corozin

You & nipples Alex - always the root cause of problems eh, haha (Give me a ring sometime mate - missed you last time you visited Bournemouth) John

You may have a point there. :) That kinda stuff depends on whether you have the facilities, knowledge, tools and confidence to do a rebuild yourself Jim. I certainly couldn't undertake myself what's been done to mine.

I wish you luck - that was exactly what I thought. Problem with modifying is once you pop you just can't stop ! Hope you get on with the R888s BTW. Be careful in the wet !

The story of this car will end up on the Coupehaus site in the coming months, as I promised BiggerBigBen I would. To be honest the build isn't a "looker" as anyone who's seen it (e.g. at Stanford Hall this year - it was the ratty one in the corner that nobody photographed) will confirm. I still have some plans to do something radical with the bodywork, but I'm over-budget already so that may have to wait a little bit. My attitude to the costs is like yours ("can't take it with you"). I know I can't take to the grave, but to have some left over to nip to the pub with would be nice! Will be at CCGB Nat Day with it if you want to take a peek (and listen to the kind of idle noise you only get with 284 cams) Cheers, John

Well in April incurred another £1,700 bill (I actually negotiated that one down!) and am due another one in a couple of weeks' time. I'm now well & truly past "ridiculous sums" on this build and into a rather surreal dimension where it has actually occurred to me that running a Ferrari for the past 12 months would have actually been (significantly) cheaper... oh well at least I have a decent German car and not some trumped up product from the Fiat empire eh :(

You calling me a pikey? Cheeky barsteward! :)

Article : "There is no word more offensive to a traveller, says Cliff Codona, a Roma Gypsy and chairman of the National Travellers Action Group. " What rubbish... what about 'Gippo' ? or 'Cacker'? There may be no integrity in journalism anymore, but I think I may have discovered one thing - the CF would have had a complaint by now if any pikeys were members of CF and had read this. Hallelujah! The Corrado is not a pikey car! Woot! Woot! I can put the burberry away now :D

John, you noticed the amount of potholes? Reckon they're being all environmental and re-cycling the raods now? :lol: I'm all in favour of re-cycling... I've been doing it with my jokes for years, ha ha. Q. What does a pikey get for his birthday? A. Your bicycle :D

LOL, that's true. The Sweden match has been a bit dull so I photoshopped a special version of my avatar for this thread - what do you reckon?

Gotta look on the bright side; the recent escalation in the price of oil has poked the cost of bitumen well beyond what pikeys will pay for it. So your auntie is safe from having her drive coated / roof weatherproofed for at least this summer :D Of course they'll still be nicking your socks off your washing line though.

Frankly if the bloody pikeys want to stand up and complain about this then they should pay some bloody tax to earn that privilege. Cheeky fuggers complaining about Brundle - who the f**k do they think they are?

Are the Merc wheels positive or negative offset? Are you fitting to a VW 5-stud or 4-stud? I suspect that your adapters will be rather thick. Without meaning to sound condescending, did you not think to measure and figure what the conversion would be before you pressed "buy it now" ?

I wondered the same thing recently when I had the use of a new BMW 5 series for a weekend and did 700 miles in it. Nothing creaked, I didn't have to climb down into it, it had the whole spec list of toys (DVD, sat-nav, auto-lights, auto-wipers) as well as the obligatory iDrive, the estate boot swallowed a ton of luggage, being diesel it was easily doing 40mpg at the same speeds my VR6 gets 20mpg, the automatic gearbox was just so easy when I got stuck in traffic in Luton. Don't get my wrong I still love my VR6, but as I push on into my 40s those big, fast, comfy, reliable, diesel, German estate cars look more and more tempting ! Somebody help me !

If you have any sense, seek out & order an LS2 with loom for your next project car. $4,000 shipped to the UK & I ain't lying.

The handling you describe could easily be worn / loose rear bearings. You'd be surprised how only a degree or two of play makes the car feel like it's been on the beers for a night. HTH John

The article I remember was about 5 years ago and the car was 93rd on the list. Have they done another article ?

I think the VW scene is often a bit very insulated from the rest of the show world when it comes to the cost of wheels. £3.5k for a set of wheels is only middle money really. Here's a couple of more premium manufacturers I dug up with a few minute's googling : http://www.forgiato.com/whelsindex.htm http://www.billetwheel.com/wheels/customshop.htm

Frankly the best thing to do is just take the car to the track as it is now, and work out what you want to do to it depending on how it feels on the track. Inevitably the kind of spring rates that are nice on the road feel way too soft on a circuit, but I wouldn't spend too much on it until you've run it or unless you have a very clear idea how you want to set it up (which would kinda make the question pointless wouldn't it!). I suspect that with 9" rears the car won't do anything but understeer at the limit, but you may also get rubbing unless your clearances are big enough. Also depends a lot on what you have fitted at the front and the quality of the rubber you're using. If the tyres are 215s stretched over 9" rims you'll need to check the edges of the tyres during the day (you should be checking the rubber after each run anyway) because that's where the heat build up strips the rubber first on stretched tyres. For reference I run Koni coilovers with adjustable dampers (firm at front, fully soft at rear), polybushed suspension, strut braces both ends but I have kept the standard anti-roll bars. In my view the Koni coilovers negate the need to upgrade the ARBs, but that's a personal preference. The main thing you want to dial out is the standard car's dive/diagonal pitch under braking as there's nothing that kills good, consistent laps like the rear end jigging around trying to overtake you under braking. You also don't want the smell that comes with those kinds of moments. Anyway I won't give you all the secrets - where would the fun be in that? Can't have you overtaking me & stuff... :) HTH, John

