Hi everybody,

I just finished a sweet 1000km road trip along the mountains of Taiwan's east coast. The views are spectacular and the roads are amazing to drive. Twisty the whole way, lots of 180 hairpins with elevation changes through the turn, and lots of sheer cliffs with very weak/small barriers to punish drivers who make mistakes on these roads. (These roads have some of the highest single-car fatality death rates in the world...in some sections the roads are literally carved into the side of a mountain that drops 800m down to the sea below.)

I installed KW Variant 3s about a month ago. Some of you have already read my enthusiastic early impressions, and this trip confirmed the performance of this suspension in all modes of driving. On the turns, there is no body roll, but the suspension still remains fairly compliant over bumps, even on the left side if you are going into a right turn. No jars, no bumps, no scrapes, and the car is lowered quite a bit. On sections of highway where I put the car up to 190km/h for brief sprints, the ride is sublime, handling the bumps beautifully without upsetting the car, even at those speeds. For example, with the stock suspension, sometimes the back of the car would wiggle going over highway joints at high speeds. With the KWs, there is no lateral movement when the back settles back after the bump.

The performance of the suspension also was not tiring. The ride still feels stock but better in both comfort and performance. Just love them, and highly recommend them. I know they are not cheap, but in my opinion, worth every penny.

And one last thing...even with the twisty roads, tons of uphill driving, and aggressive sprints to pass trucks on a narrow two lane road, my TDI still have me 850km (530 miles) on 50 litres 13.5 gallonsof diesel! Chipping the TDI gave me greater power and torque, and better fuel economy! Loving the A3!

 

I'm so jealous.

Were you on the mountain roads in east to mid taiwan? I think the road/highway that goes though the Tai Lu Ge (sorry I must've butchered the pinying) National Park is very awesome road to drive on too.

 

Yeah...the actual roads in Taroko (my pinyin sucks too, so I'll use the English abomination!) are too packed with tour buses to do much other than sightseeing...and yes wow! But Highway 9 down into Taroko an on down to Tai Dong is awesome!

Are you from Taiwan?

 

Yup I am from Taipei. I moved to Maryland 12 years ago and sticked around ever since. I was fortunate to tour all the scenic places in Taiwan before I left. Nowadays I go back once in a while to visit my grandparents and fulfill my cravings for cheap street food. =P

Taroko is an awesome place. I love the steams and hot springs. Too bad that landslide destroyed buncha stuff.

I'm seriously considering going back this coming winter and stayed for a good 2 weeks. I should be able to tour around all the parks again.

 

Cool. I'm the other way around...left Canada to come to Taiwan for 6 months...and that was 8 years ago!

Look me up when you are back in Taipei.

 

lol... i might go back this summer to work in the 101 building. maybe we'll have a gtg in taiwan huh?? ha

 

Bring your car with you...Audi's cost about 40% more here than Stateside!

 

haha..nice. Hopefully I'll see yall in Taipei this winter. Plane tickets are mad expensive this summer because of the summer olympics. Plus, after living in MD for 12 years, my heat tolerance has dropped alot. I rather go back in the winter and go out in tshirts