here where the rubber has shrunk and started to crack a bit and draw away from the center bushing. These are still serviceable at this point, but I have seen other examples of KW variant 3's where these have failed more significantly. The upper spring locator bushings, these rubber donuts that attach to these top hats, all showed signs of being compressed, but none were loose or otherwise compromised. A couple of the foam bump stops have split a little and when removed left some flakes behind, but they were still doing their job, so I would not cite this as a real point of concern separate from the dampers but still part of the package from KW. I also wanted to touch on the springs. They aren't covered by KW's infinite corrosion resistance claims. Still, my springs only showed minor abrasion with only a couple of places on two of the coils where the bright yellow coating had been.

compromised. That said, spring length did come into question a bit. I noticed one of the two rear main springs was visibly shorter than any of the rest. Here it is next to its equally used sibling. The new springs are all the same length as the dirtier one pictured here. So, I questioned whether this was a product defect or the spring actually losing height over the decade plus of use. Talking to our local suspension expert, it's expected for springs to lose a little rate over their lifespan, even if they don't appear physically compromised. But springs losing height, while not unheard of, would be unusual. I'm not too worried as I'm replacing the rear springs, and the front main springs that I am re-using are significantly newer than the dampers, as I changed rates some years ago to mimic the NA2 Type R spring ratio, albeit softer overall. Now that we know how they've held up physically, let's throw a pair of old ones and a pair of new ones in the backup car and head over to Shorty's Shocks in Blount.

county link in the description. Thanks for your help, shorty, or we can use his shock dino to see how far out of spec these 12-year-old, 100,000-mile KWs might be compared to some new ones. [Music] [Music] Diving right in and throwing the old shock on the dyno, shorty ran a live graph as it came up to temperature to see what the damping profile looked like. I'm not enough of a shock expert to try and relate the science here, but the TLDR is that it was definitely still doing damper things that approximated its original settings. However, its profile did change as it got hot. I'm told this is on account of oil degradation or contamination. For those unfamiliar, the damping effect of a shock absorber is accomplished by forcing oil through various sizes of orifice. This means that the condition of the oil, as well as the internal seals, are paramount to a damper's function. In our case, where the new shock was pretty consistent in its damping through

a full heat cycle. The old damper started out a little stiffer than this similarly set new damper, possibly on account of the oil degrading or having a higher cold viscosity, but ended up softer after it thinned out as the oil heated up. There may have been some other variables at play there, like seals bleeding through that caused this, but the oil degradation is the standing expert opinion here. Speaking of expert opinions, I also asked Shorty for his unvarnished opinion on the new KWs after running them through a cycle. I told him he would absolutely not hurt my feelings if he had bad things to say. I'm not quoting him here, but I interpreted his response in so many words as being that they really weren't bad at all. For an off-the-shelf shock at their price point, they were consistent, and the adjustments we did changed what they were supposed to. We didn't go through an entire testing suite on the new ones, as other than to see the one pair that I brought were pretty close to each other. As for the

old ones. We again confirmed that they were still doing damper things, although somewhat less consistently than they would when new. The last thing we'll talk about between the old and the new are some design changes and updates to the new versions that, in my opinion, address some shortfalls with the original. Although they are broadly identical, the compression or bump adjustments on the 2021 KWs are now done via a thumb wheel versus a pin arrangement on these circa 2010 versions. This adjuster is now more accessible from both sides for easier adjustment under the car, and each step of adjustment now has a positive tactile detent on both bump and rebound, where the old ones relied on sweeps that didn't give you a whole lot of feedback. Getting into some more subjective stuff here with respect to performance and ride, I'm no vehicle development driver or engineer, but I can at least speak anecdotally as a decent amateur driver with a reasonably calibrated butt dyno. I've done autocross at a locally competitive level for years. One of the first things I did after putting the old

set of kws on and originally was going to Chattanooga and scoring ftd fastest time of the day at a wet autocross against some reasonably stiff competition. Some of it was lucky tire choice given the weather, but the car was very predictable and not upset around bumpy corners on an empty auction. A lot on track, they've always felt very sure-footed, and the car hasn't been upset by curbing or all but the gnarliest bumps or surface changes. Similarly, on road, they don't beat you up on anything but the worst surfaces. They definitely are not the magic carpet ride of a good conditioned stock NSX suspension, but they manage the body roll better, and I would rate them above stock Lamborghini suspension for comfort, if you needed that extra data point for one more point of reference. While my wife and I are still young at heart, we are not teenagers anymore, but have still been able to pull off 15-hour highway stents and arrive at our destinations not crippled. My overall summary of opinion of the KW.

