Rob Lawson's Mk2 Cavalier is a rare sight in itself nowadays, but one that has been converted to a 400bhp V6 Turbo 4motion beast is even rarer! Rob takes up the story himself, as he explains what got him to this point in the first place, 'I’ve always been into anything with an engine in from a young age, it was all about motorbikes growing up and then onto cars when I passed my test, I’ve always been into swapping engines around, my first one was a Redtop into a nova sr way back in 1998 which was a popular conversion at the time. But I must admit my stuff has got weirder over the years...

Rob Continues... 'Out of the 3 cars and my daily driver van I own, three of them have engines from different manufacturers. An MGZR with a C20LET and F28 gearbox that ran 327hp and 340ftlb and a Transit Van with a BMW 330d lump in it. I don’t do it for any specific reason just something to do instead of watching crap on tv at night, I don’t have any special tools or even a ramp at home I just do it in a garage on the side of the house and enjoy cutting/welding and bolting stuff together till it works at least in some fashion'

'I’ve owned the Cavalier for about 5 years I think now, it was completely standard when I got it but needed work. The doors were rotten and the sills weren’t much better but it was still a decent shell, the 1.8 wasn’t particularly potent the brakes were terrible and the steering was hopeless even on lowering springs it was an authentic 80s driving experience.'

Rob explains what made him go down this VR6 route...

'I wanted to do another project with an oddball 6 cylinder engine and I love the sound of the vr6 so I found a mk4 Golf 2.8 4motion that had been rear ended,  on a well known social media site and got it.

I stripped the running gear off and subframes/suspension etc and set about grafting it all into the cavalier with the addition of a turbo.

I never really thought about how much of a job it would be I just did a bit at nights and weekends until it was somewhere near.

I’m going to try and get some miles on it this year as it’s actually a pleasure to drive. It drives straight and true, handles well the brakes are mega and the exhaust note is awesome.'

Roll Cage



Driver Info:

Name: Rob Lawson

Age: 42

Location: Nottinghamshire UK

Spec List:

Engine:  2.8 24v v6 (From Golf vr6) ARP rod bolts, decompression head spacer, short runner intake, 660cc deka injectors, 75mm throttle body, gt35 Beijing blower, 38mm external waste gate, ecumaster classic standalone, Bosch 044 fuel pump.

Power 396bhp and 360ftlb at 1.1bar boost (Dyno proven) torque reigned in for gearbox longevity.

Transmission: 6 puck paddle clutch, standard 02m gearbox/transfer box, standard haldex rear differential currently set either on (50/50 split) or off (fwd only)

Note- haldex controller going on this year for full control.

Brakes: Full golf 4motion brake set up, with drilled and grooved disks, and mintex pads.

Suspension: Budget KW coil over kit. Fully adjustable rear track control arms.

Exterior: Standard mk2 cavalier colours with added wheel arches to cover the extra track width of the golf running gear.

Interior: Standard early cavalier highland check interior, GPS speedo fitted into the standard 6 dial cavalier clocks, shell stiffener/cage bolted in 10 places, Alpine head unit.

Wheels: Currently on td5 Landrover wheels