Wheels In Motion Spring Setup: Take 2

I have been running the Koni Sport kit for several months and was unhappy with the springs provided (Over 10k Miles), i looked around at my options and gave Tony (WIM) a buzz.

He offered me his WIM springs at a discounted rate and would fit and align for free, this was done on thursday and i have covered a shade over 300 miles across every type of road going.

I am running on the middle perch all round and the rebound is full soft on the front and middle on the rear and FM rear mounts.

The alignment is WIM fast road, which i had before (or a version of at least).

Before fitting there was a few doubts whether they would be ok as the Koni springs are wider, but they went on without issue and there is no chatter etc.

Initial impressions

The ride height is much lower on the back, the car is flat on the middle perch with no massive rake, and the front is about 5mm higher (than Konis).

The ride is less crashy over bumps and more able to cope with speed humps (bar a few silly ones in stratford upon avon).

Body roll in corners seems a good compromise and very similar to the Konis, but it is by no means flat.

The only "negative" observation so far is that the car (especially the back end) seem a bit more bouncy than OEM or the Konis, but nothing that puts me off using them.

Over the next few weeks i will update this thread and have a play around with the Koni rebound settings once i have done a few more miles.

Any specific questions, please ask.

One week on

I ran the above setup (rebound is full soft on the front and middle on the rear) to work and back until mid week and overall i was very happy with the ride, far less crashy over bumps and mounds in the road. Body roll is slightly more pronounced than the Konis, not a great deal but the Konis did corner fairly flat for such soft springs.

I then ran on full hard rebound all round, the ride was awful.

In all fairness the ride was never great on the Koni springs either, but the WIM springs i have are not suited to very hard shocks, the best way i can describe it is a bouncy castle made of rocks.

Very bouncy and crashy.

The next step is one turn from hard all round.

12 Days

Right, i had the dampers set up with one turn from hard all round for 5 days and the ride is good, much better than full hard but still not the smoothest ride i have experienced.

On good roads, (albeit not smooth tarmac) the ride is as good but any imperfections will be felt and on reflection the amount of body roll when making a brisk 75 degree turn is apparant to say the least, but on the other side of the coin the car has not suprised me once, where the konis had in the past (i imagine this may be due to the Konis being progressive though).

On a B road near work i was happy with the way the car performed, the road in question has a very smooth surface but has quite a few peaks and drops and some impressive camber, i felt confident enough to get up some speed and to my suprise i wasn't being thrown about (too much).

I am still happy with them, but now i have had them on a while i keep thinking how good the ride was on full soft and am starting to come to the conclusion they are very good for people who want to sit a bit lower on stock dampers but those wanting a more focused ride in terms of roll etc will feel the need for a big fat ARB (at this spring rate at least).

I have just set the dampers to one full turn from soft on the front and 1/2 turn from soft on the rear and will report back after i have used the setup across a few different types of road.

2 Weeks

One full turn from soft on the front and 1/2 turn from soft on the rear - A nice ride overall, but after playing about a fair bit this is the upper end of comfortable for a mix a different roads, the best setting is full soft all round imho.

True, it may not be the ultimate track day weapon, but if that is what you are after i would give these a miss as they will do a crap job unless body roll is your bag, if you want a comfortable ride (think slightly firmer than S package and a bit lower (with no rake) these are for you.

I see myself complimenting the Koni/WIM setup with a pair of bigger ARBs and in the nearer future Mk2 mounts on the front, but the proof is in the pudding and they will be staying on for a good while yet.

Update - 27.04.10

I am booked in with Tony at the end of the month to add some Mk2 Top mounts, so i keep an eye out and i will give my opinions on how the effect the ride and handling, could also be fairly useful for those wanting FCM mounts and not wanting to fork out £200 for them alone.

PROS

Lower
No arse in the air rake - Very good for Koni Sport dampers
Smooth
Predictable (due to the roll - Seriously though it is about the same as OEM)
Pre Stressed

CONS

More body roll than i expected from lowering springs
Not for track day weapons
Pricing is competitive, but it will have a lot of established competitors
Useless on high rebound settings
Smaller than Koni sport springs, but i have had no issues with noise *touch wood*

Again, any questions please ask.