Al, am I hearing that the Evo 3 rear end will marry up with the 2004 Sportback Ralliart?

 

More than likely yes. 4G and 5G Mirages also are based on Evo 3 rear ends and Evo 3 rear trailing arms bolt on to our cars. Some of us have also used 04-06 Ralliart rear trailing arms on occasion to go 5lug and rear disc. That should mean that the Evo 1-3 trailing arms can work on your cars as well. Bolting those up gives you the hole for a rear half shaft to pass through. You still would have to cut out the rear subframe and mount an Evo 3 rear subframe for the diff hanger and you'd have to clearance the rear floorpan for the diff. You also need to find a rear diff with a matching gear ratio to the tcase you're gonna use and have a custom length driveshaft made, but it's a much simpler conversion. If you take a look at an Evo 3 rear end, you'll see that it's very similar to what your cars have. That said, I do seem to recall some of the guys who used your rear trailing arms saying that they had to change some things on them to make them fit; but I'm not sure what was involved. I think it had to do with the camber arms.

 

Although I agree with this, just swapping out the floor pan won't be enough if you are planning to do this to a 2002-2006 base Lancer. The wheel wells have to go too, as the shock top mounts lower on the base Lancer than on the EVO (or in the case with this Mirage coupe).

Based on logistics alone, coming up with a whole EVO floor pan and making sure it is actually in good shape, is pretty hard to do. Some people are better off doing what Doncarbone did.

 

While that's true, it doesn't affect the geometry much if at all. I've had no issues with my car and no adverse handling affects and I kept my stock rear strut towers. I'm using coilovers to drop the rear the one inch difference between the two. Evo floorpan's are actually pretty easy to source. You can find wrecked shells on here without too much trouble. Heck, there's one local to me on craigslist for $200. Also, just to note, the Lancer/Mirage strut towers are also based on Evo 3 arts so if one were to go that route it wouldn't matter.

 

No, it will affect geometry very much so if one decided to use the stock base Lancer wheel wells and did the EVO floor swap. And on top of that, the base Lancer's rear shocks do not mate with EVO suspension components at all.

When I started my AWD conversion back in 2007, wrecked EVOs were very, very hard to source from. Your case may be different in this time period and location. I was better off going the custom route when I was doing my conversion.

 

Trust me man, I've completed the swap myself. There is only maybe an inch wider track at the rear strut mounts in the Evo and they're only a hair taller. I've got tons of hours of research done on this for Mirage's and Lancers have the same rear floorpan. Maybe you're just not getting what I'm talking about though. This is the way I did mine and would recommend for others to do as well.

Here's a Mirage floorpan:


And here's an Evo floorpan:


They are very nearly the same and with a set of coilovers the difference is negligible.
This is what you need of the floorpan. You replace the rear sections of frame rail at the same time.




Here's my completed swap:




Lancer rear floors are the same as Mirage's; so the swap should be the exact same.

 

You keep talking about the floors but I'm referring to the wheel wells.

Look at the base Lancer's wheel wells, specifically the shock top mounting points. Pics courtesy of Doncarbone:



Now look at the EVO's wheel wells:



Then look at the Mirage's:



As you can see, your Mirage wheel wells have more in common with the EVO than a base 2002-2006 Lancer.

Now look at the base Lancer rear shocks, specifically where I circled:



The EVO's rear shocks:



Can you explain to me how that's compatible?

The bottom line is, the base Lancer would need the EVO's wheel wells and rear shocks as well as the floor pan in order to accomplish what you did.

Not to be disrespectful, but you did your swap on a Mirage while I have done mine on a 2002 Lancer OZ... I know what needs to be done on my car.

 

Hmm, wow those are different. I know what you were talking about. That's why I linked the pictures of the trunks. I was under the impression that the strut towers were the same as the Mirage because I've run KYB AGX rear struts that were meant for a Lancer. With the towers mounted that low and the frame rails and rear end being the same as the Mirage there's no way that could be right as it would jack the car way up in the air... Now I'm curious as to whether those were actually AGX struts for a Lancer I had or not. Are all 6th gen Lancers towers like that?


As for the struts, you would run Evo struts with the Evo rear end like I did. The Mirage struts are the same style as the Lancer with the bushing and bolt hole is on the strut and the "fork" is in the control arm rather than on the strut like it is on the Evo. The Lancer and Mirage do have the same rear end at least.

 

All 6th gen Lancers are like that. As for the AGX struts, my friend had the same issue, they were labeled for use on Lancers even though they really were meant for Mirages... could be because of the difference in nomenclature in regards to the JDM and USDM markets.

I am running EVO shocks front and rear. As for the wheel wells, I found it easier to custom make them instead of trying to source EVO wheel wells.

 

As for my rear suspension, I am using a hybrid suspension consisting of Lancer, Outlander and EVO components.

 

That's crazy. Talk about a fail on KYB's part. Well, I think the easiest option would be to go with an Evo 1-3 rear end then. You'd still use the same struts and springs (or coilovers) as stock. That version of the awd swap involves cutting out the stock subframe and bolting up the Evo 1-3 rear subframe in it's place. You then weld on the diff hanger between your existing frame rails and bolt on the diff and axles. You might be able to use an Evo 8 fuel tank? You guys would know better than me on whether or not that would work. You'd also need to have a custom driveshaft made. I can't find any really good pictures of the Evo 1-3 rear end, but here's one I found that shows the rear suspension setup:

 

Actually... if I was able to source an EVO floor like you did, my swap would have been WORLDS easier.

If I could go back in time, I would have sourced the whole floor and wheel wells/shock towers from the EVO. That would have made it possible to use all of the EVO's suspension components.

 

Stole this pic from http://www.lancerproject.ca/lancerproject_2.htm. Here's what you have to do to make the Evo 1-3 rear end work. The pic shows the Evo 1-3 diff hanger mounted between the frame rails (it also has fuel talk mounts on it) as well as what you need to do to mount the subframe. I think this might be the best option given the issue with the strut towers.

 

Yeah, I think it's the best way to go really. It's just not the easiest. Replacing those towers really only add a few hours of fab work tops to the overall project. It would've been much harder in 07 to find everything though. Parts are much easier to source nowadays. Most of this info was unattainable back then too. I really think the Evo 3 rear end is the easy way out though. I think it would work really well.

 

My rear end resembles that build. Almost to the tee.