corozin

HAHA I never said I was worried. I was just wondering which one was the cheapest to run. :D :) I still get huge kicks out of Corrado ownership but the reason I said what I did is that despite my enthusiasm it would be wrong to encourage someone to ignore the potential costs of ownership if they were considering buying one. Cheesewire's comments were absolutely correct. The sticker-price of a Corrado may now be nice & affordable but the running costs - certainly for a VR6 - may well be something else depending on your circumstances. Insurance these days is actually not too bad compared with other performance cars, but there's no getting away from the fact that even late VR6s are now 13-14 years old with a 150mph potential. Any car with that level of performance must be kept in good mechanical order, and that is a commitment on an old car. Of course there are good ones & bad ones but they will all need some of you're love (and money) at some point. Example : I had an unexpected bearing failure in my gearbox last October (unexpected because the 'box was rebuilt only 3 years ago). Cost me £780 to have it put right. It's a rare failure, but the fix cost is not unrepresentative of a VR6 bill when something goes wrong. I don't want you to feel discouraged by this, just make sure you go into it knowing as much as you can. Cheers John

If you're worried about insurance costs,petrol costs and maintenance costs it's not a Corrado you need. You need a Ford Ka.

Gliptone is the stuff bikers use to keep thier leathers supple & in top condition. Accept nothing else. I also have some Zymol leather cleaner which is good stuff.

You can use a MkII strut brace on the front of a Corrado (although not all designs fit without hitting the throttle assembly on VR6 models) but I'm pretty sure the Corrado rear strut brace is different to the MkII item. Suggest you ring someone like Venom Motorsports and ask them.

The fitment should be the same. They certainly are for Koni coilovers anyway.

I know a Corrado with V5 engine, and another with a TDi lump. But if you're after something ambitious and different, not only will the 2.7 RS4 engine go in there but I believe you'll find that the 4.2 Audi V8 will also fit inside. I think I'm right in saying that the 4.2 also weighs less than an ABV does. But for simplicity, power and cost you can't beat a 20v conversion. IF you want to do something "different" with a 4 pot then a tuned 16v with individual throttle bodies would be neat...

I would think that considering you're using forced induction, probably very little difference indeed.

Went to tax my car this morning only to discover that Car tax has been quietly increased yet again. No annoucement in the budget 10 days ago, nothing on the TV or in the papers - the increase was sneaked in through the small print. Despite having a renewal form from the DVLA showing £185 the renewal cost me £190 because the rules allow them to change the figure whenever they like it, and regardless of what's on the renewal. This Government are a bunch of sneaky barstewards.

You are of course completely right about that. The Police can't issue a FPN for this kind of offence, and it usually takes months to get to court.

Typically I cover around 12,000-15,000 miles per year but in 2007 it was off the road for 5 months and in 2008 it was off the road for almost 4 months while it was having engine stuff done to it. My point was that this is a high maintenance tyre. You have to keep a careful eye on the the tread depth of R888's continuously - sometimes even after just a single bit of "sprited" driving. They also wear faster in the summer due to the warmer tarmac. After three years I'm just starting to tire (pun intended) of it all. With some T1-R's I would sacrifice the extreme performance of the R888 but it would be nice just to put some boots on it & largely forget about them for 6-10 months! You'll realise what I mean if you start using the R888s :)

Review update. After three years running R888's I have to admit that the constant worry associated with checking the tread depth and needing to replace worn tyres every 4-5 months (and every time after a trackday) is really starting to wear me down . I've also had 3 punctures in 3 years. I get the feeling I might swap to T1-Rs at the next change just to have a rest ! Would be nice to get more than 4,000 miles out of some tyres for a change...

Suggest you email Rob Telford via his website at http://www.cybertects.co.uk/ Rob used to be a member on this forum (although I havn't seen him around for a while), is a mad Scirocco enthusiast, but most of all he is an excellent photographer as you'll note from the galleries on his site. As a lot of his work has been done at VW shows and No-Rice meetings I'm sure you'll find he has some excellent Corrado pictures you can use with permission. Do a search on 'Corrado' & see what you get. HTH & good luck with the project. John

I think you're right about that Jim. My car sounded very similar to that when I ran 284 cams & solid lifters last year. The rough idle will be largely down to it having a tiny flywheel & being cold started.

It's more a question of putting a few heat cycles into them John.

