Kevin Bacon

I thought my ears were burning :D. I did have a look at this earlier but now that it's been updated with 2 speed info, you've got my attention! I'll look into it's fitment on an R32 and availability of brackets etc. Could well be interested if Emu doesn't take it and it defo is an antonov :D

I was chatting to a mate recently about ways of automatically locking phones & tablets into some kind of "aeroplane mode" when inside a moving car. Does such a thing exist? Once again technology has to step in to solve human stupidity and light touch policing.

The VR6 can be quite picky with lambdas. I've heard of a few not running right with ebay probes. How much are they from the stealers these days?

Glad to hear it mate! Yeah no worries with DTA stuff, always glad to help :D

4% is very very rich. Lambda probe I reckon.

I miss my VRT as well!

You soon get to know all the tuning companies and the little tricks when you start down the modding path :D I'm not sure of the differences between Rallye and Syncro unfortunately. 4WD was the one thing I never considered for my Corrado so didn't really research it. It does indeed use a viscous coupling. This and Audi's torsen (torque sensing) diff are load sensing, so when the car is driving slowly the rears aren't doing anything. The Haldex is a far more basic on/off affair and relies on a myriad of sensors to enable and disable it. ABS sensors, pedal sensor, handbrake sensor, throttle position etc etc. I suspect Haldex is more plentiful than Syncro! I know you want to keep the 12V engine but converting to an R32 (and keeping the Rotrex) would make life a bit easier in terms of going full Haldex and I'm sure the transfer box and O2M box could be fitted somehow. Yeah the SQS valve is very simple, it literally just takes a signal from the brake pedal switch. I'm not sure if you could integrate it into the Corrado's ABS or not but the valve is primarily for 1/4 mile racing and conversions. I'm not sure what it would be like on a road car but so I'm sure it'd be fine! Yeah steal it. FWD will do her just fine :D

For the Haldex, here is an option - http://www.sqsracing.com/produkt/314:406:haldex-regulator-controler-valve It basically does away with the Haldex ECU completely and locks it to 50/50 permanently, but bear in mind the haldex diff isn't load sensing, so it will likely increase understeer if permanently engaged. Standard Haldex operation is on after 1/4 revolution of the front wheels and off when braking and during ABS operation. Bear in mind you will be adding 200kg+ weight to the car, so off boost performance will be very noticably blunted. My advice, FWIW, don't bother with the Haldex, use a Rallye/syncro diff instead ;) edit: the SQS has a brake pedal sensor to deactivate the diff when braking. Happy days, no understeer. Please proceed :D

Quick Golf but my god, what a couple of thick arse sounding chavs filming it!

I sold mine for £4.5K and it was worth the money in my albeit biased opinion :D As for not understanding the £2.5K premium, all I can say is: try installing one that looks and runs like it came from the factory like that, and you'll soon get a better understanding ;) Decent engine with ECU, *both* harnesses and all ancills - £1500 Downpipes - £350-£400 + adaptation to existing system Loom and ECU 'dumb down' for retrofitting - £500+ New clutch (you'd be daft not to whilst you're in there) - £150 Vibratechnics mounts (standards can't handle the R32) - £300ish CAN rpm converter (for MK5 only) - £100 So you're already way past £2.5K in hardware before you even lift the bonnet. And that's just the start of it because there are ALWAYS post fitment wiring / ECU woes to correct and that's the bit that usually consumes the most time and money.

Try using paragraphs to make reading easier but yes, sounds like the ignition switch.

You haven't seen it yet :lol: Only kidding, it's a great car. Rob and I spent a goodly amount of hours on it and Rob still has the scarred ear drums from my clapping and yelping around the workshop :lol:

Did it have a bulkhead mounted 4Motion pedal, or the floor mounted MK5 pedal? I did both on mine and the 4motion pedal does mean the fuse box no longer clips back up to where it's supposed to sit. Me being me, I sorted that though :D The MK5 pedal removes that problem completely and only needs a couple of M5 self tappers to hold it down securely. It's not good trying to sell a car with it's bowels hanging out though is it? What are some people like? I think they think just because it's a Corrado and has an R32 in it, people will be queueing up for it! Err, wrong. If it's an uncompleted project, then it should be marketed as such but he doesn't want to take the financial hit in doing that. Clumpy, yours could be even better with an idle valve mate. Not difficult to map either. I can send you some numbers to get you started if you install one? I really didn't get on with no idle valve. It was fine when hot but having to keep my foot on the gas when cold was a pain! Has yours got the Alfa throttle body? I can't remember!

Very true! I do like a good geek and tweak also, especially with AV equipment and assorted electronics!

I'm not sure it would fit between the chassis legs of a Corrado!

I'm amazed B&Q can even survive with their small product range and massive mark ups. The only thing on their side is stores which are convenient to get to. All my Lidls and Aldis are in town centres and a royal pain in the rump to get to.