With a little luck and a following wind (translation : get the replacement profile race cams I've been promised in exchange of my disappointing 284s) I will also be at the VAG track day in July. Will look out for you there. Quick note: If you do buy the whole day (6 passes) then make sure you get up there early & out on track. The queues at the Autometrix days are such that you really need to do 3-4 runs in the morning session to use all the passes. "Lunch" is usually declared at 1pm, so the pm session is shorter than the am one. I've been left with an unused pass at 5pm before... Cheers John

More tips on driving in convoy: 1) Make sure everyone knows where your convoy is going to! You'd be surprised at the number of people who don't (for example) know exactly how to find Stealth if they lose the car in front. 2) If you lose the car in front, then you're driving like a granny. You have a Corrado god-dammit! Put your bloody foot down and catch up! 3) For two cars travelling together : if the lead car overtakes something, and can see the road ahead is clear, then stay out in the opposite lane. That will indicate to the tail car that the road ahead is still clear. Clearly a degree of trust, responsibility and common sense has to be used here but it really does make a helluva difference if you're on traffic laden A-roads. 4) Don't ever EVER follow me to an event. I may look like I know where I'm going but really I don't, as the 13 Corrado owners who followed me twice around Bicester in 2002 looking for AMD (including the 3-point turn I did) will testify. I've also got lost whilst leading groups of cars to Billing Aquadrome, Goodwood, No-Rice in Guildford and Thruxton circuit. The exception to this rule is Castle Combe - I do actually know where that is now. 5) Don't ever EVER travel in a convoy with Guy. He races everyone and anything, his Sat-Nav doesn't work (as we found out one year by being taken around the Paris Peripherique the wrong way on the way to Le Mans) and his loss of attention at the sight of PYT's is legendary. Now he has an RS4 and he's even worse than ever (seriously Guy this is respectful salute - don't beat me up!). 6) Similar to point (5) but applies to Wendy within the boundaries of Milton Keynes. And Oxfordshire. And France. :D

Hi, Motorsport events (http://www.motorsport-events.co.uk/) do a range of mostly airfield based track days which start at as little as £79. But in all honesty you are deluding yourself if you think that having a trackday hobby is going to be cheap because it won't be. In fact the track time will be amongst the lower of your costs. Not only do you need to get your track day vehicle into suitable (safe) condition and keep it that way, you also need to budget for replacement brake pads & front tyres at almost each event, petrol (a VR6 will get into single figure MPG around a track meaning you'll use over ½ tank on a full day) and travel to/from the location. As a guide my rough track day budget is broken down as follows: £180-£200 Circuit hire £215 Tyres (pair) £120 Front pads (after every second track day) £80 Fuel £25 Oil & filter change (essential after the event) The best way to reduce the outgoings is to do what you're doing - split the costs & action with a mate (or mates). But whatever you do make sure the suspension bushes, brake pipes, steering rack and brakes on your chosen trackday weapon are up to the job - don't skimp on those items to save a few quid whatever you do. Have fun :D John

Well Jaguar XJR's are out there for £5k now, and E34 M5's are too, as is the occasional Mercedes C43 AMG. Both are a damn sight quicker than a Corrado, iconic and fairly reliable. All however will cost a lot more to own than your VR6. In my opinion there are few hatchback/coupe cars out there at the price point except the Integra Type-R or maybe the Leon Cupra R which will float your boat after a VR6.

Koni coilovers. Accept no substitute.

This is a real tough one. My honest advice would be to return the car to as near-standard as possible, including putting a set of Speedlines back on it, and swapping off the personal plate. There is frankly very little premium if any in a modified car compared to a standard one, and although you only need to find one buyer for the car the market will be much bigger for standard ones. But then your arches are modified which kinda puts paid that great idea... so... I think it's worth considering going the other way with it. Leave the whole car as it is, including the supercharger, and advertise it as a modified car in one of the specialist magazines. Since your car is known on the VW scene (which is full of tyre-kickers and people who will nit-pik), I'd suggest putting it into something like Max Power or Redline, and asking maybe £6k-£6½k for it. I think it's worth a cheeky try to see if it will move. The USP for your particular car is the supercharger conversion, and you may snag someone who fancies an attractive and unusual car with a crazy spec and who doesn't want the trouble of modifying it themselves. Unfortunately there's no getting away from the fact that the second hand car market is on the floor right now and it's not really a time to sell. Without the supercharger the car is a well looked after, but leggy car with a bottom end rattle and as such (though I really hate to say this) I doubt you'd get even £3k for it. Hope the suggestion is worth considering - good luck with it whatever you decide. John

Zig-Zag Hill is the place where I really properly "road" tested my Quaife ATB. The ATB passed the test, however my neck failed it :)