corozin

Sam, Bill does the 4-stud kits as well. I mentioned the 323mm kit more to illustrate that Badger5 does a full range of these things more than anything else. He also sells replacement Ferodo pads (to fit the Brembo kits) cheaper than anywhere else I've found in the UK.

Andy/Baron, Suggest you have a chat with Bill "Ibiza" Brockbank at Badger5.co.uk about these kits. He supplied the 323mm Leon Brembos on my car. Not only does he do a good price to supply 305/312 kits but will know what carriers/shims you may need to fit them to a Corrado. HTH, John p.s. The Ibiza Brembos are a great upgrade from stock but the 323mm Leon Brembo kits are even better (for track work)

If you want tips on buying & owning a Chimera you should seek out the TVR forum on Pistonheads.com. That's where they all hang out.

Yeeeuch! The only reason to buy it would be because of the way it goes. Design-wise the Carrera GT (which the RUF immitates poorly) is a much better resolved design. The first RUF I havn't wanted. :(

The modified header pipes with the Garrett turbo attached. I just asked "Qu'est que c'est?" (or something like that) and Vince grassed you up in an instant, haha.

Out of interest Kev I spotted your new Turbo manifold on the bench at Stealth last Friday. Very nice it looks too. :)

Right, now all the forced induction guys have told you how much better their method is, I guess I should try and answer the original question. As you probably know the VR6 is not an easy engine to NA tune cheaply. Assuming you're running the American AAA unit you could feasibly reach 220-225bhp by changing: Free flowing exhaust, 6-2-1 header, Induction kit, big valve head, Enlarged throttle body, 268 cams, Shrick + all the associated remapping. If you get this far you'll probably also want an oil cooler too. In other words you're looking at fitting almost all the commonly available performance bits for VR6, short of blueprinting the engine ground up, as 220-230bhp is about the maximum you'll extract from it without doing that. Of course that lot adds up for a fair sized bill. At that price point you might want to look into the costs of actually having an engine built for the car instead. Starting with an ABV block, and using a lightened crank, valves, race cams and all assembled to tight (blueprint) tolerances, you should be able to extend the rev range of the engine to 8,000-8,500rpm easily. I know these engines have been run in various forms of tune in a number of VW Cup based race cars over the years, and anything from 240bhp-290bhp (with 340ft torque!) is possible depending on the state of tune. Of course nowdays the VW Cup is a controlled formula so they just take weight out of the cars these days instead of putting it under the bonnet, but there was a time where the engines went pretty wild. Your other alternative frankly is to ditch your AAA engine and swap to one of the 2792cc 24v engines. This will be a helluva lot cheaper than any alternative I've described above, and a simple remap should see you up from the stock 204bhp to around 235-245bhp in a single step. Hope this helps at bit. John

Welcome. At least you're not to far from Stealth Racing, ha-ha. Although it's possibly a bit early, I'm interested in your impressions of the Corrado vs the Fiat Coupe, since it's a comparison that's frequently discussed and you've managed to own both cars.

:roll: Very sorry to bore you, as a new owner of 6 weeks I just wanted to ask. Thanks to Jim and Corozin for the info. No problem. At least I noticed you were new on here. Since you're local, I believe there's a meet in the Bath area on April 28th - maybe an opportunity to meet some of the peeps & learn some more about the car?

I'd love to go to Croft as it's a great circuit, but it really is too far for me to travel (for a track day). If I blew the car up the recovery costs would be astronomic - sorry :(

I agree. Sounds like a shed which will need a load of investment to make it tip-top. Suggest you offer £700-£1000, but absolutely no more. They really aren't worth a lot unless they're in good nick these days. The sunroof will cost £300 to put right to start with. HTH John

The car that's on the production plan is being marketed using a derivative of the Scirocco brand. It could be that in the USA it will be sold as a Corrado, but it's all a long way off at the moment. The prototype was teased to the press at Wolfsburg last August, and is called the "IROC" (as in ScIROCco). Here's some info in case your interested : http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/ ... 1825.shtml

Well I'm in the position where my track car and road car are the same car. To be honest with you though if I was building a track car for £3k tomorrow I'd start with a BMW 325i shell. RWD and indestructable, plus plenty of cheap parts and a selection of roll cage options. Drifting heaven... But I guess people want different things out of track cars. Some just want to go really fast, whilst others are happy to just have heaps of fun sliding around at lower (and safer) speeds. That's probably more me...

