Like our BMW motorsport customers, we’re thrilled to celebrate, as we believe patience yields excellent results. The new KW V5 Clubsport coilover suspension is now available for all BMW M4 CSL, BMW M4 Competition, and BMW M4 with rear-wheel drive.

We call on all BMW M4 CSL and M4 (G82) enthusiasts! Check out the latest weapon in our arsenal: the track-day-ready and road-legal KW V5 Clubsport coilover suspension kit, complete with the all-important parts certificate. You might wonder why we ditched the stainless steel and bling of the KW inox-line. Fear not—we’ll unpack that in this blog post—but buckle up—it will be a fun ride!

Before we delve into the details, let’s review the quick facts about lowering. According to the parts report, our KW V5 Clubsport coilover suspension allows for the following lowering ranges for the BMW M4 and BMW M4 Competition of the G82 series: 20 to 35 millimeters on the front axle and 15 to 30 millimeters on the rear axle. Conversely, the adjustment range for the BMW M4 CSL is 15 to 30 millimeters on the front axle and 10 to 25 millimeters on the rear axle.

What makes our KW V5 Clubsport coilover suspension unique is that it’s closely based on our developments for the customer racing programs of automotive manufacturers. We uncompromisingly adapt what works best in motorsport and ensure victories for our KW Clubsport applications. This means that private individuals can now also buy the spearhead of motorsport suspension technology for their road cars – and in this case, even with a parts certificate!

For example, the BMW M Motorsport department equips all BMW M4 GT3 racing cars worldwide with our KW V6 Racing Solid Piston damper. Notably, in its debut season (2022), the BMW M4 GT3 immediately succeeded, winning the DTM championships for drivers, teams, and manufacturers.

We’ve also incorporated KW Solid Piston Technology, featured in the “BMW M4 GT3 DTM’s KW V6 Racing dampers,” into our KW V5 Clubsport coilover kits for the civilian sports cars: the BMW M4, BMW M4 Competition, and BMW M4 CSL. The KW Solid Piston Technology operates differently, unlike conventional single-tube and twin-tube dampers.

With the displacement piston principle, the piston displaces the entire oil column or hydraulic fluid. In other words, the oil was pushed into the valve housing. This enables much greater forces to be generated with a solid piston damper than with standard dampers (shock absorbers).

The benefits go even further. This design philosophy grants our engineers significantly more freedom to tailor the damper’s response curves, perfectly embodying our KW chassis philosophy: “the right chassis for every requirement.” Depending on the design, a displacement piston can handle a force range of 1,000 to 12,000 Newtons at a piston rod speed of 0.5 meters per second.

The damping force in the KW V5 Clubsport coilover kit’s solid piston damper is generated within the valve carrier, which houses both high-speed and low-speed valves. For even finer control, the KW V5 Clubsport utilizes four independently adjustable valves, allowing separate tuning of slow and fast piston rod movements in both compression and rebound stages.

The video above shows that the BMW M4 GT3 and the standard M4 have significant differences. Due to these fundamental distinctions, our design for the KW V5 Clubsport required a compromise compared to the racing variant – which is perfectly understandable.

Unlike the BMW M4 GT3’s double wishbone suspension, the road-going BMW M4 utilizes a MacPherson strut suspension in the front and a multi-link setup in the rear, similar to many production cars. This design philosophy aligns more closely with the BMW M4 GT4.

Unlike the factory-supported GT3 category, the GT4 class caters to private teams with customer-racing cars. This makes GT4 cars, like the Mercedes-AMG GT4, Toyota GR Supra GT4, and the BMW M4 GT4, closer in design and technology to their production car counterparts than GT3 racing vehicles.

Most club sport vehicles, including sports cars and compact models, are closer to production cars than dedicated track-focused machines. This philosophy informs the entire design of our KW Clubsport coilovers, ensuring they remain suitable for road use.

“Near-production” refers to vehicles that haven’t undergone radical lightweight construction with extensive body modifications, nor do they feature significantly altered axle geometry. In extreme cases, some track-focused cars are built around a tubular space frame clad in carbon fiber, far from their production-based counterparts.

All KW Clubsport coilover kits come with a parts certificate for street-legal use. Compared to our “Street Performance” category coilover kits (KW V5, KW V4, KW V3, KW V2, KW V1, and KW DDC), the KW V5 Clubsport coilover kits excel on racetracks with their design for high cornering speeds and the focus on semi-slick tires.

To ensure the MacPherson strut can withstand the higher speeds and, more importantly, the increased cornering forces encountered on the track, we opted for a black, galvanized steel housing for the KW V5 Clubsport on the BMW M4 (G82) instead of a stainless steel alloy.

To better cope with the high lateral forces of the high-performance M4, we installed our solid piston dampers in a 40 mm plain bearing damper cartridge. We manufactured the wheel-guiding MacPherson struts in an upside-down design.

Even with low spring travel, high speeds, and strong lateral forces on a racetrack, the Clubsport coilover kit provides the precise damping needed to keep the BMW M4 (G82) safe and easy to drive.

The KW V5 Clubsport leverages a high-strength, black-anodized aluminum alloy damper housing on the rear axle. This material selection in the BMW M4 application ensures exceptional control over the vehicle’s body movements while maintaining optimal grip, even under high-frequency wheel accelerations.

The CSL is equipped with various sensors to gather data, including accelerometers and spring travel sensors (linear potentiometers). Additionally, the four large platforms on our seven-post vertical dynamics test bench, where the wheels rest, function as wheel load scales.

During a test rig measurement run, each platform is hydraulically moved from bottom to top. As a result, the entire vehicle body is set in a vertical motion, and the engineers analyze, among other things, the resonance frequencies at which the amplitude of the forced-excited body becomes maximal.

For instance, the vertical dynamics test rig replicates the dynamic response of the BMW M4 when it encounters a bump on the road. This allows our engineers to meticulously evaluate the suspension’s ability to rapidly manage the resulting transient force impulse through spring compression and damper actuation. This ensures the BMW M4 CSL maintains exceptional stability and driver control in real-world scenarios. If left unmitigated by damping, uncontrolled chassis vibrations could lead to compromised vehicle handling characteristics.

The KW V5 Clubsport coilover suspension kit installed in the BMW allows for a balance between precise body control and traction, even when encountering high-frequency vertical acceleration from the wheels, such as when driving over uneven or wavy asphalt surfaces. Even during high-speed runs on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, our KW V5 Clubsport customers have reported that the coilover suspension in the M4 instills tremendous confidence, even when the vehicle is under full load.

Even track-day drivers with older, standard-powered BMW M3 E36 models push past 7:12 bridge-to-gantry lap times on the Nürburgring Nordschleife thanks to the exceptional handling provided by our KW V5 Clubsport Solid Piston damper technology. This highlights how our chassis technology can significantly enhance cornering speeds, effectively compensating for limitations in engine power.

For track day enthusiasts seeking the ultimate balance between responsive handling for everyday driving and exceptional cornering speeds to conquer racetracks, the KW V5 Clubsport coilover suspension is the perfect choice. This suspension kit empowers you to transition from daily commutes to high-performance track sessions seamlessly.