Tuesday 1st October 2024

Crikey - check out KW's Ferrari Testarossa

Coilovers often work wonders for stance - never more so than on Ferrari's flat-12 icon

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KW has launched a V3 Classic coilover kit for the Testarossa, adding even more impact and attitude to that gloriously '80s Ferrari supercar. There can’t be many cars that don’t draw the eye more with a lowered ride height, but just look at this thing: with the yellow, the strakes, the BBS, filling the arches out like the original never could. It screams supercar while being 40 years old. SF90s and 296s won’t get any attention with a Testarossa like this around. 

The upgrade comprises six adjustable dampers (the rear features two per corner), with low-speed compression, low-speed rebound and low-speed compression all tweakable by the customer. The ride height has a range of adjustment, too, from 10-30mm. KW suggests that its new kit ‘enhances handling, straight-line stability, and ride comfort without compromising the car’s original character.’ It promises higher cornering speeds and direct handling as well as a comfier ride - the V3 Classic sounds little short of transformative. 

It shouldn’t hinder usability, either, as a nose lift is included via a hydraulic system that can lift the front end by 45mm at the touch of a button. Once over 40mph, it lowers again, to avoid spoiling the silhouette on the move by accident. Onlookers don’t even need to know you’ve gone for KW suspension; those buyers that don’t want the purple spring perches and yellow springs like it’s a Megane track car can opt for the Classic Line spec that makes everything black. Where once this sort of look would require custom suspension work, it’s now possible like any other KW overhaul. Just for a bit more money. 

"A Ferrari Testarossa with a V3 suspension drives noticeably more dynamically than one with a chassis that was state-of-the-art decades ago," said Sascha Daucher, a KW Classic expert. An exciting promise - what could be more appealing than a Testarossa that drives even better than it looks? And in the grand scheme of Ferrari modification, too, the KW overhaul doesn’t look tremendously expensive: the V3 coilovers are £6,491 without the lift or £8,346 with the hydraulic system, both including VAT but excluding shipping. When you’re looking at £90,000 even for a LHD model, it’s a small percentage of the value for what looks and sounds like a great upgrade. Imagine how good the new suspension might look on this one, complete with its OZ split rims…

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• KW launches V5 coilovers for Carrera GT
• Ferrari Classiche | PH Meets

 

[Billy_Whizzzz]

One of the ugliest Ferraris ever now looks slightly better.

[Redline88]

Would look so much better with original profile wheels. Those fitted just don’t look right on a car of this era.

[Bright Halo]

You poor Ferrari, what have they done to you?
Ruined to my eyes.

[Jon_S_Rally]

I'm not against bigger wheels, as the standard Testarossa wheels are pretty small, but I don't think this design really suits the car. The spokes are too slender and curved to suit the sharp lines of the body. Would look much better with some split rims with chunkier spokes. Still, it's nice that KW are doing stuff like that, should make things a bit more fun for the owners that want it.

[Evolved]

The most random and pointless ‘upgrade’ I’ve seen in a long time.

You can now buy some coilovers for some old 80’s Ferrari, good to know.

[loudlashadjuster]

Wrong wheels, totally.

[Caddyshack]

I imagine some brand new, quality, shock absorbers would do wonders for the ride and handling as long as they don’t go too stiff but you would probably lose any ride benefit when you take those wonderful balloon tyres off.

I wonder if they tried it and it looked odd or if it wouldn’t attract enough media attention?

[anonymous-user]

Evolved said:

The most random and pointless ‘upgrade’ I’ve seen in a long time.

You can now buy some coilovers for some old 80’s Ferrari, good to know.

The most random and pointless thread I've seen in a long time.

You can now buy some coilovers for some old 80’s Ferrari, good to know.

[aarondbs]

For balance, I always liked the Testarossa. The coilovers look to have improved the stance but I do agree tye wheels aren't right.

Pistonheads needs revenue and this might be paid promotion for KW and of course not only for this application, buy is that a bad thing when we get free content?

[CountyAFC]

Would suit a 512TR which wouldn't need a wheel upgrade, perfectly.

[Quickmoose]

80's car needs 80's tyre profile, and alloy design of the era preferably.
Stance is lovely though
The car has aged just fine given how shocking it was at the time.

[86wasagoodyear]

I'll change the wheels back to either originals or BBS split rims, put the coilovers up to max ride height - and be happy forever. Fabulous thing. I even like the colour.

[matrignano]

The ubiquitous BBS CI-R/FI-R wheels really don’t work here

[Robertb]

Billy_Whizzzz said:

One of the ugliest Ferraris ever now looks slightly better.

What?? It’s a total 80s icon! Would give my eye teeth for one, but not with those terrible looking wheels and rubber band tyres.

[anonymous-user]

Drove a Testarosa once, it was one of the most disappointing experiences of performance car driving I have ever had. Offset pedals, rattles, terrible gearbox, awful power delivery, unstable, lacklustre brakes, felt like a really bad kit car - Theres nothing a set of KWs will do to fix all of that.

Sometimes you shouldn't meet your heroes.

[fantheman80]

Ok, KW have far too much money clearly or they are laundering it.....an old S class Merc a few weeks back, an 80s Ferrari this week

Good luck to them but talk about feckin Niche

[WPA]

True 80's icon, better left standard the wheels have ruined it.

Plus how much market will these have, they only made around 10000 cars in total cannot see them getting the tooling costs back.

[chazwozza]

Just here to agree with those who said that those wheels look awful. Really jars me the more I look at it, and can't say that yellow suits it either tbh

[Snubs]

Jon_S_Rally said:

I'm not against bigger wheels, as the standard Testarossa wheels are pretty small, but I don't think this design really suits the car. The spokes are too slender and curved to suit the sharp lines of the body. Would look much better with some split rims with chunkier spokes. Still, it's nice that KW are doing stuff like that, should make things a bit more fun for the owners that want it.

I agree, it's not the size so much as the design. But then I don't know if the people that did it did so to make it look better or to draw the eye to the only bit of the car that changed. The OZ wheels on the other one linked to in the article that are a faux Ferrari style look even worse in my opinion.

Given that the Testarossa was never reported to be the best handing car going, I would have thought modern suspension might be quite popular with owners.

[VSKeith]

Good lord, no.