corozin

If you're on eDunkey/Emule : ed2k://|file|Top.Gear.-.[03x05].-.2003.11.23.[sharethefiles.com].avi|368672768|E7F99D152D2C5BCB5B9D8BEBEEF53EAC|/

There was a black B5 on autotrader last week with history for only 10k. What I can't understand though is why some people on here just can't accept that there are faster cars than a Corrado. An RS4 is simply a quicker car in every respect. Comparing it with a turbo'd Corrado is just pointless, as a modified RS4 would just dust even one of those all over again. Just love your Corrado for what it is. It's a 20 year old car which is still more than capable of taking a scalp or two in the modern world, such were it's capabilities. Love it for the car it is, enjoy it's character, looks, and charm but don't try and convince me that it's quicker than am RS4, a Boxster S or even a Golf R32 because it isn't. [dons flamesuit and waits for inevitable argument]

I know someone who's recently acquired a B5 RS4 after many years of wanting one. He told me a couple of weeks ago that he's already seen 175mph in it already and there was a bit more still to come. So in a VR6 you're not going to have a chance against something like that unless you managed to put about 400bhp under the bonnet. And longer gearing too.

Hi Andy, Having sat in more than a few Octavia estates in the past few months I reckon you (or perhaps Sarah) should at least take a test drive in one. The A4/Passat is similar, but you'll get a newer Octavia for the same money and they're not inferior in my opinion except for the badge. (Yes - they were taxis !) I wouldn't touch a Vauxhall with a shifty stick unless it's a mega-deal. The cars creak, lose value faster than Northern Rock and the dealers are usually w&nkers. If you want some fun, I have a real alternative for you to consider : I know someone who has a '96 E34 525 Touring (E34) for sale for £1,000. These are easily modified. Strap a T3 Turbo to the engine and you'll have over 400bhp with no internal engine mods required. John

You could get your block bored out by Bildon Motorsports : http://www.bildon.com/

Well... 248's are preferable if you've dropped the compression and fitted forced induction. 268's are more for NA tuning. The rest of your question is far to vague to give a proper answer

a) The 2.8 & 2.9 flywheels are exactly the same fitment b) I recently sourced a Fidanza item from a Belgian ebay seller for around £190 delivered. Link to thier shop below : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Hottuning-eu In fact, here's one for sale : http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-RACING-FLYWHEE ... dZViewItem HTH, John

Well it looks like the garage have indicated that there's a lamda problem, or a problem with it's wiring. That's the first place to start as the ECU will be fuelling all over the place if it's getting funny info from Lamda, or may even put the car into safe mode. The other thing you might consider is that if the car has been very rich for a long time you may have damaged your cat convertor to an extent, and that won't help your CO2 readout much either. Good news is that there are aftermarket options available from some tyre/exhaust places. I was able to get a cat made up to order about three months ago locally for around £350. I think they were a powerflow agent, so it might be worth seeking one of those out locally if you find your cat's been snuffed out. HTH John

Is this the point I suggest something inappropriate with a ping pong paddle? :D :lol: We've all done stuff like that, it's part of the experience of owning a car you want to go faster I think. I have a K&N and an exhaust with no suitcase silencer on my valver (not my additions, the previous owners) and it made 144bhp with 180k miles on it, so I guess the chav style mods could have helped it?? I agree about the cold air feeds too, at 30mph+there must be a huge volume of air getting into the engine bay without the need for bits of puddle bothering pipe. In fact I found swiss cheesing the air box made a dramatic improvement to the car's road performance, because just about everyone could hear me coming up behind them and on dual carriageways they all pulled out of the way. Even bikers could hear it through thier lids. So there you go. I have a CDA on ths current car and it's nowhere near as noisy!

On my second Corrado I didn't just drill the box, I "swiss cheesed" the bottom by drilling something like 160x 3mm holes (nicely spaced in a mesh-like effect). I can only say that, combined with a K&N panel filter produced what was easily the noisiest VR6 induction I've ever heard (and I've seen em all in the last 10 years). So... question : What should my punishment be ?

I suppose it's just a good job they havn't heard about The Power Resistor of Justice or we'd all be in trouble on the drag strip.

If pushing the red zone is your thing then I have this advice, based on having owned three VR6's, and having changed the fuel pump in one of them: "No two Corrados are the same when it comes to running out of fuel" The only way to find out how far your needle can go into the red is to actually run it out of fuel. My first Corrado would happily drive around for 2-3 days with the needle on the bump stop. When I changed the fuel pump (hint: the level float is part of the fuel pump assembly) it coughed with the needle just over the line, but fortunately I was 100yds from a station. I never ran out of fuel in the second Corrado I owned (probably because I only owned it for 4 months and I managed to remember to fill it up) but my current car caught me by surprise when it choked to death with the needle hardly across the line earlier in the year. Yeah... yeah... I can hear you all laughing... buggers...

