corozin

Personally I'm quite enjoying watching Alonso throwing his little toys out of the plan whilst Hamilton demonstrates his cool. That said this kind of game-playing is nothing new in Formula One; Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet - all past masters of game playing, and all multiple F1 world champions

Am please to say I now have VAG-COM available for OBD-2 fitted cars in the Bournemouth/Poole area.

Please don't take this the wrong way but IMHO you'd be better off putting your money into a better braking system plus the wheels to fit over them, and if necessary delay your Rotrex charger to a later date. There's only so much you can do with a 280mm disc, don't do the the job by halves, go for the 323 or 328 kit and get some big wheels and decent rubber. If you're going to stuff a sodding great charger in there you should ensure the car has the best braking you can get before you put extra power in. The Quaife ATB should be ok as like the Quaife boxes they're very strong, but if you're in any doubt you might want to give them a call. I don't recall ever having seen a power rating in the spec (which you can check on Quaife's website) Hope this helps John p.s. Grooved discs, not drilled :)

If you're at all unsure what you're doing with the install, then call VInce at Stealth as he's very familiar with the VSR, can do all the chip reprogramming necessary to sort the fuelling/triggering out, and actually he isn't that expensive either. I had mine fitted there, so you're not alone on the mechanical front :) I can't stress enough how important it is to get the fueling mapped properly to map the VSR. Without it the car will run, but trust me it won't run any better. With the mapping done it'll be a different car to drive. It put increased the peak torque of mine by about 18ft/lb...

Wilwood do some decent and inexpensive big brake kits. They're popular with Golf guys, although for some strange reason I've never seen Wilwoods fitted to a Corrado. Big range of options for pots/discs available. Best sourced from Rally Design if my memory serves...

The VSR is designed to work on a coil pack car. The unit it triggered from the ECU and not the distributer/coilpack so there shouldn't be any compatibility issues. What problems / workarounds exactly were you anticipating? The car will require a remap once the VSR is fitted and wired in, otherwise the engine will run lean in the midrange. In my case I have a schrick controller, which is spliced into the ECU cam sensor feed (I think it's pin 23) on the ECU. If you don't have a controller at all then I believe it can be done straight from the ECU but more programming of the ECU is required. The VSR "kit" should roughly consist of: [list:68d85]a) The VSR unit, including the valve. If yours doesn't have a valve, the call Stealth Racing as they now have drawings for the parts involved. b) A vacuum bottle/unit - about the size of a small flask c) 2x Vacuum hoses to connect unit to VSR, and unit to engine vacuum. d) VSR Controller. I have a schrick controller but I believe there is a VW equivalent. This can be mounted up under the scuttle panel by the ECU. e) The original VW motorsport kit came with a shortened pipe to connect the air temp sender to the head. If you don;t have one of these the existing rubber hoses will have to be cut down to fit as the VSR reduces the distance required by around 1

I'm not sure how accurate this could be, but in around 1998 when I first got involved in the Corrado Club I saw some statistics showing that around half the Club's members owned VR6's. For later (95>) cars more than two-thirds of them were VR6's Now certainly the Corrado wasn't a huge seller at all in the UK until the G60 gave way to the VR6, which perhaps supports the thought that perhaps in total as many as half all the Corrados sold in the UK would have been VR6's. Hope that helps... maybe? John

I will be offering up my Nothelle springs for sale in a week or two if anyone wants to start planning ahead. Suitable for a VR6, approx drop is 20mm front, 40mm back compared to a late VR6, or 20mm/20mm compared to an early car. Spring rates not known but are a fair bit stronger than stock ones. Taking a guess at around 400lb front. Simply fantastic ride and control for a road car, I'm only moving them on as they're not strong enough for the track work I do. Photo of the springs/ride height on my car before they came off : http://eventpictures.fotopic.net/p40803642.html There are no dampers (they were old and a couple were starting to leak) but they'd probably be tremendous with a set of Koni adjustable shocks. Watch the for sale section - they'll be on there in a week or two once I've cleaned them up John

I think you are right. You really need to approach a motorsports supplier and build what you want in this case from parts. Is there any particular reason you want to have the clutch cable as a braided line? Head shielding it might be simpler, and just as effective. It also occurs to me that a braided sleeve may produce more wear on the cable than the stock one. This wouldn't be too much of a problem on a race car (where parts are stripped regularly and mileages are lower) but may cause hassle on a road car. In any case here's a link to Merlin Motorsport in case you need another race-factor : http://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/ HTH, John

Enjoy your CDA. I have one myself. Note to others : If all you desire is a ma-hoo-sive induction note for zippo money it's cheaper to drill the bottom of the stock airbox though! (and results in an even noisier induction system - I know from personal experience!)

