KW Clubsport Coilovers for the 2020 Corvette C8 – Laguna Seca Testing

Testing the New KW Coilovers for the 2020 Corvette C8 at Laguna Seca Raceway

Today we’re at WeatherTech Raceway, Laguna Seca. This is a legendary racetrack, one of my favorites, and it’s a gorgeous sunny day. We’re here for a track day in our mid-engine C8 Corvette. Last Friday, we were out at Buttonwillow and it was over a 100 degrees and we were working with KW Suspension to finish up the development of their Clubsport coilover kit. The suspension is all tuned and ready to go, so we’re gonna turn some laps here and enjoy this amazing racetrack. 

My Experience at Laguna Seca – What I’m Expecting

I have laid down 100’s of laps at this racetrack… but never in a car. My background is in motorcycle riding. I’m really excited to see how it feels, especially in such a fantastic, capable track day weapon. I’m very familiar with this racetrack, and I’m really excited to see what it feels like in a car. 

Turn 1: Going over turn one on a bike gets really, really light. I’m sure that’s going to feel a little bit different in a car. 

Turn 2: Going into Andretti hairpin, I’m guessing it’s a late-apex turn, versus on a bike a lot of times we double apex. 

Turn 3: Turn three is going to be a really interesting because on a bike that’s the first time you’re getting over to the right side of the tire. And when that right side of the tire has gotten cold after half of the racetrack distance ont he left side, that can be a little scary cause that’s a pretty flat turn. So usually we’re tiptoeing it in there a little bit on a bike, but in the car I don’t think that’s going to be the same problem, and I’m guessing it’s pretty quick through there. 

Turn 4: I also expect this to be very high speed and grippy.

Turn 5: Heavy braking zone. It’s a nice on-camber turn, and expecting to be able to toss it in there really good. This is a 90-decibel day and we’ve got our new MagnaFlow exhaust on this car, so hoping not to blow sound between 5 and 6. We’re thinking it’s probably gonna be okay. But if I blow sound, we’re going to have to click it up a gear and do little short shifts up the hill so we don’t get kicked out. 

Turn 6: On a motorcycle this turn has a big bump at the apex of the turn, and that can be a little sketchy. Not expecting the same issue in this car and excited to be able to throw it straight through there. 

Turn 7: The corkscrew is a legendary turn at the top of the Hill, I’m really excited to see what it feels like in a car. On a bike it’s crazy. It feels like you’re jumping off a ledge! 

Turn 8: As we go down into Rainey curve, this is a very high-speed corner, and easy place to crash on a motorcycle because you can overload the front. So it’s important to maintain the balance of the throttle and the speed through that corner. I’m expecting a little bit of the same in a car cause you could probably push the front or get too much throttle going through there and run off the track. Not what I’m trying to do today. 

Turn 10: Not too much drama there

Turn 11: Very low speed corner, the tightest turn on the track, expecting to be able to go in there in second gear and haul ass down the front straight and do it all over again. 

I’m really excited to get out on the track with these new KW Clubsport coilovers.
If you’re interested in checking out more about those, check out our last video at Buttonwillow:

And of course, if you want to purchase these KW coilovers, visit www.motoroso.com, hit us on live chat, or call us at 1.833.MOTOROSO (1.833.668.6767)

The Weakest Link – Brakes

If you saw our Buttoneillow video, the Z51 Brakes started to fail towards the end of the day. Going into this track day, we’re expecting to experience more of that same. So, we’ve already begun planning the development of the Brembo GT brakes on the C8 Corvette, make sure to subscribe to our channel at youtube.com/motoroso to keep up on that project. In the meantime we’re expecting a lot of fade today, but let’s go have some fun. 

On Track Experience with the KW Coilovers

In the first session, the track was cool, all the drivers were fresh and the track was still a little bit foggy and a touch damp so we took it pretty easy. We got a full 20 minutes session then we brought it back in. We had a little bit of fun out there. The cars that are out here are all kinds of different speeds, but everybody was a respectful and predictable driver. This organization, Speed SF, really does a nice job. We forgot to change the settings back to the track setting. So I still had the car in the street setting, and everything was a little bit softer than I would have wanted. 

For our second session, we set the shocks back to that track setting, which was an extra three clicks of rebound in, turning the clicker clockwise. The track was a little bit warmer, and I was warmed up and the car was set up properly so it felt way better. In these better conditions the car felt more planted, and put together a lap time under 1:50. We’re not timing very exactly, we’re just doing so a little Trackside stopwatch timing, and not trying to break any lap records here. Just really trying to enjoy the car, feel the car and get comfortable with it. For the next session we’re gonna make one suspension adjustment. We’re going to add a little bit of rebound damping. 

When you’re making your adjustments to any of your damping controls, one of the most important things to remember is always going the correct direction. Some people accidentally go clockwise on one side and counter-clockwise on the other, and they end up with an imbalanced car. In this case, we’re going to add one click clockwise rebound damping, which will increase the damping and slow the speed the damper rebounds. In many cases, you will make changes on all four shocks, but in some cases you might only make a suspension adjustment front or rear, if you’re noticing that the car is doing something you don’t want. But, you’re almost always going to keep the left and the right balanced.  

Third Session! Things are going pretty good out here. Can’t ask for better weather here at Laguna Seca. The car is handling great, and weve got the KW coilovers to thank for that. The extra click of rebound has the car feeling a little bit more planted. It isn’t bouncing back from the bumps the same way, due to the additional click of rebound. In the next session we’re going to test one click of compression damping, to slow the compression of the shock. So we’ll just see how that feels. 

So we wrapped up our fourth session out here at Laguna Seca, and we only have one more session to go. We made that extra compression damping adjustment. The car felt that much better. Honestly, as I was starting to go out, it really felt so tight that I thought I might not like it, but as I got up to speed and as everything warmed up, the harder I pushed it, the better it felt. So that is definitely the track setting that I would want for here at Laguna Seca. But for the street setting, absolutely not… It’d rattle your teeth out. So we’re going to have to dial it back before we drive home. 

Unfortunately, now the brakes are gone. They’re a huge problem, But we did still manage to go 3 seconds faster, per lap. It got down to a 1:46, which feels pretty good for me not having done that many laps around this racetrack in a car. We’ve got one session left. We’re just going to go out to drive easy and baby it around before the brakes completely go out on us. And of course in the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be heading down to Brembo, getting measured up for a big brake kit. So make sure you subscribe to the channel at youtube.com/motoroso and follow along with all the other mods that we’re going to be doing.