Just stumbled on this: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/463566/1995-mitsubishi-diamante-dunedin-un-nz

I always thought the only AWD 3rd Gen was the one made in Adelaide. Not true?

wonder how slow it would be.. 2.5L auto AWD..

The Aussies took a JDM AWD for testing and found that it was not suitable to Oz conditions so Mitsubishi Oz designed one from scratch, loosly based on the JDM ones using parts from Evo 6, Evo 6 RS, Evo 6 RS Motor Sports, Evo 7 and Evo 7 GTA.

So your saying the entire drivetrain is different to an ADM one? Much prefer his earlier Diamante....but I'm a bit Bias..

So your saying the entire draintrain is different to an ADM one? Much prefer his earlier Diamante....but I'm a bit Bias..

There are definitely japanese AWD's, ive heard about them been unsuitable for aussie conditions, but i cant see what would be unsuitable? I suppose they have to assume you guys will take them across the outback!

My thoughts exactly. If there already was a JDM AWD 3rd gen, could its AWD drivetrain have been so unsuited for aussie roads that it had to be reworked from scratch? Would be nice to be able to compare the two drivetrains side by side and see how different / similar they are.

I may be able to get pics of a JDM awd from pickapart on the weekend. the underside that is lol

From an article I read a while ago, they actually did not start completely from scratch, they grafted the JDM firewall, petrol tank and a few other things. Everthing else was from scratch. I'll take some underside pics of mine when I get my wheels balanced sometime next week.

Mostly because of the strut front end of the aus versions. And the 3.5 litre engine. Also, because the electrics are very different being multiplex, the aus version needed re-engineering. Similar to why the fwd cars have struts and not multilink

Yeah mate. I heard that it was unsuitable due to suspension setup. Could be wrong but i thought they didn't run a coil type setup but more a torson bar setup which doesnt suit our roads.(Front that is) Anyone else heard this or have any other info?

No they have a multilink front suspension setup (i have a JDM)
http://www.khulsey.com/car_parts_multi-link_front_suspension_1.html