Mine failed yesterday on HC emissions - turns out my catalytic converter is completely knackered. Good news is I managed to find a place locally in Bournemouth that will build me an upgraded sports cat to replace the dead one by next Wednesday. The bad news is that it's another £250 spent :( I'm already £3k into this car this year... and I still have the Autometrix trackday to fund in 3 weeks time. That'll be another £500 by the time I've booked it, put new front pads on, used the fuel and replaced the front tyres afterwards! I think you're probably running your three cars for less than I'm spending running and modifying one car Andy, LOL (I'm crying really!) John

I think I'll file that one under... "internet blog-cobblers" Show me a picture on the VW website and I'll believe them

I wondered if there was something rather generic about the style of PVW... http://www.performancevwmag.com/ http://www.performancebmwmag.com/ http://www.performancefordmag.com/ http://www.performancegti.com/ http://www.bmwcarmagazine.com/ and let's not forget http://www.gtpurelyporsche.com/ But then I couldn't quite figure where the generic (shurely "successful") editorial style came from, But then I realised... http://www.banzaimagazine.com/ If anyone notices how all these sites all look... well... the same? Is anyone in any doubt now as to why the editorial style of PVW is the same as all the others? Template websites... template magazines... original thought is no longer required, just fill in the template.... ZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzz

Good quality editorial with top quality pictures costs a lot (more) to produce. The problem with the specialist Volkswagen magazine market is that "quality" magazines just don't sell enough copies sto be economically viable. It's a hard fact of life, but most of the people who generate mass-sales for these mags are illiterate chavvies who can't understand words with more than two syllables and like lots of nice pictorials with blingy cars in them. I think the other thing that's killing the VW Magazine market right now is a lack of articles, and a relative shortage of good project cars on the scene generally. A lot of the decent "builders" out there who do great cars no longer have any interest in having thier creations featured, possibly because of the kind of audience those mags now appeal to. Of course there are car magazines out there which have become very successfully by concentrating on quality (Evo, Practical Performance Car, Classic & Sportscar, Porsche World) but the demographics of those readerships are much older (and wealthier) than your average VW Magazine reader. That's not meant as a condescending statement, merely a harsh truth. Of course we have VW Driver and Volksworld, which are living proof that you can write a good "in depth" magazine and get (relatively speaking) sod-all sales. Me? I'm a regular of PPC these days - you learn more about hardcore Volkswagens when they feature them in that than you'll find in a year's subscription to one of the VW Specialist mags IMHO.

VWChick: If you want an "experience" I may have a couple of passenger spaces available in the Corrado at the VW Autometrix trackday at Castle Combe on Saturday 11th August. Trust me - we won't get overtaken by very much :D pm me if interested

It can only be offensive if you space the letters illegally, so why ban it? Some more PC madness from the TW4TS and the DVLA

What sort of person orders UK spec headlight lenses for an American car?

I'm not sure if they still do them but both Quaife and Gemini used to do both uprated replacement 5-speed clusters, as well as 6-speed ones which would all fit inside the existing VR6 casing. The six speed ones require some minor mods inside to get a bit of clearance. When I last knew the prices back in around 2003 the 5-speed Gemini kit was about £1,250 and the 6-speed was around £1,800 but you'd really need to contact the companies and see if they do them still, and see what ratios are available. The Quaife kit is more expensive still but at the same time it was allegedly even stronger than the Gemini kit. Frankly though unless you're planning big power for your car I wouldn't bother with either as a VR6 pretty much attains V-max on a standard box in fifth, and you won't make it go any faster with a longer ratio as the (standard) engine won't pull any more than 155-158 really. HTH, John

If you've checked the relays, and the battery isn't flat, then check the fuse box. If it's not that then you've probably got a broken earth somewhere.

To be honest with you I think reasonable Speedlines still make anything from £25-£50 per wheel so one way to look at it is to say you've spent £60 for one decent rim but it was worth the gamble that the whole lot would be ok. Another way to look at it is that even if you pay £50 per corner, that's still a helluva lot cheaper than most aftermarket rims. My compomotives are nothing flashy (more functional than flash to be frank) and those are £210 a corner and not even split rims. Try to take heart :)

Hello Caeser's woken up! :lol: Ceaser? how's that? I haven't shagged my mother ???

Caveat emptor...

I hope you find a Corrado you like, but frankly if you're currently driving around in a 2002 year car then you're probably in for a culture shock with a Corrado. It's gonna feel old compared to your Astra (after all it will be) but if you can get through that expect a lengthy love affair. There was a low mileage Storm unsold on eBay for £4,500 a couple of days ago - might be worth a punt, see if he'll take an offer? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=016&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=260135812982&rd=1&rd=1

I have a small collection of personal un-favourites at home. Watch this space & I'll post some pics tonight

I'm sure I'll bump into Neil Birkitt at the Autometrix Trackday next month; I'll mention it to him when I see him. Has anyone ended up with any actual damage aside beyond milky/burnished lacquer?