RE: KW introduces iPhone adjustable suspension

RE: KW introduces iPhone adjustable suspension

Author
Discussion

Escort Si-130

3,269 posts

179 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
PH, what is the price of this? Would not be suprised if it cost a fortune.

MonkeyHanger

9,198 posts

241 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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Escort Si-130 said:
PH, what is the price of this? Would not be suprised if it cost a fortune.
I'm guessing £2k+. A set of KW v3's is £1300 + / - these days. Having been round a track or 2 in KW equipped cars i can confirm they are bloody good.



A quick bit of googling suggests an Android App is on the way too.

Renomaxi

39 posts

143 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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I understand and agree with advances in suspension technology, but to give an infinitely adjustable set up to someone means it will get infinitely f@@@ed about with. I can only speak from my point of view as a race mechanic and having set cars up for people only for them to go out and in their infinite wisdom of knowing fack all and being miles of the pace decided they "would just try something" and "someone told me this" only for the car to come back in a year as they were lost. Back to the original set up and our test driver/boss puts it on pole.
Most people won't even get near what the car is capable of doing so why do they think they can dial it in! More weight, more complication...just spend money on a good set of dampers and stay within the suspension geometry boundaries and go and have fun.
Gimmick on growing market of nonsense... I don't have sport 1 and track 3 with diff plus engaged on my turbo2 I just drive the thing. How many of you have seriously gone flat out, full commitment job on the road in your cars to notice if damper setting 3 is quicker than 4 and would you ever know.

dave stew

1,502 posts

166 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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The other problem of course (not to sound negative...) is that cars last for 8 - 12 years and phone's about 18 months! How many cars do you see with 'Arthur Negus' Nokia hands free kits fitted?

Do KW honestly think that Apple won't seriously change the iphone and make all the old stuff obsolete?

CDs anyone??

GhostDriver

878 posts

191 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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dave stew said:
The other problem of course (not to sound negative...) is that cars last for 8 - 12 years and phone's about 18 months! How many cars do you see with 'Arthur Negus' Nokia hands free kits fitted?

Do KW honestly think that Apple won't seriously change the iphone and make all the old stuff obsolete?

CDs anyone??
Apple have patented their conection socket. They have used the same one for ever. All the mobile companies have ageed to use a universal socket for charging, but apple has resisted this. I doubt they will change it within the next 10 years.
And if they do, a simple converter cable would be made by someone.
Or it probably works over bluetooth too.

aka_kerrly

12,415 posts

209 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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rash_decision said:
I wonder when the first thread will be along the lines of.....................

"No officer, I wasn't talking on the phone, I was adjusting my suspension!!!". Lol.
I expect it will take a lot longer than it did for you to come up with the same "genius" quote as someone on the first pagerolleyes

In theory it is a fantastic idea that you can retro fit a system that will allow you to have on-board dampening control but as with a lot of cars which have coilovers fitted it;s 99% of the time the person who fits them as no idea what they are doing and thinks lower = better so given the ability to adjust dampeners harder=better.

If there is a additional feature to allow you to log the data from the shocks to see if for example you are working dampeners too much or if there is scope to firm them up then that is pretty dam smart.

Vocal Minority

8,582 posts

151 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
cool idea...but if you are mechanically incompetant (like myself) all this is doing is making it easier for you to ruin your car! No change away from the factory setting has ever resulted in improvement.

Then you would also make alternate corners as hard and as soft of possible on your mates....

aussieinlondon

660 posts

218 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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M@1975 said:
Not according to the article!

"Basically the idea is that, when you buy the KW DDC ECU coilover kit, you get a free app for your iPhone that allows you to configure the dampers to 'comfort', 'sport' and 'sport+' modes with a swipe of your finger, and to lower the ride height between 5mm and 35mm."
And if you read my response as I have the set up, it is not the HLS kit http://www.kw-suspensions.co.uk/uk/kw_hls.php , height adjustment is good old fashion elbow grease and 5mm-35mm is the adjustment limits, the DDC ECU only controls bump/rebound settings. Hope that helps smile

PhillipM

6,515 posts

188 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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There appear to be a lot of wet dampers in this thread.

aussieinlondon

660 posts

218 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
Renomaxi said:
I understand and agree with advances in suspension technology, but to give an infinitely adjustable set up to someone means it will get infinitely f@@@ed about with. I can only speak from my point of view as a race mechanic and having set cars up for people only for them to go out and in their infinite wisdom of knowing fack all and being miles of the pace decided they "would just try something" and "someone told me this" only for the car to come back in a year as they were lost. Back to the original set up and our test driver/boss puts it on pole.
Most people won't even get near what the car is capable of doing so why do they think they can dial it in! More weight, more complication...just spend money on a good set of dampers and stay within the suspension geometry boundaries and go and have fun.
Gimmick on growing market of nonsense... I don't have sport 1 and track 3 with diff plus engaged on my turbo2 I just drive the thing. How many of you have seriously gone flat out, full commitment job on the road in your cars to notice if damper setting 3 is quicker than 4 and would you ever know.
We all have our opinions on many different thing, also likes and dislikes and so on, that is all good, but with my own experience running the DDC kit on my 1M it has improved in a number of way, and one area the car has been asked by a number including the motoring press, and not just the 1M I may add but most new performance based cars on the market today, sports suspension and an overly firm/hard ride and the roads we have come to love lol, where you gain in one area you loose out in another and for a car like the 1M running a passive chassie I like the idea and like the way it rides having the ability to change my damper rates at the touch of a button and comfort really does have it benefits and comes into its own which I as the driver appreciate, especially when using the car for what it is used the majority of the time, general dog body, shopping trolley and commuter, then I have the option to firm things up for some spirited driving which is nigh on the passive damper rate when set to sport and when I feel like the odd track blast, then sports+ plus will give me that bit extra, it is as simple as that but I will say ome thing, the DDC is not an all out track set up, I will still run my clubsports with independent bump and rebound using the spindle and a click to adjust and it is much more track focused but the DDC is a great all round fast round set up for a car that only comes equiped with a passive chassie and allows you to have a bit of extra control for a variety of driving conditions.

