So.. quite a few months back with APR, we discussed a AWD conversion.
It then happened, and here are the results and story..
A couple of Greeks came other to help out for a couple of days, as they had done it before. They were here to do all the mechanicals and to use there experience in the conversion.
The new rear subframe installed with the rear diff and haldex control unit:
Oops, there a hole in my boot:
The transmission tunnel minus the heatshield:
The front transfer box connected to the gearbox:
The transmission exhaust tunnel:
The new rear hub installed:
The old subframe off the car:
The old exhaust had to come off, as the routing for AWD is very different due to the fuel tank and rear subframe in the way:
Sizing up the propshaft:
A new bracket for the propshaft needed to be welded on the car:
Peak-a-boo. The spare wheel well in the boot floor needed to be removed as the rear diff and subframe were now in the way:
The legendary Ricky Elder sorting out the wiring. This involved wiring the Haldex unit, the new fuel tank and second feed, and some other misc parts:
The whole interior needed to be removed whilst the propshaft bracket was being welded. Scary sight:
The suspension re-fitted on the rear subframe:
The propshaft now fitted:
Mechanical finishing touches:
The car back on solid ground now fitted with AWD parts:
"In good company" - with the APR demo car.
Now, as I said earlier, the exhaust on AWD is quite different to FWD. This is where the fantastic Alex from AKS comes in. The car went over to his for a new custom APR RSC using some of the old bits, but some parts like below had to be created from scratch.
Kudos to Alex for the amazing job as you can see below.
In addition to the exhaust, Alex also remade the boot floor. The idea behind it was to cover the Rear diff, but still have a space to store more jack etc:
The new boot floor all painted and tidy. Excellent work!
The new exhaust in place. you can see the old and new bits:
Exhaust in place:
Wow that flex is close to the propshaft:
New front and rear H&R ARB's (supplied by AKS) also needed to be fitted, as they are different in AWD cars:
In addition to the mechanics, Several bits of wiring needed to be completed, new ABS, and ESP modules needed to be fitted and coded in correctly.
The old Peloquin diff was removed and replaced with a OEM 4WD diff.
But thats the jist of the project.
So.. how is it?In a word.. Fantastic. I took it on track a few weeks ago for a session round Lydden Hill, and well.. it just pulled - with zero wheelspin.
The car is around 450hp, but I can come out of the corners in 2nd gear and it just grips - its immense.
The car has some extra weight now, but ive made some weight saving changes to help offset this:
-Spare wheel gone.
-Aircon removed.
Finally big thanks goes to APR for making this happen, and Alex at AKS for going beyond the call of duty to get the supporting parts made and fitted!
