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| The KW front struts are much shorter than stock so the car can run lower without losing any bump travel. Note that the mounting ears are moved up much higher on the damper body. The KW V3 is a twin tube damper and the strut tube has to be long enough to accommodate the adjustable foot valve. In the FR-S moving the ears higher on the strut body is a pretty good trick that works. |
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| We sourced some Vorshlag camber plates for our FR-S from Subaru tuner Race Comp Engineering at their recommendation. These plates are actually for a GD Subaru STI. We decided to use these particular camber plates because they have a low stack height so we won't lose much wheel travel and have a huge sealed thrust bearing built into the upper spring seat to take load off the spherical bearing and to make turning more smooth and quiet. These camber plates also have setback so we can easily gain a degree of positive caster. |
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| The Vorshlag camber plate also has stainless hardware and anti corrosive platings making it all season useable. You can see how the upper spring seat bearing works here. In use these plates are absolutely silent with none of the clunks typical of sold bearings. The smooth turning action of the upper spring seat also eliminates the bonging spring kinking noises camber plates often make on strut cars. We are really liking these plates and are now going to use them on our GD STI project! |
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| The stock height of the Vorshlag plate was still about 1/2 inch more than the stock spring seat. After conferring with Chris Marion at KW about the foot valve location, we decided to cut 1/2 off the bump stop to gain back the wheel travel we lost. This will actually slightly increase the struts internal overlap which is better for wear and will reduce flex and operating friction. |
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| Getting the microcellular urethane bump stop back into the ridged plastic dust shield after cutting it down was a pain but we got it all snapped nicely together. We still have a pretty long bump stop so the damper's foot valve will be protected from hitting the piston. |
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| Howard Watanabe was burning the midnight oil with us getting the car ready for the SEMA show. |
