My Golf Rally Car Build

Stage IV - Drivetrain/Suspension
 

PICTURE GALLERY   


      First step was to get rid of those lame stock brakes with
something I could rely on to slow me down when I'm flying
down the trail. I swapped in 11" corrado rotors and mated them
to a set of girling 60 calipers. The girling's weigh a bit more
than the stock corrado calipers, but they are dual piston which
should outperform the weight disadvantage. The audi carriers
cause the pads to ride a 1/4" inside the braking surface on the
11" rotors which is giving up some contact patch for the pads.
The current plan is to use some VR6 carriers for 11.3" rotors to
push the calipers farther out on the rotor surface to gain this
space back. I will be converting the rear brakes to a hub
mount. This will allow me to also run 11" vented brakes on the
rear. I also added a set of braided brake lines to increase the
performance. New hard brake lines will be run inside the car to
reduce damage on stage with a proportioning value that can be
changed from the drivers seat.

      For the engine, the plan was to keep the stock ABA 2.0L bottom and add a port and polished big valve head with a nice cam. This all changed once I found an ABF MKIII 16v with 15k original miles. I thought about using the stock EFI system, but decided that converting to dual OER Racing carburetors (Webber copies) would provide 2 benefits - 1) Increased throttle response due to the short and straight distance to the intake valves. 2) Reduce the point of failure due to electronic/sensors. I will be converting the ignition system to distributorless with Electromotive's XDI Direct Ignition system. This uses a crankshaft position sensor instead of a distributor. I will be using a 60-2 wheel and VR sensor from 034 Motorsports.

The ABF comes stock with over 140 whp and 126 lb of torque . This will prove to be consistently more reliable than building and maintaining a highly modified 8 valve with less overall HP. I also picked up a 02A transmission. This will also be substantially stronger than the stock O2O that came with the ABA's. This will also allow me to convert to a hydraulic clutch and a cable actuated shifter instead of a shift rod configuration.

      I purchased an oil cooler which was sized for a VR6. This should supply enough cooling through the course of a long hot rally. This will be feed with -8 AN lines.

      I also found a good deal on a 02A 4.24 Ring and Pinion. While I would like something in the 4.4 range, this ratio was a great compromise on price. I also plated the oil pan to prevent any damage that the skidplate did not stop.

      Next I began work on mounting the alternator and power steering pump. The original ABA mount prevented the alternator from clearing the carburetors and the power steering pump was mounted very low under the front subframe. The goal was the devise a solution that would move the pump up to where the AC unit sat and also allow the alternator to miss the carburetors. I was able to rotate the Alternator down and build a new top mount out of steel. The power steering pump was relocated to the AC unit location with a simple adapter plate.