corozin

PVW don't do technical write ups. I can only think it's because it's not the type of readership they're targeting, which tends towards the "Max-Power-for-VW-owners" type of thing. IMHO of course :wink:

If you have a VR6, the first mod has to be to fit an induction kit. Aside from that though, get some good quality coilovers. You'll be stunned how much that transforms the car's ability. If you really feel like going for it, fit neons underneath. They also improve the performance no end :wink: John

Knock 10% of what you paid for them.

That + all those strut braces. They really are impressive. The lower rear ones are made from a fancy alloy which shines like titanium of you follow it at nighyt with your heardlights. John

Er... yes. Nearside CV joint fell apart in the snow last thursday night. Took 1h40m for the AA to reach me. It was a bloody cold night I can tell you. As for your comment about power to weight, that is true of you are a jockey-sized driver, but put a portly squire in the seat of a Teg-R and that little 1.8 4-pot starts to struggle against a VR6 :roll:

Have you got the 4WD fitted yet Paul? If not - better get to it. Otherwise you may have to give up the tequila! :roll: John

The main thing the Teg has going against compared with the VR6 it is the lack of torque. The Teg is quick enough, but once you put a passenger (or worse still three passengers) in it the Corrado will be off into the distance. |That said, the Teg is a cracking car (I have a friend that owns one) and if I've not been ensnared by the VR6 years ago I would very likely have considered it instead. Can't think of many standard cars which come with upper & lower strutbraces front & back as standard, but the Teg has them both. John

What I can't understand is why a year's tax on a new car with the top rate of emmissions is only £155. One rule for rich arseholes with new BMW's, another (more expensive) one for poor owners of old Volkswagens eh...? Oh well, I suppose we can vote them out in 12 months time. Bastards.

Of course the prices have been the same for at least 5 years, so no surprise that they've gone up. If you look at the chip upgrades they've offered for Porsche, Audis and Minis, the VR6 chip is still pretty good value really, and let's face it - who else will do you a chip that good even at £350? Agree it's a bit of a steep increase in one jump tho' John

I know a chap called Duncan at Club GTi who runs a fogger on his MkII G60. It has about 250bhp - 260bhp, which believe me in a MkII is more than enough. Can't recall what size shot he was using unfortunately. John

I don't think any VW show is all about big budget cars really, and I include Inters in that. Of course out on the Concours/Show n Shine arena there are a number of £££cars, and that's inevitable I think, but at the same time many of the very best cars at the show are not built on big budgets, but come together mostly because of the talent, imagination and simple pure bloody hard graft of the part of the owners. For example if you guys knew what G60Renshaw tiny budget for his completed TT dash conversion was, you'd all cry in disbelief. I would certainly say that even those cars which are called "big budget" in VW-land are built for £buggerall compared with a lot of the stuff you see on show at things like Trax or Maxpower live. Christ, I've seen a number of Skyline, Supra and Evo's show cars with over £50k spent on just the engine alone... John

... just like a MkI GTi then! LOL!

Can't speak for the other Clubs, but I have booked three Club stant lots for the Corrado Club. John

I think you may find that a new Lupo GTi is something like 980Kg. Still a lot more than a MkI GTi and not a lot less than a MkII !

Just think about this - a MkI Golf GTI is about 830kg... A Corrado VR6 around 1230kg... an R32 around 1410kg Guess it's progress eh?

Well if the MkIII and MkIV are anything to go by, the GTi will look exactly the same as the stock one aside from 16" wheels (whoooo!) and a GTi badge, so don't expect the MkV to be treated much different. Of course late MkIV GTis started to wear 18" BBS and more aggressive bumpers, but that change took 5 or 6 years to happen on the MkIV so don't hold your breath for something to replace the GTi Anniversary / R32 in the looks stakes.

Dreadful. It looks like a Peugeot 307 from just about any angle, and that car is a complete pudding too. About the only positive thing I can find to say about the G5 is that at least it doesn't appear to have been designed by Chris Bangle.

... Or Club Polo...?

Just out of interest, what's wrong with Yorkshire Club GTi?

To put the sales of Corrados in context, there were over 800,000 Sciroccos built, and to date over 20 million Golfs.

With you 100% there Lee. To add to the point you made about the costs that traders incur in attending a show like Inters, I had a conversation on this subject late last summer with the head of one of the big tuning companies who displayed at Inters last year. Consider all this lot as costs: a) Cost of closing the business for three working days (Thursday pm is spent loading the vans, Friday spent travelling, Sat/Sun at the show, and Monday am spent unpacking the vans). That's four days paying everyone's salaries, without any income aside from the margin on what you sell at the show. b) Cost of Van Hire (thier normal van is not big enough, so they hired two vans for 5 days) c) Petrol d) Two nights hotel accomodation for all the staff doing the show. And food... And drink... e) Cost of the pitch at the show (they had one of the prime pitches) His rough estimate of all this lot added together? About £14,000... believe me you gotta sell a lot of stuff (both at and after the show) to justify that lot as a business...

