Classic Volkswagen Technical Wiki
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IRS stands for Independent Rear Suspension, as opposed to Swing Axle which was fitted to pre-1967 Buses, and early beetles.

Its common to convert Splitscreen Buses to IRS rear suspension, this has several advantages.

  • avoids camber change so allows suspension height to be lowered/adjusted neatly
  • gets rid of the reduction hubs so improves gear ratios
  • improves handling, as the Swing Axle tendency for an inner rear wheel to 'tuck under' when cornering heavily is removed.

There are several methods of converting a bus to IRS, either by using bespoke new parts (Creative Engineering produce a complete kit of parts for this), or by adapting/modifying parts from bay window buses.

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