Kevin Bacon

You'd be better off importing a US intake, which is the same as the 24V's. May aswell get the ECU and harness whilst you're there. 7hp actually. Proven on a dyno on a bog standard MK3 VR6. I'm a big fan of standard airboxes but they ARE restrictive at WOT. If it was an OBD2 Golf (96 on) then they do make more power. Standard ones average 190hp. What time of year was that dyno pull done? Winter pulls add 10hp to a VR6 automatically. 200/210 is by no means an average result for the Golf. I know of a freak Corrado that made 217hp as standard. Never saw another one like it.

0-60 means jack in the real world. In gear times is where it's at and I don't think anyone's timed a VRT officially but they are feckin rapid. A 400hp VRT that gets a good launch can do late 12s 1/4 mile. What does the standard VR6 do it in? 15-16 seconds?

Yeah it was something along those lines, I can't remember exactly. Other cars I liked at the time were Jeroen Dik's 300hp MK1 G60 and Larry Edwards's MK2 16V Turbo. Both were blistering up the 1/4 mile. They were the good old days of engineering. Not been the same since!

You don't have to wait for a VRT to warm up to ~ 100 deg before giving it boost. I never did on mine and I used it daily for 60K miles. It just comes down to owner preference but there's certainly no mechanical need for it if a top quality oil is used. Traction is indeed an issue but decent tyres, an LSD and Racelogic TC improve things considerably! Yep it's not a cheap conversion but what other cars can you get with 320hp/tonne for the price of a Corrado and a turbo kit? :D Fish drinking wasn't a problem with mine as I mapped it myself. Mine averaged 27mpg over the 5 odd years it was turboed. Not bad for a 400hp 2.9 turbo! E39 M5s average 18-20mpg from the same 400hp. I was in your position last year. I researched very thoroughly the M options and I decided the safest bet was the Z3M Coupe because it was a niche market car and therefore attracted more diligant owners/enthusiasts. But I needed £15K+ to get the more desirable S54 engined one and I wasn't prepared to spend that much. I also test drove an E34 M5 and an E39 M5. The former blew it's head gasket and brakes on the test run and the latter just didn't live up to my expectations, which was a real shame as it was a car I coveted so much when I couldn't afford one! The E46 is a lovely car to drive but the ones I saw had exchanged owners several times. I suspect because, as you say, chavs buy them and then sell them on again once they realise how much an inspection 2 with tappet adjustment costs and it's thirst for 10W/60 Castrol Edge! Too much of a gamble for me and they also sound a bit unrefined cruising at low revs because of the solid lifters. I got quotes of ~ £350 - £500 for the Ms because I'm an old man now :D The VRT cost me £900 to insure!

I remember that silver MK2 from GTI International in 1996. Awesome car!

Agreed. That's like saying "If you want a big house. Buy one". Well, some people are quite attached to their small home and the area they live in and simply want to extend it. 0.7 bar is enough to stop a V8 M3 from getting past you ;)

They are a mighty fine wheel for sure :D They weren't for me because of the weight but they suit the car perfectly!

Hello stranger! Twin turbo, erm, yeah I wish! Might have to settle with a single snail :D

Agreed. Use it as opportunity to improve! Why not put a MK4 Golf steel section in and then you can bolt the lovely plastic battery carrier to it and use the equally lovely cover and power distribution panel etc etc.... I believe it's been done to MK2s a few times. It's so much neater and stops water being trapped under the battery and rotting the panel away.

Yeah that's their latest trick. "Hoik you in" with cheap prices and then sting you at renewal to recover their losses of from the cheap first year. But we're not stupid enough to blindly renew anymore. More and more big players are starting to see the Confused.com way of things (why pay expensive brokers?) but DirectLine are shooting themselves in the foot by shunning it. "You won't see us on any price comparison sites". Yeah, we won't see you AT ALL in 5 years if you keep that attitude up :D Who only recognises 5 years? Aviva? They can feck right off with that. Cheeky *******s.

Just get onto Confused.com and get a cheaper premium. Insurance companies rely on people not shopping around but even with claims on your record, you'll still get a far cheaper quote elsewhere.

Classic case for a 50/50. 50% blame on the biker for not reading the road ahead properly and 50% blame on Fla for reversing into a main road. Nearly all claims go 50/50 these days thank to the swindling fecking insurance companies doing their utmost to pay out as little as possible, but charge us as much as possible for the premiums. Expect the biker to claim a considerable sum if he his sandwiches contained Wookey Hole cave aged vintage cheddar and Applewood smoked ham.

Compare the prices mate. Varta Silver Dynamic 74AH from battery2u.co.uk vs Bosch Silver from Halfords or ECP. Varta are the OEM supplier so I tend to go with Battery2u option. They provide a great service. That's the CTek I had and at first it started intermittantly not charging (had to press the buttons and / or disconnect and reconnect several times before it worked) and then just failed completely. The Halfords charger has a lot more guts behind it and charged quicker too.

Odyssey are good but are expensive and impractical from a mounting POV. Thing is though, they only have a 5 year warranty. Varta Silver Dynamic / Bosch Silver (same thing) also have a 5 year warranty. So common sense prevails here mate :D As for chargers, I had a C-Tek and it was rubbish. It didn't like damp garages and it died after only 18 months. I've been using a standard Halfords charger for over 5 years now and it's been faultless.

Not a great bit of electrical planning from VW that one. If a struggling spoiler motor blows the fuse, you're left with a sunroof you can't close and no engine! Find the immobiliser box (I think it's behind the centre console) and follow the power wire back to the fuse board, cut the wire and then as you say, run a seperate fuse to it.

What about a more practical VW? One of the fruitier engined Passat Estates maybe? They look fantastic lowered onto some RH ZW1s and being 5x112, you won't need to p1ss about with adapter plates :D

Like you, my car just didn't feel right. I knew everything else was solid, including the rear bearings and I even replaced the rack, so the bearings were the last thing to try. The front wheels felt like they were shimmying a bit over uneven surfaces and the self centering wasn't as strong as it could be. At first I put it down to the tyres being past half worn but it felt more 'mechanical' in nature. Yeah I just saw the thread about the press. Great find and surprisingly cheap too! Something to add to the workshop for sure. Should be able to do bushes etc with it as well.

Good stuff. I remember Stealth Racing thinking I was bonkers for changing the front bearings on my VR6 years ago because they weren't noisy, but I got the same results you did, so it's worth doing.

I bet they are off drifting cars! Never had any problems with my Rota G Forces though!

Probably saw other Corrados on the road about 10 times over 8.5 years of owning mine. I'm finding the same with the MK4 R32 since owning one. I just never see them.

Was it water damage then mate, or just bad luck? Pretty rare for a Bosch ECU to go bad!

Fairly common those readings. You don't get many VR6s with 190+ across all 6. As Supercharged said, the lower readings are within tolerance. 160 or lower then I'd be concerned!

290 deg cams! Not a car to take down to the shops then!

Only where the engine is a like for like replacement. If you change to a different type of engine (e.g.VR6 to R32, 16V to 1.8T), you now have to send to the DVLA details of who supplied or fitted the engine (or both) on their headed paper, along with your V5 form. It's what I did with my R32 conversion and the V5 came back 2 weeks later with a BDB engine no (R32) and no questions asked. It did make me feel so much better driving it knowing it complied with current legislation, which is always a grey area with modifications. I'm still not convinced carbon panels don't need type approval and / or an SVA test, so I never went down that road.

The metal frame the seal fits onto may be rusted through on yours Pete. It's part of the door structure unfortunately. New door or chop that bit off a good door and weld it onto yours.