KW or Bilstein? Or something else?

W

wooter

Member
I am looking to improve the suspension of my Z4M and have been doing some reading up on this matter. I know sixspeed's car has the KW Clubsports and some other people fitted KW variant 3 and FemmeT with his splendit Alpina Roadster S went with Intrax springs and Koni shocks. My local performance shop however, uses Bilsteins on his M5, and has other clients who were happy with Bilstein PSS9/10. He's happy to sell me one or the other brand, but has no experience with KW thus can not advise me whether I should go for clubsports, or a PSS10 set.

So I checked up on the differences between the two. I read reviews where the PSS9/10 are regarded as very good, easy to modify so you can drive up to a track on a softer setting, and easily switch to a harder setting without even having to jack up the car. The KW Clubsports however, allow for more settings, but are harder to modify the settings, going as far as needing to drill a hole in the trunk strut housings to reach the setting screws.

So the question is... which one fits my purpose best? I would go as far as to jack up the car at a track to change shock settings, but the car would still mainly be used on the road and trackdays would still be something occasional...

My gut says to get the PSS9/10 and put off getting Clubsports until I have a dedicated track toy, but on the other hand is the price difference between the two not that large and I like the very best for my car...
 
How about an electronically controlled system, that you can change from your seat - Bilstein do an aftermarket system.

Although I don't know if it's available for the Z4 and how mind-blowingly expensive it will be. Put it this way, just one electronic damper on my 3.8 M5 is now £900 and then you've got to add labour to that and all the other little parts (topmounts, bushes, etc.) that you'd want to change at the same time, so you end up looking at a £5k bill.
 
Between those 2, go with the KW's. It's a better kit. The KW V3's are more comparable to the PSS10's than the Clubsport are to the PSS10's. The PSS10's only allow adjustable compressions, and if you only get to change 1 type of setting, you'd rather it be the rebounds. The dampers are known to have a higher failing rate than the KW's. Neither of them comes with rear-shock mounts, so pick up a set of Rogue Engineering RSM's as well. If your car isn't dedicated for the tracks and you want a little more comfort in daily driving, go with the V3's.
 
And how would I go about accessing the setting dials and screws on a KW? I would expect this would be a problem for the rear shocks on my roadster.
 
Hello very old thread!

I did a M course today with BMW instructors, and the bottom line of these professional enthusiasts was that to improve an already very good car, suspension is the first thing to tackle.

Bilstein B16 or KW Clubsport is still on the list, and I even managed to get the installation and setup manual for the KW to get a vague idea about this.

What are the rear shock mounts about? Rogue Engineering does not seem to give me an option to select them for the Z4 M and I have no clue how they would get installed on my roadster.
 
i have to say the kw Clubsport 3way kits look to be a great option but very expensive......
 
yvel26 said:
Sorry to get off-topic, but what was the M-course like?
I'm thinking of doing it myself.
Click to expand...
I thought it was a very good addition to knowing your car better. Low on theory, high on doing exercises and the groups are really small - we had two trainers for two people.

Exercises were the old slaloms to get used to steering your car around the cones and looking technique, obstacle avoidance/single and double lane change at 60 and building up to 80+, emergency braking and seeing how much G's you can get in braking force - my Z4M with Michelin Pilot Sport 2 did better than the M5 with Hankook tires and therefore had a shorter stopping distance, it really makes a difference. Then combining braking and swerving, slalom at speed and then 90 degree and 180 degree cornering with defining inpoints, the slowest and fastest parts of a corner and doing all this with and without driving aids. Last exercise was something like doing a three lane change on the highway at 130 from the utmost left to the utmost right lane and back, all in a very short distance of each other. Amazingly, the Z4M feels very stable and superb.

For cheap and educational fun do the Advanced course in Rotselaar on their terrain with 1-series cars. Don't bother then with the Performance training but just use your own M on the M-training: exercises are the same as the Performance training, but this time you learn it with your own car.
 
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