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The Passat suspension geometry is pretty good from the factory. The toe and camber change through the wheel travel is near ideal limits and there is good roll center location. All of the factory links have been replaced with tubular parts using spherical bearings. Notice that most pick up points are in double shear. A Speedway Engineering rear tubular torsion type sway bar is used. The back of the car uses RSR remote reservoir coilovers which is double adjustable.
The crossmember has a bolt on reinforcing bar on each side. In testing the team found that the crossmember flexed a lot resulting in a lot of unpredictable toe out that was upsetting the handling. The bolt on bars fixed it completely. The trailing arm is not double articulated, it is just that the angularity of the arm can be adjusted slightly through both of the bearings in the double tubes that make up the trailing arm.
The stainless 4″ exhaust exits under the rear diff. The diff is from a Toyota Supra. The team has stayed away from using the typical quick change rear end on both of the team cars citing the Supra rear end as being much lighter and bombproof reliable. The team has never had a diff fail in many years. The 4″ aluminum driveshaft is from are from the Driveshaft Shop. Axles are stock Supra and hold up well.
The rear of the car uses an APR swan neck rear wing in sturdy rear mounts. The swan neck makes for a more effective wing due to less disturbing of the critical airflow on top of the wing. Does this really matter for drifting? Maybe, this year many teams are experimenting with different wing setups as power levels creep higher and higher.
The back of the car has been cut off to the limit of FD rules and replaced with a fabricated structure. The structure is strong around the Fuel Safe fuel cell for crash protection but very minimalist to the sides of the car. This not only allows for quick and easy reparability of crash damage but will allow Tanner to really drag the tail of the car on the wall for maximum points with out as much risk of causing the car to straighten up and lose points. The lightweight structure not only trims weight but allows the cars mass to become more centralized for better handling.
Fluid catch cans for the diff, transmission and fuel cell vents are all located at the rear of the car.
