29/12/2025
Subaru Rear Suspension Conversion Onto Corrado 2.0 16V Turbo 4WD
We believe this to be a Corrado modification first, as in all my years of being involved with tuning VAG engineering, i have never heard of or seen this done before. Please read on to get more detail on this. www.johnmitchellracing.co.uk
When first i converted my Corrado to four wheel drive, I, in common with many on this pursuit chose the Golf Rallye rear suspension setup as a base. This Rallye package was further modified by us to accomodate the Gen 1 Haldex rear differential, custom made driveshafts, camber and toe adjusting eccentric bolts and custom 280mm vented brake disc and caliper conversion.
The Rallye package was relatively easy to source and modify, as too were the body floorpan components, to allow it’s installation, inclusive of the Rallye fuel tank. This package, however, proved to have signicant limitations for use on my Corrado, in respect of ride height, camber & toe adjustability and exhaust restriction. There just was not sufficient camber and toe correction, to offset the amount of camber present, at the desired ride height. The fuel tank was too small for the engine’s appetite and the exhaust had to be routed below the susoension to allow for a 3” system required.
I persisted with this Rallye setup fir many years, in the hope of finding a way to make it work. Sadly, this was not to be the case. A conversation with Ben in our rest room presented a resolve to the issue. What began as moment of levity, wherein Ben is always wanting to add J*p engineering onto my build, became a comment that just might work.
A Corrado floorpan was sourced as a jig and the required Subaru parts sourced. It wasn’t long before Ben and me had this conversion well underway and it just got better and better, everytime we had a moment to develope the concept onto the jig. The mist challenging part was to re-configure the Subaru rear subframe, to accept the Gen 1 Haldex rear differential. The chassis mods were sorted with relative ease. Custom drive shafts were commissioned to give connectivity between the VAG diff and the Subaru outer CV’ & uprights. Our friends at KW Suspensions UK and DE were commissioned to create a pair of rear coilovers to have Subaru lower connection and VW Corrado upper and there to be custom built in KW Clubsport specification with HLS4 (Hydraulic Lift System 4 wheel) to suit the front of my Corrado. We used a kit of Subaru motorsport suspension arms and links, which came fully rise jointed and titally adjustable.
On the braking system I chose to retain the complete Subaru package of 280mm discs and twin piston calipers, with internal park brake drums, to which we raided to VAG part bin and found a brake cable that fitted the Corrado park brake perfectly! This conversion was so meant to happen, everything just fell into place.
The exhaust now had oodles of room to be raised up and to exit through the rear bumper, ad i hade originally wanted. Ben got busy on our TIG and built an excellent 3” rear section for the exhaust.
The old Rallye fuel tank was sold with the Rallye suspension and a new custom made aluminium tank was built by my friend Chris Tullet of CTS Fabrication. The tank was plumbed in with an all new lift pump to the swirl pot and a new level sensir which was calibrated into the AIM digital dash. The new tank hold 75 litre capacity and is more suited to my Corrado thirsty habit, which is comparable to a Camel on speed!
With some setup tweeks on our 4 wheel alignment rig and a few test drives, i was delighted with the results which had transformed the stability, road holding and the cars ability to transfer the 540BHP to the road.
The great part of this modification is that we can install this to both 2 and 4WD Corrado / Mk2 Golf. This setup is lighter than the Rallye / Syncro setup and quite possibly also than the 2WD Torsion beam. The range of adjustment to camber and toe is massive and goes far beyond any adjustment offered by Torsion beam or Synchro tuning options.
