Robertio

Has anyone run KW coilovers (either V1 or 3) back to back with the factory setup (FRS Mk1)?

The worn factory stuff with poly bushes is simply terrible - it's like running cheap coilovers. The car is only used on the road, so I don't care if it is too soft for track use. I don't care about ride height, factory is fine - I simply want the car to ride half decently while still being fun on back roads.

It's just a question of whether I buy new factory stuff, or KW. Normally I'd avoid coilovers on a road car as the lack of travel is a pain, but given the FRS has hardly any travel I can't see that being a concern. I'd like to think the extra pennies for the KWs will give better ride quality, but is that the case?

lowman

the standard setups is preeetttyyy nice i think
id buy new standard stuff anyday.i reckon ford has been doing more research than an hour of driving around.the standard suspension is fine tuned to suit normal road drivin,
i dont see any reason why people should underestimate what they actually came up with


avvv a look

Robertio

Ford will have built the car to a price, so the quality of the parts is constrained. If someone gave the chassis engineers the option to spend 3 times as much on the suspension components I'd be amazed if they stuck with what is on the standard car. There's nothing to stop the likes of KW taking the factory setup, matching the spring rates and valving much better dampers to match - thereby using all Ford's chassis setup time and providing a better controlled package. They then have the option of tweaking from there.

You just have to look at the way Ford changed the geometry settings to know they didn't get it right straight-off. Having tried both the toe-in and toe-out settings I'm yet to be convinced they ever got it right. One day I'll have my dream workshop with laser alignment setup so I can get it properly dialled-in, until then I'll just tweak the settings every time the car visits my friendly alignment place.

It may be the factory stuff is better, I was just hoping someone would have tried both back-to-back and be able to advise. It is more than a tad firm on our badly surfaced roads (my gf comments on every journey). The Focus is my sensible road car so I like to buy once and just drive the thing - the track car is where I'd rather spend my R&D time and money