After owning the Coupe4 for a while and wanting a little more 'seat of your pants feeling' but not being able to bring myself to modify the rare Coupe4. I decided to build one.

After pricing up a body kit at more than $10k and the same to fit it, the plans where shelved. Was really concerned that without the body kit the front wheels would stick out past the stock guards.
Decided to drop the idea and just bought a CV8 to drive to the WA Monaro Nats last year, but made sure I got an '03 version with the AWD floor pan... just in case you know.

Then a few months ago trawling the net I found a fella with a flare for these kinds of conversions. He is retired and just tinkers with his own supercharged 6L AWD VY tonner. Asked him one day if he would be interested in converting my Monaro to AWD. Wouldnt you know it, he said he would be keen. So with the approval from the minister of finance, it was game on. Still very uneasy about the front wheel track, but he was confident that it wasnt anything to be too concerned about.
A low K rear ended VZ LX8 Adventra was sourced at the auction and it was all happening.


The engine and trans were dropped from both the Monaro and Adventra. This was our first 'got ya'. The 2WD and AWD tunnels are totally different. The 2WD has a trans mount welded over the top of the Transfer case hump in the floor. So we had to unpick the 2WD cross member mounts and the AWD one from the Addy and weld it into the Monaro floor. This was only required on one side, so was all done in an afternoon.


Bit hard to see with the black paint. But it all looks factory.



From there it was just a simple matter of bolting it all back together. It was a VY Monaro and VZ Adventra. So we decided to VZ the engine bay and use as much stuff as possible off the Adventra. There were a few more 'got ya's' doing this as the engine fans are all wired differently and as we were still using all the VY wiring it needed a bit of a mix n match to get them to work.
Adventra diff was hauled out and recond'd, also fitted an LSD at the same time. As we were using the Monaro wiring we took away the silly cross trac system which is not needed on a road car anyway. This made the conversion so much simpler. But if we did not put the LSD in the diff it would have just been driving one rear wheel and one front. So this way we are always driving atleast 3 wheels.





But this conversion would have been pretty much impossible without having a donor car side by side to rob bits off. There is just so many bits that are AWD only that would break the bank if you had to rush off to the wrecker to buy them every time you found out you needed something. Plus then you have the left overs from the wreck that you can sell off to get some of the conversion costs back.

All in all it went very smoothly indeed. Had to mate up the orginal Adventra exhaust headers to my 2 1/2 inch Monaro exhaust, and had to remove my Harrops as they would not suit the AWD. But installed a set of HSV Avalanche brakes that I got off eBay and I swear they are nearly as good as the Harrops.


So this is how it sits now. I am pretty happy, no one can pick any difference with the car unless I tell them. But with the extra 30mm track each side the wheels do stick out further than I would like. So I have the front wheels in getting modified to hopefully take around 10mm of track off.

Next up for the car is either a manual conversion. This fella seems to think that it is just a matter of making up an adapter on his CNC to join the manual box onto the transfer case OR there is an option of converting the 4 speed auto to flappy paddle steering wheel controls. Now that would be a neat trick, so not sure which way to go with that one. But once that is all sorted, I hope to supercharge the thing to get that seat of your pants feeling that I dont get on the Coupe4.

Any questions?? just ask.

Edited by user Sunday, 4 August 2013 7:01:11 AM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks Mick,

We dont think that the T56 will hold up to the punishment of being thrashed and supercharged.

Looking at something like a T6060.

But we have done hours and hours of internet searching to find something suitable. We are hoping for something with a transfer case that has a torsen centre to always have some drive to the front. There seems to be an OK setup in some BMW's, but availability here in Oz is limited. So might be easier to do an adapter to the T6060.
But really considering the flappy paddle option at the moment. Would be fun and a neat trick and not be too much away from factory.

Really want to keep the thing looking as stock as possible.

We are also looking at tightening up the front diff with a torsen type arrangement to distribute the drive to the front wheels, as currently we are driving both back wheels and at least one front. BMW have the same front diff and there is some limited info on them having this centre. But again availability in Oz is very limited.

Either way it is a fun toy at the moment. going to do a couple of hillclimbs and track days in it, see how she goes.

Sounds the same as the CrossTrac system we took out. Just did not think it was required on a road going car. Fine for offroad to transfer the power to the wheel without traction, but with an LSD in the back and hopefully something similar up front, it will/should be always driving all 4 wheels all the time. So no reason for the brakes to come on and upset the fun.

I did know all about the centre diff, but it escapes me now, but it is a series of gears that direct 38% to the front and 62% to the back. So it is always driving the front as well. But if we can find one with a torsen centre it will/should direct the drive to where it is needed.

As an unofficial test pilot I can say that this car is just unbeleivable.

We drove from Adelaide to Barrossa in the wet and the car did not loose traction once. Even when we tested it on a wet dirt road, it sinply pulled as hard as if it was on dry bitumen.

Not torque steer although the steering is a little heavier than normal.

Warren

Had an absolute blast yesterday, took the AllPaw Monaro out to the Collingrove Hillclimb come and try day. (you tube it for some pretty good vids of the track) It is a narrow winding 700 meter run up a small hill, and what a blast it was. Could finally push the car and find its limits that you would never really be able to on the street. Was able to induce some understeer when the car was pushed really hard, but not something you would ever get close to on the street.

Now for the times, but a bit of background. I have never run this track before, hell I have never even done a track day before. I was up against a HSV GTO 6 litre auto, Mafless tune with slicks. He has run the course on at least 5 occasions with 6 runs each time, so safe to say he knows the track. His best time was a 39.1. Also had a 2003 CV8 that was manual, sticky tyres, also had run the course a few times. His previous best was a mid 39.

So then it was my go, we did the reccy run with all 90 cars doing a slow run to see what the track was like...... Either way there was decent run off if I did venture off the track, so it was decided, hold it flat and steer and minimal brakes. I was actually s***ting my pants.

First run I got scared and used the brakes. 40.21 But thought it would be pretty easy to drop into the 39's.
Next run was less brakes and more pushing, but the damn traction control put the brakes on the fun. But still managed a 39.61. Stoked.
Third run it was decided to not brake at the first corner at all, seems only pussies brake into that, seems I am a *****, just couldn't stop the brain from dabbing the brakes, but this time with traction off and locking it back to 1st for the S's I was able to squeeze a 38.98. YAY, happy dance. 14th fastest out of 90 runners, with some dedicated hillclimb cars........... Very Happy.
Next run I was fully prepared, traction off, knew where to drag it back to first, but still had to dab the brakes into the first turn, I know the car can do it flat, but I get scared, still dont think the dab does anything to slow the car but it makes my brain feel better. The result being a 38.64. WOW, never thought that I could have pulled that out. But it equaled an unhappy GTO owner. LOL But that was the best run of the day. Rest turned to crap when I GoPro was fitted to the car and I got confused trying to start it and forgot to turn traction off. Then last run was (or felt) blisteringly fast, but dropped 2 wheels in the dirt and that was enough to slow it to a 38.91.

But I would say that with someone that actually knows how to steer this thing, there would be a good second left in it, I can see a low 37 or even a 36.
Getting it off the line quick was was an issue, tried everything to get it off the line quick, but I think the only way would be to upgrade the convertor, so there are some gains to be had there too. Plus a new convertor certainly would not hurt its street performance either.

But overall, very very impressed with this thing. I had a blast all day. But I am sure that with my steering ability and a stock CV8 I would have been in the 40's.