The Drive 🤝 your inbox. Every weekday
The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive reporting on the auto industry and car culture.
KW Suspensions is a higher-end coilover company that makes upgrades for a wide range of performance cars. Now it’s expanding its offerings in the off-road world, with a “Safari Style” suspension range for the Porsche Cayenne, VW Touareg, and even the 996 and 997 Porsche 911. These new kits combine a little lift with sports-car adjustability and responsiveness.
The kit for a 996 911 lists at $5,429; more than standard KW V3 coilovers but a heck of a lot cheaper than a 911 Dakar (which is like a quarter-million bucks, if you can even find one). The German brand has offered a setup like this on a made-to-order basis for air-cooled 911s for years, and other outfits have done some complete 996 conversions. But this application for the 996 is going to be a lot more accessible.
Here’s a pretty neat animation giving you a guts-side perspective:
KW Dämpfertechnologie | KW suspensions
The main value propositions of the KW V3 Safari Style setup here are independently adjustable low-speed compression and low-speed rebound damping. This lets you fine-tune the suspension so you get off-road capability without sacrificing the on-road driving dynamics and comfort that KW is known for. It also utilizes composite spring seats and dirt-resistant trapezoidal threads to handle the elements. The lift is modest—up to 30 millimeters (about 1.2 inches)—but that’s enough to get you a meaningful increase in suspension travel and room for slightly upsized tires.
It’s not meant for racing or rock crawling. More like dirt-road blasting and potholes.
KW Suspensions
Here’s the brochure pitch:
“When driving on gravel tracks or away from paved roads, significantly higher damper shaft velocities occur. The high-speed valves open and, due to the increased oil flow volume, damping force rises more gradually than in the low-speed range, even at higher piston speeds. As a result, even these harsh impacts are effectively absorbed. The preset low-speed compression and rebound damping settings can be fine-tuned further with twelve clicks of compression adjustment and sixteen clicks of rebound adjustment. With the adjustable compression and rebound forces in the low-speed range, it’s possible to further fine-tune handling, pitch, and roll body motions in cornering.”
The high-level stuff is the same for the Cayenne and Touareg applications. But those don’t seem quite as exciting as the idea of an inexpensive (relatively) safari 911. Here’s a quick detail download on specs and fitments:
New KW V3 Safari Style Suspension Fitments
- Porsche 996 911 Carrera 4 and Carrera 4S
- Porsche 997 911 Carrera 2, Carrera 2S, Carrera 4, and Carrera 4S
- Depending on the adjustment range selected, the 911 can be raised by 20 to 30 millimeters at both axles.
- Porsche Cayenne (9PA)
- VW Touareg (7L)
- Ground clearance can be increased from 0 to 30 millimeters at the front axle and from 5 to 30 millimeters at the rear axle.
The lift doesn’t look particularly dramatic, but KW knows what it’s doing. Here are some images of the kit on a few different vehicles.
KW Safari Suspension on a 996
KW Safari Suspension on a 997
KW Safari Suspension on a Cayenne
KW Safari Suspension Glamor Shots
a
a
KW also teased that it’s going to keep expanding its off-roady offerings with a kit for the VW Golf and other cars in the future.
Got a tip? Drop us a line at tips@thedrive.com.
Add The Drive as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.
Automotive journalist since 2013, Andrew primarily coordinates features, sponsored content, and multi-departmental initiatives at The Drive.
