Hey all, I'm in the process of adapting the KW Var 3. coilovers for a mk3 to an mk1 autocross car.
Summary for the ADD crowd:
Good points:
- Excellent materials and craftsmanship on the KWs. Had I a mk3 mr2, I would no doubt be slicing and dicing through the traffic at Toronto Motorsports Park today...
Bad points:
- Rear coilovers need spacers to attach to rear hubs. Easy fix.
- Front coilovers are much shorter (might be ok though, we'll see) and need to be modified (drilling holes in super hard stainless steel!) to attach to front hubs and cannot use stock end links.
Jumped in the deep end with both feet, you might say.
Yes, the back coilover fits pretty well, just needs a spacer to fill up the gap. the fronts, on the other hand, do not.
The two bolts holding the hub to the strut are not as far apart on the mk1 hub and they're a different size (12mm shank, instead of 14mm shank as on the mk3), so I got a shop to put a new lower hole closer to the top and I was able to bolt it on, without a spacer. However, the KW front strut is much shorter than the mk1 stock strut, so it throws the alignment right out. Huge toe-in and negative camber, and due to the camber, the tire (205/50/15 Falken Azenis RT-615 on 15x7 +38 wheels) rubs against the strut body. You cannot drive more than 3km/hr. So, I'm going to increase the length of the top slot on the strut (where you adjust the camber) to give greater adjustment for the camber (to get back to a normal camber and eliminate the rubbing) and tow it to an alignment shop to adjust the tie rod end to eliminate the extreme toe-in. I also had to ditch the front anti-roll bar. The KWs do have an anti-roll bar tab, but it's much lower than the stock one, so the stock end links are not usable. Finally, as the strut is so much shorter, it makes the car quite low... I may need to ditch the current spring + keeper spring setup and just go with a longer, stiffer spring in the front to regain a bit of ride height. For those of you crazy enough to follow me on this route in an a bid to attain and excellent damper for the mk1, be aware that the KWs are made of some hard stainless steel and will simply laugh at most drill bits...
I should have this all resolved by the end of next week hopefully... Monday to remove the front struts again. Tuesday to have them machined and reinstalled. Wednesday to tow the car to the alignment shop and have them make some magic and Thursday just in case
-Duncan