Kevin Bacon

Looks lovely! Is the engine running OK? No more issues since?

I looked into the 02M conversion for mine and it's defo a classic cost vs benefit scenario! As you say, there has to be a specific reason for going O2M because it's a lot of hassle and expense for an extra cog. Most people use it for it's torque handling capacity. It's actually a much better box overall too. Better shift, quieter, smoother clutch (when used with the dual mass fw) and bomb proof!

I was impressed with the Passat estate one on Quicky1980's car. The flushest fitting one I've yet seen. You're right though, the overall fit isn't perfect. Seals can be gappy (like Supercharged's teeth) and the glass panels can sit proud in some applications.

3" tubing + a 4" MAF will be fine. It's only the MAF sensor that needs to be 4". The reason for this is because it operates over a 0 - 5V range. On a nasp VR6, a healthy MAF will show ~ 1.2V at idle and ~ 4.5V at WOT. When you force feed a VR6, the MAF voltage exceeds 5V when in boost. Even part throttle boost can tip it over 5V. The problem isn't so much the MAF exceeding 5V, it is after all converting the air it sees to a voltage output, but the ECU is only capable of accepting a maximum of 5V. If it sees more than that, it shuts down the injectors as it thinks the MAF has short circuited. It's been a problem for as long as boosted VR6s have been around. OEs get round it by either recalibrating the ECU to suit, or fitting a larger MAF housing to compensate. What a larger MAF does is, in effect, widen the air channel over the sensor to give it more flow. Jumping up to a 4" MAF from the standard 3" sees a 33% increase in flow. This is enough to stop it exceeding 5V. In an ideal world, the ECU would handle say, 0 - 10V, but we can't have everything!

Interesting post mate! Personally speaking, I would have loved to keep all 4 lambdas in place but it just wasn't really doable from a packaging point of view and I only had 1 cat anyway! OEMs do something what's called "NOX Purging" and I know the rear lambdas are defo used for that. I'm not entirely sure what NOX purging is tbh but I would hazard a guess it's something to do with the relationship between the rear lambdas and the SAI. I guess what happens is during warm up, the rear lambdas monitor what's coming through the cat because they only really work when up to temperature, so the ECU chucks loads of air (via SAI) and fuel over the cats to heat them up super fast. There could also be a curious relationship with the rear lambdas under the cruising conditions you describe and we don't know about it fully. The lengths Bosch go to to make these engines run properly is incredible. Keep in mind some tuners deliberately withhold information to make themselves appear 'better' than the next tuner and hold the key to some magic potion (for a price). Many are just secretive and elusive in general :D What I do know is this:- MK5 engine and ME7 installed, I was seeing stock power (253hp IIRC) and I averaged 28mpg. After Vince defeated everything and remapped it (also tamed the savage throttle), I saw 267hp and I then averaged 33mpg. Many forums do slate the R32 (as in the car) as being too slow for it's capacity and fuel consumption, but they just haven't tried a remapped one :D

You'd need to wrap it round a massive magnet to get a better spark

500 meters. Then you can make HT sets for everyone else ;) Yep, 7mm.

Yep, 4" across there will be a pain. You could just use 3" piping and and use a 3>4" silicon joiner at the MAF.

Unfortunately they don't address the bump steer issue, but they do look nice though! Those rose joints wouldn't last long at all on a road car and it may even need an SVA test before you can use them!

I've got the cheaper red ones and they've been great, so I would imagine those blue ones would be even better / stronger.

That's pretty much all you can do with the superchargers to be honest mate. There isn't really anywhere else the MAF can go as it has to be before the charger and far enough away as to not cause turbulence. Think of a whirlpool with a 'hole' in the middle. That's what the MAF will see if it's too close to the charger, i.e. all the air flow goes to the edges of the MAF housing and not through the middle where it's expected. You'll be fine with a 4 bar regulator, unless Vince feels the need to drop it to 3 bar from a mapping perspective.

You need to drop the MAF into the hole with a 90 degree elbow and fit a filter onto the end of it. Make sure you leave the air straightner on the MAF or the turbulence of the S/C will cause fuelling headaches. Yep, you'll need to extend the MAF wiring to suit.

