Kevin Bacon

Good man, that's the spirit. You can't call yourself a VRT veteran until you've blown at least one engine and/or gearbox :thumbleft:

44. Corrado ownership 2003 - 2012.

None of that made one jot of difference on my n'asp VR6 applications.

It's certainly got all the right boxes ticked - 4WD, decent chassis, mega grunt in the engine room, practicality, decent stereo and BMWness. I hope you've put a 320d badge on it to upset the tailgating boy racers? :lol: Stick some ProjectMU HC800 pads on it and that might sort the brakes in the interim, until you can find a tasty brake kit for it. What's the most you can get out of that engine with sensible mods / outlay? Pretty incredible a 3 litre diesel engine is only 30hp shy of the E90 M3!!

Nice! My mate recently bought a 320d touring in that colour with the 8 speed ZF. That thing is reasonably minty fresh with 180 odd hp, so yours must be like the entire box of tic-tacs in one mouthful! That is a lot of grunt! I like the gearbox but I'm afraid the rest of it is all a bit too bland for me, even at my ripe old age......where ageing blokes usually swap coilovers and trainers for air suspension and slippers. I don't know if you feel the same way, but I don't find the current BMWs to be as granite-like as the good old 90s BMWs. The engines are hugely better in the modern Bimmers though!

I rarely use it, and when I do, I make sure it's for small amounts only. But precisely what you just said - transfer the money out of PP the second you get it. Better it in your bank than theirs. I think some context is missing from your story because the others said, financial institutions don't just randomly ask for proof of id without a reason.

My Austin Allegro :lol: Life is too short to have regrets and most things are replaceable, if the yearning is strong enough! Some cars just fit our lives at the time, but we all change and move on. I liked my MK1s and MK2s at the time but there is no way on earth I would own either again.

There were too many things about that car that frustrated me. Great looking car and has all the ingredients for something special, but final dish just wasn't as tasty as it could have been. The bodyshell is woefully floppy, so the standard Bilstein/H&R suspension couldn't do it's thing effectively. Instead it was crashy and unrefined. The same setup on the MK5 is a million times better because it's foundations are considerably stiffer. And there was the droney exhaust, which gets really irritating. Aftermarket exhaust are even worse. The seats whilst comfy are creaky and noisy and the leather sags. The Xenons wobbled over bumps, the gearbox isn't great and if all that wasn't bad enough, it was just slooooooooow. Every boy racer in the land wants to race you, and you lose most of the time. If you just want some fun for a year, I'd get the MK5 DSG personally. The MK4 has the potential to be a classic, but not for some time yet as the MK4 platform was never universally praised, however, minty fresh examples are on the rise. 907 I think, quite an early one :) That said, previous owners Revo Stage 1 and 2'd it, plus what I've been doing to it, and at 114K miles, I'm still getting 14 bar compression across all 4 cylinders :) They are 14-15 bar new!

Cheers for the kind words guys :) I always did like the friendliness, support and encouragement of this forum :thumbleft: I have to agree, the BBS RX was the best looking wheel I think. The R32 conversion was the most challenging thing to get right. Modern electronics can be a real headache, and back at you Kip, I always admired your attention to detail on your wiring and using the OEM cats :salute: Yeah the Ohlins have transformed the car! They only recently made the jump into the road car market, and have a very limited range currently, but hopefully in time they will extend it to the MK2 platform, which will make it usable on the Corrado. Their Dual Flow valve dampers are unreal, a posher version of Koni's FSD, but way more effective. The best analogy I can come up with is they feed back the shape and surface of the road a lot better, but filter out the texture. It's like a steam roller is just ahead of you, flattening the tarmac. Incredible how all the annoying little lumps and bumps get filtered out, whilst maintaining Go-kart stiffness. You don't even feel cats eyes. It's really surreal after years of crashy, harsh suspension! It's like it's pressing the Sport/Normal button for you automatically. Good to see more MK5 owners, and a VRS owner :smug: Stay away from MK7s if you think the 5 is too refined :lol: I totally understand that feeling though, but for me the MK5 doesn't feel too refined. There's bugger all sound deadening in the back, it's noisy and quite coarse at times......just like the Corrado :) Personally I just like a gear stick, a steering wheel and 3 pedals and that's pretty much a MK5. There's nothing I consider too modern or complicated about it. I really can't be doing with all these OLED dashboards, buttons everywhere and soft close doors and boots etc, meh. Just more stuff to go wrong. Haha, yeah Mic, I remember that brake fitting day at yours and your little "Whoa" when I stuck my foot down :lol: It was pretty brisk the old VRT!! I still miss the silliness of it's acceleration! ED30s certainly are falling into the wrong hands now. Original, unmodified ones are like hens teeth. There will definitely be another Corrado in my life at some point. Need to get back into a house with a garage first though!