What I have been told by the organisers is that for this year's show, the Traders, Club stands and show cars are all going to be in much closer proximity this year. That has to be an improvement compared with the last two years. John

Kev, Well there's the rub. The turnout of the Europeans at Bentwaters easily was the poorest I've ever seen at Inters despite it's location, but then to be fair the euro turnout was also unexpectedly small at E38 last year as well. I don't disagree with you about willingness to travel, I myself racked up over 3,500 miles to 8 events last year (work out the average involved) but most people don't do anything like that mileage and (whetehr you like it or not) are not simply not hardcore enough to undertake those kind s of distances only to end up at a so-so show. As anyone who organises big events will tell you, you can't build a big show based on a hardcore of diehards, you have to make it easy for masses to come or they won't come - full stop. This consideration is merely significant if you are organising something like last year's CCGB National Day, but for a purely commercial event like Inters it's absolutely crucial. There has been a big thread on this on the Club GTi forum which PhatVR6 has been very involved in and I have to say I agree with Paul 99% in everything he's said over there. Many of us will probably be going anyway, but the reason for that these days is because the nights out are good fun, and also because you run into loads of mates from the scene at the event. That's fantastic in itself, but it doesn't follow that the show itself can't be a big disappointment because for me last year it was just that. The good news (as I alluded to earlier) is that I am also in the fortunate position to know many of the people involved in Inters, and they do honestly listen to the feedback they get from people like myself and PhatVR6 and try as far as possible to act on it to improve the show. However there are also constraints that they have to work within (which most people don't know or care about) and these mean that everything on the wish-list can't be done. It's probably fair to say that in that sense they are between a rock and a hard place. Of course none of that also means that you have to think the show is any good either does it...? Their problems are not your problems after all... Anyway... I hope to see & meet loads of you guys on the CCGB Club stand over the Inters weekend. Also keep an eye out for the "Are you a C.NUT?" t-shirts. The owners will probably own a Corrado :D John

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you there. The fundamental problem with Bentwaters is that it is simply a huge distance for everyone to travel to it. I live in Bournemouth, and Woodbridge is the best part of 240 miles each way for me, whereas TRL was only 90 miles (and Wroughton was only 60). As a further illustration, for me Inters is now about the same distance for me to travel to as going to Tatton Park ! Now not everyone lives in Bournemouth (hey - you can't all be lucky!) but the fact is that Bentwaters is a bigger distance even for Londoners to travel compared to the previous locations. From central London, Wroughton was only 90 miles, whereas Bentwaters is more like 115. The point I've made to Neil Birkitt on a number of occasions now is that we are now in the ridiculous situation where there isn't a single major VW show located in the heartland of the country; everything is scattered outside of the M4/M1/M6 "box" and given that Inters positions itself as the biggest show it clearly makes little sense to position it so that the vast majority of attendees have to cover simply massive distances to attend it. Several year ago Inters rapidly climbed the ladder and became the biggest show on the scene because it was well located, and also because it was the best of a small portfolio of shows. 10 years on, there will be something like 20+ major VW events (and that's just the watercooled ones) in the UK this year, and Inters now has to fight hard to retain it's position or people will just divert to more local shows. This year is certainly going to be very interesting...

I spoke to Autometrix a couple of weeks ago and they are trying hard to make changes to improve the event based on the feedback they got from everyone last year. Last year was the first at Bentwaters, and by thier own admission the layout could have been vastly improved. The Club stands were out in the middle of nowhere, as were the the show cars. The public parking was also naff and the traders were spread out in about 4 directions. Everyone said to them "can't you try and make it a bit more like it was at TRL?" and so that's what they are trying to do this year; moving trade stands, clubs, and show displays all more close together and trying to 'mix it up' a bit more just kike it was at TRL. The problem with doing this is that there will have to be constraints on the number/size of the club displays. I guess we'll have to see how well it works this time and see if overall it's any better than last year. Ultimately the problem is one of thier own making in that really the location itself is useless for an event like this. The layout is just not suited to holding an event like this, it's absolutely miles from anywhere, the roads are not up to it, there are few decent hotels within 20 miles (the list goes on & on). Why they don't just bite the bullet and hold it at a proper race circuit like Donnington or Silverstone is beyond me (well it ain't - they won't make as much profit) but if an event like Trax can turn profits whilst paying Silverstone I can't see why Inters can't do the same. /end of rant John