variant 3 as a coilover option for the NSX and many other applications is that after having gone over the old ones pretty thoroughly, tested them, and then put them at the mercy of a guy who builds race shocks, I don't regret buying the second set. I think if you're looking for a coilover that will give you good performance but also give you the option of a decent ride on the road and will last apparently quite a while between rebuilds, then I think KW makes a pretty strong value proposition at their roughly $2800 circa 2021 price point, with lower costs possible with occasional sales. Speaking of this, this is not sponsored, but I'll give a shout-out to Science of Speed, from whom we bought our latest set. Their service was excellent as always. They also sell top hats if you don't want to reuse your originals. With our new set of KWs now installed, and if you want to watch that process, a link to that video should be appearing in the upper right-hand corner. All that's left

to do now is mail these old ones back to kw to be rebuilt and take the new ones for a short test drive. You know, 500 miles to St. Louis and back or something like that. But those are both videos for another day. For now, thanks for watching. If you found this video useful or at least entertaining, don't forget to drop a like for us below and consider subscribing. For now though, I'm Richard, this is the lap of the world, and we'll see you in the next video, if not at the track. [Applause] [Music] so [Music] you

KW Variant 3 Coilovers ULTIMATE Review! 12 years ~95,000 miles on street & track!

Lap of the World

KW 배리언트 3 코일오버의 장기 검토

KW Variant 3 댐퍼는 다양한 조건과 트랙 주행 거리를 견디며 거의 12년, 10만 마일 동안 92년식 NSX에 사용되었습니다.

스테인리스 스틸 하우징은 심각한 부식을 보이지 않으며, 피스톤 하우징을 효과적으로 깨끗하게 유지하도록 설계되었습니다.

상단 조정 지점에서 약간의 누출이 있었지만, 코일오버의 전반적인 물리적 상태와 성능은 수년에 걸쳐 인상적인 상태를 유지해 왔습니다.

KW 변형 3 서스펜션 구성품의 상태 평가

하단 부싱은 고무 수축 및 균열로 성능 저하 징후가 보이지만 여전히 사용 가능합니다.

상단 스프링 로케이터 부싱과 폼 범프 스톱은 압축 및 갈라짐이 있지만 손상되지는 않았습니다.

후면 메인 스프링의 길이가 짧아 잠재적인 결함이나 시간이 지남에 따라 자연스러운 높이 손실에 대한 의문이 제기되는 반면, 전면 메인 스프링은 새롭고 재사용 중입니다.

구형과 신형 쇼크 업소버의 감쇠 프로파일 분석하기

구형 쇽업소버는 다이노에서 테스트한 결과, 오일 열화로 인해 가열됨에 따라 댐핑 프로파일이 변화하는 것으로 나타났습니다.

새 쇽업소버는 열 사이클 내내 일관된 댐핑 효과를 유지한 반면, 구형 쇽업소버는 더 뻣뻣해지다가 결국 부드러워졌습니다.

전문가인 쇼티는 새 쇽업쇼버의 일관성과 효과적인 조정에 주목하며 긍정적인 평가를 내렸습니다.

구형 KW 버전은 여전히 우수한 성능을 제공하지만 새 버전보다 일관성이 떨어집니다.

2021 KW는 조정을 위한 엄지손가락 휠과 긍정적인 촉각 피드백 등 디자인이 업데이트되었습니다.

일화적인 성능에 따르면 KW는 예측 가능하고 확실한 승차감을 제공하며 차체 롤을 관리하고 장거리 주행 시 적당한 편안함을 제공합니다.

KW 배리언트 3 코일오버는 좋은 성능, 적절한 승차감, 리빌드 사이의 긴 수명을 제공하여 약 $2800의 강력한 가치를 제공합니다.

필자는 새 세트를 구매하고 설치하면서 사이언스 오브 스피드에 대해 긍정적인 경험을 했습니다.

새 코일오버를 설치한 후, 기존 코일오버는 재조립을 위해 반송하고 새 코일오버를 가지고 테스트 드라이브를 할 계획입니다.