Nothing. Just guessing :D

It will never drop below £1 again! Now that everyone is used to £1+ prices, they'll adjust the price a few p here and there occasionally to keep us happy. Then it'll edge up to £2 a litre. People will get the road blocks out again. Then we'll get used to £2+ a litre.... and so the cycle continues. I don't think people would mind too much if they knew where all the tax was going. At the end of the day, it's because of taxes we have roads to drive on, jobs to go to, houses to live in, trains and buses to sit in, our bins get emptied and so on, but some transparency on public spending would be nice. If they passed some of the fuel duty onto alternative fuels research, people wouldn't mind. If people could see the national debt reducing, people wouldn't mind so much. What p1sses us of is all that money they're raking from our wallets is seems to vanish into thin air and all the time we're hearing of record profits at British Gas and RBS wanting their 'freedom' back and still paying big bonuses. We should get receipts of where our money has gone. We are paying these public school boys to run the country for us! I was expecting massive civil unrest when fuel hit £1.50 but people are so full of apathy now, they can't be arsed and it'll just be taken as acceptance by the powers that be. If this happened in America, I'd expect the refineries and Washington to be stormed by angry mobs. I don't like the way we, as a nation, seem to get exploited, but is it because we are so crap at speaking out, or are we just genuinely easy to bully into submission? Here are a few examples that spring to mind, aside from the obvious ' rip off britain' cost of living: In ~1999, VW launched a 2.0 8V MK4 Golf in Europe and just called it a Golf 2.0. In the UK, it was badged 'GTI' and the price increased accordingly. Nissan GTR. $50,000 when launced in the US. Nearer £70K in the UK. This year Panasonic will be launching the VT60 plasma screen. Everywhere else, it's going to be sold as a normal TV. Over here it will be launched as a 'limited edition' at £4000. Why do we take it? Why do we keep buying their products knowing we are being raped? I don't get it. It must be some kind of 'must have at any cost' thing that's unique to this country. In the US and Japan, they get all of the choices available and at sensible prices, so they are very choosy and VFM orientated. Over here, it's a case of, we get what we're given and will pay what ever they ask and lump it. I'm now going to eat an overpriced cake and cup of coffee from costa now :D Might pay their corporation tax for them as well seeing as they're so skint. Yep, gets on my wick too!

Excellent rant! Especially the peasants revolt bit :D If it makes you feel better, I paid £144.9 yesterday for regular unleaded! Mind you, that was from BP though, so to be expected. A litre of unleaded was ~ 45p when I passed my test in 1990. I suppose an increase of £1 over 23 years isn't too bad. Mars Bars were 25p back then and now they're heading towards a quid! I think we are feeling this inflation more than ever because wages have stagnated. I would like to counter the animosity toward the government by saying we are partly responsible for this recession. The banks are responsible for the other half of it by appeasing our lust for quick gratification (loans & credit cards). So the very people who caused this recession are the ones moaning loudest about it :D The general public for not being able to afford stuff anymore and the banks for getting their wrists slapped. Cleggaron have made some decisions the public find very unsavoury, but until the country's debt has been paid off, this wages vs inflation shortfall is set to continue. The worst thing is, I don't think people are learning by these mistakes. Some people are only too happy to pay Apple £500 for a peice of glass and metal, bend over backwards to give Sky £100 a month, hand over £8 for a pack of 20, beg curry's to take 1000 of their English pounds for a flat screen TV etc etc, but complain bitterly at having to heat their homes and fill their tanks. I'm not tarring everyone with the same brush. There are people who are genuinely struggling but the people around my way who go out and buy an Essex white Audi A3 on personal finance every year, and then whinge about the cost of living, I have zero sympathy for.

Yep /\ It will be the daily use Corrados that suffer. All the consumables that break easily, such as front indicators, headlights & foglights will soon disappear. I think VW are already out of foglights on one side?

Unless a VRT is built really well, the R32 is better imo.

Me too. Hope you've got deep pockets :D

Believe me, that Storm is worth every penny of the £4K asking price compared to some utter toilet heaps I've looked at recently. I've looked at so many cars over the past few months (MK5 GTIs, S4s, M5s (not Pete's) etc etc) and I am sick to the back teeth of lying *******s bigging their car's condition up. It just wastes my time and theirs. I'm almost through with 2nd hand cars and considering a PCP on an M135i as you can get some cracking deals on those right now. Or maybe an RS4 like Coullstars :D

I remember Dinkus's old Blue VR looked exactly like that when he replaced his springs and dampers (VW parts), so I'd say they're correct. I'm sure I've seen that car around Colchester some years ago and it was looking very tatty indeed. The painters did a good job. I was very tempted by it but with so many parts are being obsoleted, Corrado ownership is no longer viable in the long term as I like to use genuine parts only. That and other reasons have totally killed the Corrado market. There's been 13 for sale on Pistonheads for months and Volkswizard have had that one for sale for months also.

The rear lambdas look for lambda 1 (14.7:1 AFR) coming through the cats. The whole map (except the very top end) is fuelled to lambda 1 for that very reason. The front lambdas (wideband) can perform a pseudo EGT function and I would expect those to retard the timing if gas temps get too hot. The rears are basic narrowbands and can't really influence much. But I could be wrong. I keep reading about C2 saying you need them, and other tuners saying you don't, but neither supply us with an exact reason why. I'll tell you something though, mine ran a damn site better on standalone than it did ME7. I wish I hadn't bothered converting to it tbh.

This one's already been repainted - http://www.volkswizard.co.uk/carsforsale/n192dtp.htm Nearly bought that one myself.

I'm afraid not mate! Nice idea though. You need a short runner to run anything other than the stock coilpack. I haven't bought a fun replacement yet as I'm [still]waiting to move house first. It will almost most likely be German though! Yeah they were from a BDB/BUB engine anyway mate :D Thanks Dave

:lol: £300 and "no offers" for sheddy old 8 year old Coilovers. I've really seen everything there is to see in the world of Corrado madness now :D

I think it might just be the spec. With a late bonnet, late grille and bumpers etc and on some decent wheels, it would look a lot better.