Hi All.
I thought I would post a little background and a few pics of my newly acquired Alpine White Corrado VR6. I say newly acquired but she has actually been in the family since 1999 when my Dad purchased her from Listers VW in Birmingham. At the time my brother and I were living with my Mum in Plymouth and had traveled to stay with my Dad in Birmingham. He had owned a White 16v Mk2 Golf for a couple of years that my bother and I, both in our teens, had idolised - at the time I was driving a 1043cc Polo "Bread Van" that I had acquired as a first car, so the 'Valver was somewhat of a beast in comparison..
Anyway, I remember being sat in the back garden having arrived and noticed through the crack of the door to the garage a slightly unexpected shape where the familiar Golf would normally be. On closer inspection the black grill was emblazoned with three red letters, but not the 16V I was expecting...these read VR6!
I'm still impressed he managed to keep it a secret and from that point on I was hooked and we enjoyed many journeys out in the Corrado. I quickly moved on from the Polo to my own Helios Blue Golf GTI, but the Corrado always had that little extra something over the Golf...I think even then I knew one day she would be mine!
Fast forward 17 years and several car changes for me including a Mk5 R32 and my now daily Mk7 R and the Corrado was still in my Dad's possession, although now a third car behind a Diesel Mk6 Golf and an old E Class Mercedes 124 Estate which was taking up his attention (dont ask! :bonk:). Having only covered around 2k miles in 8 or 9 years and 84k in total she was still looking beautiful and had been well looked after due to my Dad's skills as an engineer and his generally obsessive nature with regards cleaning and maintenance.
At the beginning of this year, having flirted with the idea of letting her go for a while but never having bitten the bullet I broached the idea of him letting me take her on, which was surprisingly met with little resistance and with one of my current Mk2s needing a little work done we agreed that the Golf would take a holiday at Dad's for a new heater matrix and some other bits and bobs and the Corrado would come to live at mine! We did agree on a price although to date no money has changed hands - I was quick to get the V5 updated!
As you can probably tell I'm pretty happy to have this car - obviously nostalgia plays a big part but she's also pretty tidy. She has a couple of tiny dents accumulated in car parks over the years that need fixing and needed a set of tires (the ones on the car had not been changed in the time he had it but still had a good amount of tread!).
Other than that she is standard and retains pretty much all the bits and pieces that normally go amiss over the years - tool kit and unused spare, first aid kit, all the original stickers etc.
I plan to sort the dents and refurb the wheels and a sort few other little bits then generally just keep her as is to enjoy - I have booked her in for a new SS exhaust as the original is on it's last legs - I have been told the new one "doesn't need to be as loud as the Golf!!"
Anyway that's enough of a trip down memory lane - here are the pics -
As she was on the day I collected her from my Dads - in the wet typically
Back home with my R
After a wash
I'm sure I'll have some more questions over the coming months and look forward to reading about others cars and maybe catching up with a few of you in the future.
Cheers
Tim