I think the answer to the original question I think there are a number of plausible reasons why people don't select a Corrado as a base car to build for track days: a) The rarity scares most people off, as do the panel prices b) You can get a Golf, 205 or 320 BMW shell more easily for a lot less money c) Modified parts for Corrados are not as easily available as other makes d) It just doesn't occur to people to build them. On the second point, full racing cars turn up in the Autosport classifieds regularly at that price point. My mate Chris (referred to overleaf) has recently bought a FIA approved Fiat X1/9 hillclimb car with spares for under £2,500 which will annihialate most road legal cars on a track. The point I was making about the Subarus is that you can build a Golf or BMW trackcar for a fraction of that budget which will be just as quick, if not quicker. It's worth mentioning that at £5k you could pick up an M3... Hope this resolves all the misunderstandings! John

Yes indeedy. That was my mate Chris (and that was my car covered in bird-poo in the car park) He can't help himself around red Ur-Quattros, as he used to have one himself. Hoping to be at Gurston Down on Sunday 22nd, provided my car survives the Friday :)

Just an open Combe Trackday. £165 for the full day, book through the Castle Combe website. I'm treating myself special as it's my birthday and I didn't feel like working that day, haha.

I'm sorry to differ with you, but every Subaru I've seen race on a track or trackday is an understeering pig. Of course with the recent models you can lock the diff up but we're way out of the price range being discussed here. I've seen (and passed) too many overpowered wannabe cars at trackdays whilst running 100-150bhp less than them, simply because I'm in a car that's properly balanced and brakes well. The ideal trackday is one where you go fast enough to be challenging, but more importantly you learn and exercise your own skills as a driver. Frankly if we're talking £5k budgets there's a whole model ranges of Golfs, Fords, Peugeots, BMWs and Porsches which will provide a better on track driving experience for less money. Hell, you can even buy full-on racing cars for less than £5k. As a further point, more than a few people will tell you that you can build a MkI/MkII Golf with a 1.8t power for well under £5k that will run rings around a Subaru on track running only 230bhp. Of course a lot of these Golfs run 300-350bhp. Anyone who's seen Trevor Reeves on track will testify to how quick a Mk1 can be made to run.

Although powercoat will do the job nicely, it's a bit over the top and costly IMHO. Having flattened and cleaned the surface, and taped off the polished areas use : 1) Couple of coats of grey primer 2) 2-3 coats of satin black Hammerite spray. This is fine for "warm" applications and even works well on brake calipers without peeling. Total cost? about a tenner...

I agree with your point in the large, but if you were to take this to a complaint or litigation there's nothing quite like getting it in writing. Although call recording is common now, litigation is still best done "the old fashioned way"

If you go to Pistonheads, I suggest you take a look through JonRB's ownership diary & car review, which he's maintained fairly constantly for three or four years now. Obviously all cars are different, but it should give you a good insight into the ownership costs you can expect. HTH, John

Come & find me. I bet I'm the only Corrado there, LOL Look forward to seeing you on the 20th - the car is an aqua blue VR6 with black racing wheels :D I may be able to give you a passenger run but we'll have to sort on the day Cheers John

Do it - I track mine fairly regularly and it's a pretty competitive handling car on track, although you won't hang onto a well prepared Mk1 or MkII Golf in one. I'm surprised you say you don't see them on track days. Although they are a rarity at general trackday events, there are always a brace of them on track at the Autometrix event at Castle Combe each summer, which is arguably where most VW enthusiasts take thier cars out anyway. I'll be at Combe on April 20th if you want to bring your car? John

He's been building that car on & off for over 10 years. The engine is a Rolls Meteor engine, which is basically a predecessor to the Merlin engine. Although it isn't Nick's car, if you want to hear what the engine sounds like try this : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8247949944477077608 The car is currently off the road, with the chassis being rebuilt (again) to fix some bump steer problems, and the fuel injection is being adjusted so it runs on Bio-ethanol IIRC

My pleasure mate. Miles is a top guy & well into VW's as he used to be really into the aircooled scene as he may have told you. Hopefully he'll come around & give me a run in that 944 with all the recommendations I've been giving people for him :D I think the next Tidy meet is this Sunday isn't it? I should be there, complete with my new toy... come & find me if you make it over there. Numberplate is A18AGY Cheers John

Let me guess, her name wasn't "Coleen" was it? LOL