The result of too much spannering and not enough 'living' :D

Yep, me too and they're not £60 anymore. £100 now. I can let you into a little secret. Converted R32s run a lot better on standalones ;) Too much stuff is missing when using the OE management and no matter what you delete, they never run quite the same.

Lol, yeah :D Even easier to do in the MK4 platform ;) I'd love a TT RS engine conversion but I don't think enough of them will get sold and then crashed for our vulturing pleasure!

If you want a 3.2 Audi, it'll have to be an A3 or MK1 TT. Servicing isn't too expensive if you do it yourself. The Haldex is the only tricky one as it needs a special spanner to get the filter off but Haldex oil every 20K and oil + filter at 40K. A Haldex service kit is around £50. Engine oil is expensive through VAG, so I'd switch to Silkolene Pro S 5W/40 from Opie Oils and get a better oil for less money. Air filter is easy. Fuel filter is easy (push-on fittings). Oil filter is easy. Rear diff and gearbox oil are easy too. God knows why people pay so much for dealers to do it but I guess they want their stamps in the book. Arm yourself with VAG-COM as well because you'll need it with newer VAGs!! I recommend the HEX+CAN-USB lead. Handy if you want to reset the service counter and change the behaviour of the C/L and alarm chirps etc. In terms of power upgrades, the 3.2 is VERY expensive to extract power from. Cams, filter, exhaust and remap will take you to about 280-290hp and that little lot will cost you ~ £3Kish. And then as we all know, it won't be enough and you'll go to Forced induction, so may as well just skip the n'asp modding and go straight to boost :D The MK1/MK2 1.8T S3 can chip to 270-280hp and the MK3 2.0T S3 can chip to a lot more. The 3.2 is obviously smoother and the bottom end torque and throttle response are better than the turbos. And the 3.2 exhaust note needs no introduction! They all understeer easily. A whiteline 22mm rear ARB (or Neuspeed 25mm hollow arb) and Haldex blue controller will sort that quite nicely. Of all the Haldex VAGs, I think the MK4 R32 is by far the best looking car but the MK4 platform has pretty crap electronics (door modules, clocks, flaky airbag connections, windows dropping into doors etc) but all are easily fixable. The R32 was also an aftermarket special with H&R springs, aggressive Bilstein dampers & Koenig seats all fitted by VW. It's by far the firmest and most alive feeling car, but the suspension stiffness can make it a rattle and squeak fest inside. MK5 R32s by comparison are a big leap forward in quality, but not as involving to drive. MK5s also have known rust issues but the MK4s so far are free of it. 12 year rust warranty, so the youngest MK4s still have 3 years warranty left. R32s also have a reputation for eating DMFs, bushes, dampers, springs and tyres but you can accept that advice only from people who thrash the crap out of them. One more thing to be aware of with MK4 and early MK5 R32s is the chains. The early chains could stretch and some intermediate shaft sprockets weren't case hardened properly. Replacing them with the superceded parts is a fit and forget fix but treat it the same as the VR6 chain horror stories, i.e. exaggerated beyond belief. The only issue with the TFSI engine I'm aware of is a high thirst for oil but not all suffer from it. 2 guys at work had TFSIs. One used a litre every 1000 and the other used a litre every 3000. You never know with them really. VAG-COM is also a good idea when viewing a car because if you can't connect to the Haldex ECU, it's usually dead. You also want to do another simple check:- Give it full lock in both directions and in reverse and listen for a rear wheel wheel dragging / skipping. It will also be accompanied by some nasty noises from the diff. Walk away! Personally, I think after your Corrado, you would find an R32 underwhelming. A beefed up MK3 S3 will probably be more your bag. And lastly, they're all heavy cars, so don't expect Corrado standards of nimbleness in the corners :D

R32 as in transplanted into a Corrado? Best I ever got out of my standard 2.9 was 33mpg. My R32 conversion after Stealth remapped it was also 33. Both when driven gently with early upshifts. R32s generally get a bad press for their mpg when in the MK4/MK5 as they're heavy cars. But in a lighter Corrado, they can be just as economical as the 2.9. And yes, if mpg is important, don't bother with ANY of the V6s as they're only economical if driven very gently. If you want reasonable economy with good performance, consider a TFSI conversion instead :D

Stealth have Star Performance's old Sun Dyno. I remember Star Performance dishing out sensible numbers back in the day when places like AmD (when they were in Bicester) being very creative with the correction figures :D Here's an example: When I my old 16V Turbo MK2 was built (the Stealth uprated version with K Star and 4 x VR6 injectors), Stealth didn't have a dyno then, so the power run was done down the road at AmD. It measured 221hp. Roll forward a few years, Stealth got their Dyno, on went my car and it measured 190hp :lol: The Sun is an old bit of kit now, very old, but since it's the only dyno I've used, it's kind of a good baseline. The measurments taken from standard cars on dyno days are usually spot-on as well, so it can't be too far off. For the purpose of tuning, being 10hp above or below a different dyno doesn't bother me much. The problem is with so many different makes of dyno and so many different operators, it's hard to trust any of them as being 100% accurate. 100% accuracy can only be achieved by taking the engine out and bolting it to a bench dyno under controlled conditions. Road cars have too many influencing factors. Light wheels and different gearing can affect the coast down losses, which will add more hp to the corrected value. Yeah I just threw the R32 in there for discussion as it's a similar engine with a similar demand for air :D I do like the stock Corrado box, which is why I used it in my converison. I have no time for open cones or drilled OEM boxes. The BMC is the only aftermarket airbox I've seen that gives tangible results. The thing with the Corrado box is that lovely helmholtz resonance pipe that protudes half way into the airbox lid. It's brilliant for part throttle and removing it blunts the torque and makes a load of unnecessary noise, but at WOT, the funnelled down diameter of that pipe does restrict it.... to the tune of 7hp, as seen on Stealth's rollers at least, but let's say 5hp. That's not bad. All I've ever seen K&N open cones do is reduce power the same amount, especially when the engine bay is really hot. Yeah I've only ever used Stealth's dyno. Not because I have a fear of getting a lower number elsewhere, but because I've been going there since 1999 and I've built up a really good rapport with them. Yeah the R32 is a great motor. Held back by it's long crank throw and restrictive intake (at high rpms). There's definitely 100hp/litre in there but extracting it is expensive, so most folk go down the forced induction path instead.

Yup! Got back from the run and the idle was rough as hell and the exhaust stank of burning coolant! Definitely the HG popped! If that wasn't bad enough, a rear brake line let go and sprayed DOT4 all over the hot exhaust, so noxious steamy clouds were coming out of both ends of the car! Not much he could say about it really, these things happen! It had been sat around in a barn for a few years prior though. Poor thing. It was actually quite sad to see a pedigree car in that state. So few on the roads now as the Germans buy them all up for parts. For a 1991 example, it was in incredible condition and it did drive nice, apart from the boat like steering feel. No torque below 4000 though, which in an 1700Kg car matters!

Dyno Dynamics usually quote power at the wheels. Your numbers are brakehp I assume (can't possibly be whp from those mods) which means a flywheel correction factor was used, so ambient temps and barometric pressure do have a bearing on the numbers. Every standard VR6 I've seen dynoed on a winter's day makes 10hp more. Yep, OBD is just a generic term for On Board Diags and emission control standards but it's about as 'standard' as SCART was, i.e. not at all. OBD2 on the Motronic used on the Golf brought with it some improvements over the 'OBD1' ECU. Significantly more maps and load sites, faster lambda, DC motor controlled idle, better fuelling etc etc. The older OBD1 2.8s made pretty much what VW quoted, 174hp, but the OBD2s always make a minimum of 185hp. It was Stealth Racing who tested the BMC on a stock VR6. They also found 12hp on a standard MK4 R32 using the same filter. I've been going there since 1999 and I trust their numbers. They're just as skeptical of wildly high numbers as anyone. Do some research and you will discover it's well known how restrictive the R32 airbox is. It's no coincidence VW upped the intake snorkel diamater more than 30% for the DSG engine because the snappy gearchanges empty the airbox too quickly. They also increased the diameter of the MAF body. More food for thought, on my R32 conversion, it made 267hp with the corrado air box. With a BMC it makes 280hp. There's no heatsoak issues with a BMC as the filter is enclosed. So might point is, yes the standard airbox is great at muffling resonance and assisting cylinder fill at part throttle, but they do hold the motor back a bit at WOT. It is indeed good discussion ;)

Stealth's Turbo demo car has been beaten to death for a good few years now and it's not thrown up any issues at all yet. Reliability is the main problem with VRTs but so long as it's built right and mapped conservatively, it should put in a good service life. Stealth send the turbos they use of to Turbo Dynamics for some upgrades, so they're pretty reliable and the engine itself we know is strong as they've been turboed since the late 90s! Clutch - Helix - £450 ARPS - ~ £250 for the head and rod bolts Quaife - ~£500 + £100 for the 'fitting kit' which is basically ARP diff bolts. Peloquin - ~£500 but comes with the bolts. Brakes - Minimum of 4Motion 312s with sticky pads really but I used AP Racing 330mm 4 pots on mine which were about £1300 6 years ago! I can't remember exactly what Stealth's package includes but there shouldn't be a huge amount extra you need to buy. If you're going to America, you could get the Peloquin and the ARPs. The other stuff I would source from Vince as I don't think you'll save a huge amount on the turbo bits as his pricing is pretty competetive to be fair. I also don't know where you'd stand with warranty and after sales issues if you sourced your own turbo bits. No disrespect intended, but if you're not mechanically minded, it's probably best to let Stealth do it all for you :D A few of us built our own but if Stealth's package was around when I did mine, I'd probably have just gone with that instead as it was considerably cheaper than my setup!!