Thanks mate! Damn divorces huh! Hopefully you can get into another one soon! I haven't embraced 911s yet, but I feel a 997 could be on the horizon. ED30s are just epic. Stick some Ohlins on it, a TTE420 turbo mapped by Vince, a gripper diff and there won't be a lot on the road that can hand it it's arse! Thanks buddy. There were a few things I wanted to tidy/neaten up on the old girl wiring wise, but due to a split with the missus, I needed to move her on. I'm glad it's still going well! From memory the ECU commanded the fan controller (is that even still fitted? I can't remember!) to leave the aux pump running after shut down, and also toggled it on when the engine was running. I went through all that wiring with Vince at Stealth because I couldn't get my head around it at the time. Is it not working at the moment? AFAIK, the ECU ran it after 80 degrees water temp or something, I wish I could remember, sorry! Happy to lend a hand with anything on it if you get stuck.

Found some pics of the old Rado......god I miss it! When I've finished getting the Eddy to where I want it, I need another Corrado VRT in my life. Dusty AP Racing brakes!! They were epic. Bonkers fast VR6 Turbo, yummy yum! Not so quick R32 conversion, but still fun! Showing my girl some love. You gotta really.

Thought it was about time I updated my thread. Thanks to Photobucket screwing everyone over, 9 years worth of my Corrado pics are gone :( The old timers still here will remember my mentalist approach to the turbo conversion and other stuff. I loved it, such a great car, but my life changed drastically in 2012 and I had to move it on. I can however update you on my Edition 30, which I've had for 3 years now. Here she is when I bought her, standard other than a Revo stage 1 map. During the 3 years it's pretty much followed the same modification path as the Corrado. Chassis, power and lastly brakes....although I haven't done those yet as the standard MK5 brakes are actually pretty good! I got rid of the Revo map and got a Stealth Racing map. More numbers and more smoothness. Really cannot go wrong with Uncle Vince :smug: I can't help myself with cars and this one is following the same path the Corrado did. The mods are fairly extensive so far. I'm just sorting the chassis in readiness for a TTE420 turbo. VR6 turbo power, with 2.0 economy! It's got Vibratechnics engine mounts, all 3..... TyrolSport rear hatch brace... Loba fuel pump... INA EA888 engine TSI roller follower conversion for the fuel pump. The factory flat tappet follower wears through on uprated pumps, common problem. Ohlins coilovers. Absolutely sublime. Incredible ride quality and unbelievable handling! All the Coilovers I tried on the Corrado are not a patch on these on these bad boys! Subtle lowering. Ohlins are about handling, not slamming :smug: No sh1tty noisy intakes, all OEM under the hood, how it should be! It's also got an APR 3" downpipe hooked up to the OEM catback. Plenty more to come. I'm really interested in seeing what the other old timer Corrado forum boys moved onto car wise. If anyone is considering getting a MK5, I can honestly say, DO IT. And get the Edition 30. One foot in the old school VW but not too new. I've driven MK7s, all of them. GTD, GTI, GTI Performance Pack and the R. None of them have the character of the MK5. They drive very similar, but the MK5 just has that old school feel us die hards love about old dubs. The MK7 and MK7.5 are just too digital. The MK5 still has that analog feel. Can't recommend it enough.

The unicorn red VR6 badge for £15!! Surprised it's not on £500 buy it now.

I spot some 263 cams there :smug:

Nice one. I remembered after posting the M5 also has a couple of nicely shaped chargecoolers, one of which would fit where the G60's is quite nicely I reckon. Something like this would be fine for your application I reckon - http://www.chargecooler.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68&products_id=5459

Yeah not bad cheers :) FWIW, I haven't driven a Corrado for about 6 years now, and I haven't missed it :D Have you made a decision yet?

Bigger is better though. You can never have too much cooling capacity when it comes to cooling hot metal. Just fit the biggest rad you can. Have a look into some OEM installations, such as Jaguar, Mercedes SL55, Mercedes AMG A45 etc for inspiration. Mine was mega effective, but it was also a lot of baggage to carry around with a 3 gallon tank and a pump in the boot. My radiator was a twin pass Setrab and was the length of the plastic grill under the bumper, so approx. 9" x 36" from memory.

Worth every penny imo!

CAT A/B/C/D is the Herpes of the car world. A stigma that's impossible to get rid of. 2.9 throttles were heavy out of the box, just how they are. The Golf had a much lighter one.

Diff pin(s) exploded probably. Yes valve guides are normally shot by 100K and the knocking noise is piston slap. LSD and flywheel not worth it imo. The money would be better spent on decent suspension & brakes instead.

Oh dear. Another plum abandoning a car outside for 10 years and thinking it's worth a fortune, because - low mileage. "Low mileage" is outmoded because it's irrelevant on any car that doesn't have rope piston rings and steam operated valves. It should be changed to "Low useage", which means the rot has set in. No regular air through the engine or interior. I bet it's foisty like Grandma's wardrobe. Dampers probably partially seized from lack of movement. Flat spots on tyres. Rubber bushes perished. Brake lines rotten. All of it. I bet the 'recommission service' was trying to get the engine running again :lol:

:thumbleft:

Is this the Walesy of old reincarnated as Walsey, or somebody completely different :scratch: Anyway, can't believe tatty old VR6s are fetching 8-9K! I bet most of them have knackered engines, so another £3k needed on top for a freshen up or R32 conversion!

Yeah same! I love having 'car jobs' to look forward to at the weekends!

Tell me about it! 90% of my Corrado purchases were done under the influence of Jack and his flaming Daniels :lol: And now it's time for a famous haywire fridee rant! Yes mate, the world is a very different place now, and getting worse! Everything is status and ego driven now, and how many likes your new haircut can get on Facebook, and what stupid cartoon animal you can superimpose on top of your fake Snapchat smoothed skin. I don't know when people became so shallow, superficial and totally reliant on social acceptance from total strangers.......but there we have it, it's the world we live in. And I don't like it. On the street and in shops, eye contact is avoided at all costs. Customer service feels fake and forced. Everywhere I go see people staring into phones like their lives depend on it. Everyone is self absorbed in their own bubbles. I see cars veering all over the road every day because of f'ckwits on their phones. Every time I go out for drinks with my mate, and I see a table of 2 chatting away. When one of them goes to the bar or the toilet and leaves the other behind, I say to my mate "How many seconds before he/she reaches for their phone?". It's usually within 10 seconds. They can't possibly just sit there on their own, absorbing the ambience, acknowledging the existence of fellow human beings.....christ no....they need their phone as an awkwardness security blanket. It's actually quite sad really, going into a social place and every f'cker is just sat there on their phones. Even families out for a meal....all of them on their phones. Me and missus were watching just such a family recently, and the Dad became aware that they were being pointed out as phone zombies, and he was like "OK kids, put your phones away now and eat your pudding" :lol: Humans are turning into digital zombies. Slaves to the world of likes, checking-in and collecting 'friends' they've never even met, let alone ever spoken to. All of this is manifesting itself as aggression and strong opinions when others don't agree with them, or don't like some sh1t they've posted, etc etc etc. The MK5 Golf GTI forum is a good one. Nothing like this one used to be (we were spoiled!) though. There was a genuine love of the car back then and people came on here for the schitts and giggles just as much as the Corrado chat! Oh well. I think we're all doomed anyway if the Korean and American lunatics keep antagonizing each other.