KW automotive: Successful start to the season for customer teams
WIDELY PUTTING UP Whether at the Dakar, the Monte Carlo Rally or the 24 Hours of Daytona - the motorsport customers of the KW automotive group were already further down the winning road in January 2022.
The KW automotive group is broadly positioned with its two suspension brands KW suspensions and Reiger Suspensions.
KW Motorsport Manager Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Rechenberg: "While we focus primarily on developments for the circuit here in Fichtenberg, our motorsport applications for off-road use are created by our colleagues at Reiger in the Netherlands. We work closely together on this. Thus, one or the other rally vehicle has already been on our 7-post vertical vehicle dynamics test bench."
Installed in numerous race cars ex works
For several years, various car manufacturers have relied on KW and Reiger developments in their customer sports programs and racing operations.
In endurance races on the circuit, vehicles in the GT3 and GT4 classifications in various championships, such as the BMW M4 GT3, Porsche 911 GT3 R, Mercedes-AMG GT4, Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport and Toyota GR Supra GT4, are equipped with the multiple performance-adjustable KW motorsport dampers.
Thomas Rechenberg: "At the moment, we are developing the dampers for a customer sports car that will be released in 2023, and in 2022 we will equip one or the other DTM motorsport team with our dampers for the first time."
Dominance in rallying
Factories such as Ford, Subaru and Toyota rely on Reiger dampers in rally racing. At the opening round of the World Rally Championship in Monte Carlo, for example, only vehicles with Reiger dampers finished in the top 5, with Sébastien Loeb and Isabelle Galmiche in the Ford Puma Rally1 (center gallery) winning ahead of Sébastien Ogier and Benjamin Veillas in the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 and Craig Breen and Paul Nagle in the second-best Ford Puma Rally1.
KW automotive customers also won the 8,000-kilometer Dakar Rally through the deserts of Saudi Arabia, led by Toyota Gazoo Racing with Nasser Al-Attiyah/Mathieu Baumel (gallery left). Places 1 to 6 were exclusively vehicles with Reiger dampers.
Reiger Suspension is also represented with its developments in many other off-road championships.
Winning GT customers at Daytona
After that, KW customers triumphed on the circuit as well. At the Daytona 24-hour race, Porsche Motorsport customers won in the GTD Pro and GTD classes. Other GT3 cars with KW racing dampers were the two new BMW M4 GT3s from BMW Team RLL (gallery on the right).
In the run-up to the US classic, the Porsche customer team RS1 also won the BMW M Endurance Challenge round at Daytona with its new Porsche 718 GT4 RS Clubsport.