Well I'm sure there's a lot more to the lump than just the TB conversion but the driver indicated it had rollered at around 215bhp at the wheels, which translates roughly to perhaps 260-265 at the engine. The car was a Vento and if you look a big lump has been cut away from the slam panel to get the clearance for the filter, and the radiator had been relocated below to get clearance but it must have been a 'short' motorsport rad of some kind. It also have a rather lovely custom equal length exhaust header but I didn't bother to photograph it (maybe I will next time I see it up there) I was told a lot of work had been done to get the inlet lengths right. I didn't measure it up but on 'reckoning' alone I'd say there is more clearance from the front of the engine to the slam in the Vento plus the bonnet angle would make putting this on a Corrado tighter in the vertical plane as well. Personally I think he should dump the filter and fit secondary injectors on the outside of the trumpets like the Touring cars do to get a few more horsepower. It was certainly going like stink although in a field including some 600bhp Evos it was never going to win. The driver admitted it had 'quite a few bob' in the engine and it seemed rude to actually probe for a figure. Hats off to Grant Motorsport for a lovely bit of work. And no I havn't phoned him... @RedTyphoon Thanks for the clip link - that's the very same car. Lovely clip. John

Grant Motorsport VR6 throttle bodies on Vento racing car last weekend at Castle Combe. Thought it was worth posting the photo as they are just so rare and so lovely. Sounded pretty good out on the track too. Do... want....

Before redesigning thier car Ferrari would be better advised to a) Think to send Massa out when he's 11th and 'on the bubble' during Qualifying b) Not put rain tyres on Raikonnen's car when it isn't raining.

Firstly welcome, it's nice to have a new owner for one of the rare Campaign models. Well as you've probably noticed the wipers aren't exactly a strong point of Corrado design. A common 'fix' for this problem used to be to upgrade to VW Lupo wipers. You need two left side arms to do the conversion. VW used to sell the arm seperately, but at some point wised up to what was going on and now will only set the Lupo wipers as complete kits, which makes the whole thing pretty expensive. Frankly the best advice I can give you is to buy a bottle of Rain-ex. That will fix your wet weather visibility problems for a fraction of the cost of new wipers HTH, John

Oi behave! Don't you start... there was loads of tread on them when that photo was taken! Jealousy will get you nowhere

John, you're not getting away with that statement! :nono: :wave: An E39, and a Corrado are quite different in size! Over 70cm difference in length, and easy 10cm in width.... I reckon your elastic tape measure could do with replacement. Pah - 70cms isn't that much. It's about the width of an oven! In fact I was recently struck by how close the E46 & E93 M3's are in size to the E39 M5. Hell it ain't much different in size to the barge sized current Mondeos & Lagunas. Of course with 400bhp it's a damn sight quicker and more comfortable.

That's a superb spot John :lol: "Brawn GP - they like their sugar with coffee and cream!" Thank you I hoped someone out there would appreciate that :D

I had this thought last week - how cool would it be if Ross Brawn dressed his entire pit crew up like this & played "Intergalactic" during pit stops?

RIght now, I'd look at something like an E39 M5 as the crunch has killed the residuals for them. Even RS6's are tumbling and those are very nice to drive everyday. The M5 is also pre-2001 so you can get cheapy tax on it too - not bad for 400bhp stock, and it's not that much bigger physically that a Corrado actually. But looking at it from the point of view of 'what is the nearest thing out there to what a Corrado is about' which I suspect is at the heart of the OP's question, my vote would be for either a MkIV R32 or a 350z. Both those are getting into cheap money now. John

You called, I answer :

My hall of fame: 1) The still missed M100 VRG July 1998- June 2005. A common sight on Corrado Club stands between 2000-2005. Met it's fate on a roundabout near Goodwood in July 2005 (my fault). 85,000 fun filled miles in 6 years. The wheels were MIM Amalfis, and are no longer available in VR6 fitment 2) The brief but beautiful N359 OYR July 2005-Nov 2005. A stunning, classic green standard VR6 which Mr Kippax was heard to remark at the time would have given his own car a run for it's money if I'd only bothered to clean underneath the bonnet (and clean the rest of the car properly). There wasn't a mark on it. The car met it's end when it was sideswiped by a on oncoming truck (!!) which crossed over the centre line as it came towards me. The scrap was re-registered so it may now be back on the road. Frankly I was more happy to be alive considering the accident circumstsances. 3) The current ratmobile Feb 2006-current. The bodywork is legendarily scrappy (more so since it's minor.. accident a few weeks ago) but enjoy this picture while it lasts - the bodywork is hopefully being refreshed this summer. That even means the famous "bum dented door" is going too. But having had three Corrados is nothing to be ashamed about. I can name people who've owned three Corrados simultaniously. Can't I... Mike... Chris...? Pics: