Can't settle on Tour or Sport suspension for a new Emira? KW now offers another way
By Matt Bird / Monday, 27 November 2023 / Loading comments
The Lotus Emira is notable in the modern sports car world for only offering passive suspension setups. There’s Tour for customers aiming to use their cars primarily on road (with a Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport), and Sport for those keen on track use with a Cup 2 Michelin. Experience thus far would suggest that Tour is probably the best compromise for the moment, but now there’s another way: KW has coilovers that will fit.
Now, dabbling with a Lotus spring and damper combo might seem like sacrilege, but then it’s hardly like KW are without expertise. It has made available both a V5 – ‘recommended for those seeking to inject the Emira with the spirited handling of a Gran Turismo’ – and a V5 Clubsport – ‘meticulously engineered for regular track day enthusiasts with semi-slick tires’. The grey car here is on the V5 and the green uses the Clubsport; there’s a noticeable (and some might say welcome) drop in ride height, really accentuating the Emira’s lovely mid-engined proportions. It’s easy to imagine getting them for the look alone. And a nice set of BBS while you’re at it…
But KW is about far more than just aesthetics, of course. These new V5 coilovers utilise its solid piston technology, first used in GT3 racers and now found in KW kits for everything from the Porsche 911 to Mercedes G-Class. The benefit against a conventional monotube or twin-tube damper, it says here, is the eradication of any possibility of the piston and valve overflowing; on a KW V5 the entire oil column ‘is displaced from the piston into the valve housing’. It should mean improved responsiveness when it comes to tarmac imperfections and therefore better damping. Both V5 and Clubsport are four-way adjustable (high- and low-speed compression plus rebound), with 14 clicks of tweakability. KW Brand Manager Florian Johann added: “The significant advantage of our Solid-Piston dampers is that we can work more intensively with damper hydraulics and streamline the entire system for a more compact design.”
The Clubsport upgrade adds higher spring rate and an ‘optimised design’ for more aggressive tyres. The ride height can be dropped on both kits anywhere 10 and 30mm on both axles; we want whatever these cars are set to, please.
Predictably enough (though you wouldn’t bet against their claims, either), KW reckons that its V5 coilovers don’t compromise the ride and handling of the Emira at all. ‘The era when upgrading to high-quality coilovers sacrificed ride comfort is long gone’, proudly proclaims the press release. With praise for the standard car perhaps not unanimously glowing just yet (Sport is too much for the road; Tour might leave some wanting more on circuit), it feels like there is an opportunity for an aftermarket solution to strike the perfect balance. And who better to sell suspension that needs a bit of fettling to than Lotus customers?
KW’s DTM suspension technology (their words, not ours) now has TUV approval and is ready for sale. The V5 package currently lists on the KW UK site for £7k, with the Clubsport adding another £500 to that. Only the V6 model is eligible for now. Now, of course, something like 10 per cent of purchase price on suspension is a lot, but for those planning on keeping an Emira for a long time – not a daft notion given it’s Lotus’s last ICE sports car – then it might be a worthwhile investment. The first, er, First Editions are now down to £70k, so the potential is there for a KW-equipped V6 for the price of a new i4. Interesting.
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