http://www.corrado-club.com/corrado/speccolor.cfm

The current situation is being caused by a number of factors. Obviously worldwide demand is on the increase, particularly in India & China, at a time when worldwide supply has reached a plateau. The supply problem has not been helped at all by continuing difficulites in getting supplies out of Iraq, and the Russians are also ringfencing thier own supplies for thier own use. But the current particular "run" on fuel prices has two distinct causes. Firstly America's sabre-rattling with Iran is putting a lot of uncertainty into what is already a nervous oil market. The prospect of sanctions (or war) with Iran potentially threatens 15% of the available world oil reserves. But of greater impact currently is the fact that investors and banks worldwide are reacting to both the weak US economy and the recent sub-prime lending crash by moving thier cash back into more solid investments. Translated, this means that the futures in stocks like Oil & Gold are going through the roof right now. The price of Gold has doubled in the past 12 months for example. To an extent the oil companies are seeing some of this money, but a lot of the price increase is being swallowed by the markets too. Finally our own Goverment is taxing the crap out the UK gallon as well, and it's worth mentioning that in addition to the recent 2p/litre excise increase on fuel, the Government has also benefitted from the recent surge in prices by a further 2p/litre due to the increase VAT they put on top. John

Agreed! No matter how annoying the car is at times or how many engine blocks and turbos it gets through, I just can't get rid of it! Agreed again. I've been scheming up plans of a similar nature and using the same engine too, or the LS2, but it'll have to wait until I have the space......and welding skills! With the dollar in the state it is now, you can get crated LS2s, brand new, with ECU and wiring loom for £3K shipped. Now that is a bargain for an engine that will give 500hp / 500lb/ft with nothing more than cams, headers and a remap. Kev, Presume you are aware of the conversion kit for LS1/944 that (as a PPC reader?). When I looked at the costs I reckonedg you could have the whole car built (subcontracted) for under £10k, but then I put the cash into the rebuild, so all bets are off (for a few years or so!) John

You reckon? The petrol station across the road from our office has 95 unleaded at 103.9p today, with S/unleaded at 106.9. Of course the pubs are cheaper here ) You're always welcome, haha

As someone who is just about to "invest" the market cost of a secondhand Intergra-R under the bonnet of a 14 year old VR6 I am a(nother) prime example of what you're talking about. I must be mad, but I just can't bring myself to swap it for anything else. The car works for me on almost every level, and I can only pick faults in most modern alternatives. In fact about the only alternative I even considered this year was finding a late 944SE and putting the 'Vette LS1 engine conversion into it. Rebuilding the Corrado is a fairly sensible alternative to that really...

Just out of interest, I thought the V6 in the Ford Galaxy was the Volkswagen VR6 engine. Always worth seeing if Ford dealers are doing the parts cheaper ?

I have to say it's a pretty depressing experience to take a car the size of a Corrado into Tesco's fuel stations and be unable to fill it up with the £60 credit you get on the "swipe by card" option because the credit runs out... :(

I did try once very very hard indeed and did 48mpg over about 5 miles. I've also managed 39mpg over 100 miles of mostly motorway. But let's face it, trying to maximise your mpg is for girls, old people and bed-wetters. You have a Corrado FFS, put your foot down. It's only money. Normally I only make 23-26mpg, and I think that will drop noticeably when I get my car back next week with it's new mods.

Could be tappets, but under load I'd say it's more likely to be the big end shell bearings.

Of far more interest to me way the news that they're considering making the opening round of next year's MotoGP season a night race as well.

I hadn't thought of it quite like that, but yes - it could well be true. Alonso's problems are threefold currently: a) It's so late in the season that most teams have signed up thier 2008 lineups b) Alonso's reputation in the pitlane is currently in the gutter. It's fair to say his actions as an employee at MacLaren have made the other teams wary of signing him. c) He's already turned down a couple of offers, including an alleged $28m (!!) offer from Toyota, and now seems to be in the position where he's relying on either Williams or Renault to sack one of thier 2008 contracted drivers to accomodate him. (Red Bull confirmed thier 2008 lineup yesterday). Not many options, but you know F1 is a fully old game. Anything can happen.

Say farewell to Fernando. "Don't forget to take your pram and rattle with you Nando !" And so now Alonso has the difficult job of actually finding someone in the F1 pitlane who is willing to risk employing him, considering the petulant, immature and disloyal way he acted at MacLaren this year. And let's face it would you try and manage this boy? Neither would I But assuming the press are correct and he finds a seat at either Renault or Red Bull at least he won't have to worry about conflict with Hamilton any more. Based on current trends the Ferraris and MacLarens are likely to be joined by BMW next year in totally dominating the other teams. I wonder if he's considering NASCAR instead? They'd luurve Alonso's tantrums out there...

Oh it's a corker of a car make no mistake but what I meant was the actual methods used to make it whizzy weren't anything particularly revolutionary except for the fact that very very few stock road cars have ever fitted those bits to a car at that time. Nowadays it's becoming more common to see upper front strut braces on new cars, Astons, Jags and BMW's certainly get them a lot now nowadays. It's also interesting to note that the Nissan 350z also has a rear upper brace as standard too (it's really nicely engineered - take a look sometime). More and more performance cars are starting to use the Quaife ATB as well, recent examples being the Ford Focus RS and currently the Renault Megane F1-230. But the Integra has lower strut braces too, and what beauties they are. If you find yourself following an ITR at night you can see the lower rear brace really clearly, as the titanium-based alloy used really reflects headlights. Of course whilst these types of modifications produce dramatic performance improvements in a car they also create compromises in other areas which manufacturers are understanderbly reticent to implement across whole model ranges. With an ATB for example a side-effect is that the car becomes more susceptible to tramlining under power, and strut bracing a car seriously sharpens the handling but also reduces the compliance in a way that makes many customer feel uncomfortable.