Blair

Maybe not, I don't know to be honest. BRMotorsport aren't really trading any more - it's now BRMotor Services after BRMotorsport went down the pan. It's still the same people (apparently even Brian helps out) but I'm a bit wary to be honest...especially if TEC *have* ceased trading because AFAIK they were TEC kits that BRM used to rebuild the chargers... I don't even know for sure if BRM still do the rebuilds!

TEC, that's the guys!

Sounds about right Dave. It LOOKS like it should just pull out towards the front of the car, but the b45tard refuses to budge!

Yep, not far from Asda (if you know Leamington). Kind of handy with me being in Warwick :) In fact my mate who fitted my suspension/brakes/bearings used to work at BRM, which is even MORE handy :) Nah, it's done by Tim (old hand at BRM, nice bloke too). I can see why you'd get that impression though, there's some sort of tie-in with a German rebuilder/tuning company. Can't remember who off the top of my head, but Tim's been fully trained and was always the only guy at BRM who did them. Same day service - drop the car off in the morning, pick it up rebuilt at the end of the day :) No real surprises though - lots of praise for Pitstop/G-Werks, so it's good to get a concensus :) Shame to hear about Jabba as well. I remember them being universally reknowned as 'the daddies', but then Mike expanded the business and started recruiting. To be honest, I was on the verge of sending mine to them for a stage4 but then I spoke to Mike's sidekick at GTI International (going back a few years now, just after Mike started expanding) and he was such an obnoxious and unhelpful &^$# I decided not to bother. The fact that he actively blocked me from talking to Mike about the rebuilds and insisted on lecturing me about them really didn't help... Whoops, best get off the soapbox... ;)

OK, who does the most reliable G60 rebuilds then? I realise up front that there is no way I'm going to get a 100% agreement...but it would be good to just get a concensus! My last rebuild was at BRMotorsport*, who are local and hence just have the edge at the moment. However, I'm open to suggestion...:) *It was also 5 years, 4 months and 40K miles ago so they've done OK compared to some I've heard about! ;)

On a simillar note, I've still got the original "Car" with the G60 road-test, and the "Autocar" with the G60 vs 944 comparitive test as well. They make a great nostalgic read :) I was a Corrado nut as soon as I saw the pictures (I was already a VW nut), picking up my G60 5 years ago was a great day for me :)

I have no idea as I haven't heard it yet. That's why I'm asking people for help in how to get the damned thing out of there. But I would imagine the 'charger would make a difference to the induction noise, as it's basically sucking air from the airbox about 6 inches away...

Yeah, people keep going on about how great it sounds so I wanted to find out for myself :) Although it DOES remove quite a restriction from the airbox, so it might have other benefits (but then of course you risk sucking in warm air from the engine bay instead of cool air from outside...)

I tried the brute force approach - even with the use of a hammer to try and tap it out, it would not budge!

I had a look at this yesterday after James (Renshaw) told me it was worth doing. I got the lower half of the airbox out of the car but just could NOT get the snorkel out of it - not by brute force, anyway! How does it come out? Cheers!

Ah yes, I remember that now too! It was about buying a secondhand Corrado, they said to avoid nugget yellow because of depreciation and the fact it would be difficult to shift. I actually LIKE nugget yellow :)

I'd consider it if I was modding it, but I'm just keeping it original :)

When I use the rear washer on my G60 (which isn't very often to be honest as the rear windscreen never seems to crap up like my old Mk1 GTI did, thanks probably to the slope of it) the water just pours out of the hatch and into the boot. Obviously I've got a badly-fitted / split / perished rubber house somewhere in the hatch. However, I just can't work out how to get to it! I've had the plastic "inspection-hatch" off and had a poke around inside, but it's all very tight for my fat fingers! Is there an easier way - or do I just need to pay someone with smaller hands to sort it for me?

I've got it on VHS somewhere, I'll see if I can find it. Got to get my TV card installed back in my PC to capture it though...!

Electrics aren't really my thing, but I'd be checking the wiring for shorts.

Hehe, yeah, my shocks have been on the way out for a while. One week after the 100K service I changed the shocks - all the original ones, all completely shot. Did VAG tell me, let alone notice? Not a dickybird... Letter of complaint is on the way...(despite the fact *I* knew they were shot and had 4 new ones sitting in the dining room waiting to go on!)

Must admit, I'd be tempted to put the numberplate back where it came from and just leave the bumper recess as an interesting "detail". It suits the bumper, nice a subtle too. Either that, or wire the old rear number plate lights into the brake lights and fit a high-level brake light where the number plate lights used to be :) Good job on the bumper anyhow...looks cool :)

You won't get shot down by me :) Seriously, it's all useful info. At the moment this is all tentative...I was going to sell the G60 and look for a Golf IV V6 4Motion (something a bit newer, fewer miles, but still quick and fun) but given the amount of work I'm doing on it this month (sorting all the bodywork, plus new shocks all round, top mounts, bump stops, rear bearings, rear discs, rear pads, rear calipers) I think I may just hold onto it for a little while :) If I hold onto it, I'm tempted to start "improving" just a couple of things - I want to keep it largely standard (it's been kept bog-standard for the 5 years I've owned it) but tweaking a few areas sounds like it might be fun ;)

You might be OK - didn't mean to scare you :) We found when removing them that my shocks were the original ones it left the factory with (well, I wouldn't have known but the mechanic who kindly let us use his workshop did). 12 years old with 102K miles on them - not much wonder they needed changing :)

Yeah, but at least you can avoid making it any worse! Gutless maybe...but the rest of it is remarkably similar to mine & yours ;)

Dinkus, you'll need to drop the whole strut out to replace it (top mount). This means removing the two bolts holding it onto the hub, and also removing the plate on top of the strut under the bonnet - the one the rubber cap fits onto. For this you'll need an open socket and the right-sized allen key - should be 8mm if the shocks are origjnal (assuming they're the same as the G60). If they've been replaced they might be 7mm though. You'll also need spring compressors - do NOT undo the top mount without the springs being clamped unless you want to lose your teeth :) You can hire these, you don't need to buy them. Since you're going to all that trouble, you might want to check the state of your bump stops at the same time - if they're shot you'll want to replace them at the same time. Probably also worth checking the shocks too - now this is frankly UNBELIEVABLE but I knew my shocks were shot - and when I took them off I found out HOW shot - but VAG did not pick up on any of the following during the service it had a week before: - All four shocks were shot - Front top mounts had excessive play - Rear bump stops chewed to pieces - Rear calipers handbrake mechanism shot - One of the rear calipers wasn't working AT ALL!!! Luckily I knew most of this and had the parts ready to change. But for VAG to not pick up on any of them is a joke - sadly a bloody dangerous joke! But what I'm trying to say is don't leave it to a VAG service to highlight problems - when you've got the bits apart, give them all a good check over yourself :)

Thanks guys :) And thanks PhatVR6...that answers the second question that I hadn't asked I guess! ;)

I wrote a spreadsheet a few years ago for this sort of thing - it doesn't account for weight, but will let you enter your reference wheel/tyre sizes (width, profile and wheel diameter), then for every other combination you enter it will give you the delta to the rolling radius & the circumference and also give you this delta as a percentage. If anyone thinks they'd find it useful, get in touch (or is there an upload/download area I can stick it in?) For example - taking the 1.8 16V as basis, the standard wheel/tyre size was 185/55r15 out of the factory. If you stick 205/50r15 tyres on it, you're looking at an increase in RR of 0.8mm - ie. well within the realms of mere tyre wear. If you stick 205/40r17s on, you're looking at an extra 5.6mm on the RR (or 1.9%). As mentioned, it WON'T take the weight of the wheel into account, but will give you a rough idea. HTH :)

At the risk of pimping someone else's For Sale thread, has anyone else installed a Golf intercooler in their G60? http://the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12153 Just wondering how much of a job it is - does it fit in the same location or is there a lot of pipework to be done? And is it even worthwhile on a standard engine, or only really worth doing if you're running at least a chip & pulley? Cheers :)

Ah yes - good call about sticking a fuse on it too. If you're just using it to provide power, the terminals don't have to be that well hidden - but clearly you'd want them somewhere they wouldn't get splashed with water, mud etc. Alternatively, you could use a similar power connector that Flymo use to join the short cable that comes out of the mower to the long cable you plug into the socket. It's a slight case of overkill as you're never going to send mains current down it (or at least I hope not!) BUT they (or at least the two I've seen) do have a spring-loaded cover that flips over and protects the terminals in the socket. The only downside is you need the carry the plug around with you ;)