I will though have my mate have a run and see what he thinks, he like yourself works in the motorsport trade (BTCC and WTCC) and helps me set up my track day car, well he pretty much actually built it for me



Edited by aussieinlondon on Friday 25th May 18:28

aussieinlondon

660 posts

218 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
Vocal Minority said:
cool idea...but if you are mechanically incompetant (like myself) all this is doing is making it easier for you to ruin your car! No change away from the factory setting has ever resulted in improvement.

Then you would also make alternate corners as hard and as soft of possible on your mates....
Simples, you save a few quid and not opt for the w-lan kit, the 3 pre sets with the dash button is all you will need 99% of the time anyways, the w-lan module is a optional extra, you don't have to have it and in your case worry free smile

aussieinlondon

660 posts

218 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
I guess really I am the only one who can comment on experience as its all new on the market and the first kit fitted in the UK so I only have my word to back my corner biglaugh Anyways it works for me and give me that little extra to my driving experience and really at the end of the day that's all that really matters biggrin

But some simple facts

1. It is the DDC ECU kit, not the height adjustable HLS kit also available from KW
2. The W-Lan (wifi/app) is an optional extra, you don't want it you don't pay for it
3. Your mates can't just download the app and control your suspension settings, your ipod/ipad/iphone needs to be configered to your set up and a password is applied
4. The dash button controls over the app function, so should your i whatever run out of power, you use the dash button which you will control with 99% of the time
5. The front and rear independent axle app adjustments is there to configure the 5 additional personal chassie settings you can save, it isn't used to chop and change on the go like the 3 pre sets which are instant, KW can help you with additional settings should you need help.

Try and make your own opinion, the trying part may be a little hard at the moment though laugh

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
When you are driving in one mode, and say you go round a corner, and realise it might have been better in one of the other modes, do you stop, do a U turn, adjust the setting then go around the corner again just to make the most of the fact you can do that? Must take bl**dy ages to get anywhere ;-)

jamespink

1,218 posts

203 months

Friday 25th May 2012
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Lagerlout said:
Think this is a fab idea especially for track days.
Its not a huge step to incorporate the phones GPS and do what Merc did with their 190 DTM racers and have the "ideal" set up for every corner. Is there an App for that?

keemaklan

418 posts

149 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
aussieinlondon said:
Riggers, happy for you guys to try it out for real on the 1M rather than just reading about it on an email biggrin

Drop me an email if you are interested.........
Top man. Lets stop putting a damper on things and let Riggers/Chris H try it out and get back to us!

aussieinlondon

660 posts

218 months

Friday 25th May 2012
quotequote all
Max_Torque said:
When you are driving in one mode, and say you go round a corner, and realise it might have been better in one of the other modes, do you stop, do a U turn, adjust the setting then go around the corner again just to make the most of the fact you can do that? Must take bl**dy ages to get anywhere ;-)
If it's a great corner why not, hell you may even drive it half a dozen times but then isn't that what being a pistonhead is all about, the thrill of driving and forgetting about the destination biggrin

KM666

1,757 posts

182 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
quotequote all
Renomaxi said:
I understand and agree with advances in suspension technology, but to give an infinitely adjustable set up to someone means it will get infinitely f@@@ed about with. I can only speak from my point of view as a race mechanic and having set cars up for people only for them to go out and in their infinite wisdom of knowing fack all and being miles of the pace decided they "would just try something" and "someone told me this" only for the car to come back in a year as they were lost. Back to the original set up and our test driver/boss puts it on pole.
Most people won't even get near what the car is capable of doing so why do they think they can dial it in! More weight, more complication...just spend money on a good set of dampers and stay within the suspension geometry boundaries and go and have fun.
Gimmick on growing market of nonsense... I don't have sport 1 and track 3 with diff plus engaged on my turbo2 I just drive the thing. How many of you have seriously gone flat out, full commitment job on the road in your cars to notice if damper setting 3 is quicker than 4 and would you ever know.
I agree, however to most its about the feel and the look etc. I know alot of people ruin their cars with coilovers and amateur set ups, they love it and its make the car feel better to them, even if it would be slower around a track, but if it makes them happy and they keep on spending money thats all a part of the game. I wouldnt go beyond slightly uprated springs and dampers myself, maybe a rear arb but then in all honesty thats based on Gran Turismo logic and probably would ruin the handling.

gck303

203 posts

233 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
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DanDC5 said:
You don't know much about KW do you?

And that Golf is on the OEM wheels.
Nope!

gck303

203 posts

233 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
quotequote all

Apple have patented their conection socket.
[/quote]

The patents on it would likely expire soon as they are only granted for about 17 years.

Instead I think it is a 'registered design' and they would not allow other phone makers to use it. Any accessory that uses it and the 'made for iPod' logo will have to apply for a license, pay a licensing fee and follow to Apple's rules.

Aused

293 posts

168 months

Saturday 26th May 2012
quotequote all
Could be less interested, but it would take some effort. Maybe I'm just getting old.