When Kelvin asked me to write a few words about the Cordia my first reaction was that as a non front running car who would be interested?. He reckoned people might be because it is the only Cordia and one of the few late model front wheel drives, so here goes:-

I brought the Cordia about two years ago as a road going car. A young guy had blown the original engine and had paid someone to put in a 4G63 (2L DOHC turbo ex jap spec from a VR4) and Microtech management system.

He used it regularly for street drags and took it to Calder several times. He showed me a print out of 14.2 secs ( with massive wheelspin on skinny street tyres) Due to this the clutch, gearbox, driveshafts and suspension were stuffed. He couldn’t afford to keep it on the road, had insurance, registration and worried parents problems so I parted with some folding stuff and took it off his hands.

The engine fitted is normally in 4WD cars (VR4 and Lancer Evos ) so this amount of power going through the front wheels only was “interesting” to handle in a road car. The torque steer and wheelspin would cause the car to change direction significantly as boost came on , even when holding the steering wheel as tight as you could.

Firstly the gearbox, driveshafts and clutch were repaired and then a set of Pedders springs, dampers and bushes were fitted. Next went in an alloy roll cage and bigger Magna brakes ( inc rear discs).

I took it to Anthony at Maztech and it was leaning out badly on the dyno and putting 134 hp at the wheels. The standard Cordia fuel pump was replaced with a VL turbo pump complete with surge tank, filters and low pressure pump. A 3” exhaust was also fitted and it went back to Maztech. This time it could be properly tuned and it was now making 220hp at the wheels.

I took it on a few sprints and found it could pass V8’s on the straight but had bad understeer, bump and torque steer. After my first few races I realised the handling was inadequate. I couldn’t get the power down and the brakes weren’t up to it.

For the brakes, I found that VR4 discs and four piston calipers bolted straight on and although they are not racing brakes they are adequate as the VR4 is a much heavier car. 

To fix the classic front drive understeer problem the rear end has to be stiffened to induce oversteer. A large adjustable sway bar and Konis were fitted.

To fix the torque steer I fitted equal length driveshafts. The original design used a long and a short driveshaft meaning the power would get to the wheel with the short driveshaft first due to torsional shaft windup.

To fix the front end Rohan Ambrose made me up some coil overs with Konis and we dialed in plenty of camber. The handling improved significantly but the camber made the problem of getting power through the front inside wheel even worse. In fact because of the open diff. if the inside front wheel lifted there was no traction! I couldn’t find a LSD so fitted a CIG locker. This fixed the traction problem but brought back some of the understeer, made it difficult to drive around the pits and has created extra strain on the steering, gearbox and driveline.

Currently the car is going quite well and is reliable ( despite ongoing overboost problems) and has consistently finished in the top ten. It keeps the front runners honest on the straights and as I learn to drive it better it is getting quicker around the corners. The best times so far have been 1:54 at the Island and 1:31 at Sandown. 

Future developments include a stronger gearbox, a LSD ( have just sourced one from Ralliart - Mirage Cup car), an external wastegate? a new paint job and most importantly some extra driving experience and skills.

- Wayne Twist

This Dragon Slaying Cordia will keep conquering on the track. Its great to see a well setup 1980's turbo flyer so at home on the race track.

The Great Cordia Artwork featured on this page was created by Cristian Silva.