corozin

I think chasrad has one fitted to his turbo, so if he lets me know the info before someone friendly here answers the question I will post up what he tells me I am also after a genuine new VAG part, but without the model I can't check the prices either. I don't think they're a lot more money than a VR6 one.

I heard a rumour that you can use a starter motor from a Golf R32 as a "upgrade" replacement for the VR6 starter motor. Apparently they're a bit more powerful etc so it seems like a good idea, and now's the time as my existing starter is starting to fail. Can anyone confirm which model of R32 Golf starter motor is the one to use? Does the change require any other modifications or is the R32 unit a straight swap? Any help replies, as always, greatly appreciated John

Whatever it was wonderfully funny, and I don't care if there are some who've seen it somewhere before because I certainly hadn't. So keep yer pea-roast or whatever it was, and just enjoy the chuckle. I did.

You may think you've had it bad up there Iain but I'm afraid it just isn't so! I travelled up to spend Christmas/New Year with friends in Leven and I can only tell you that it was easy to tell where the England/Scotland border was. Let's just say one side of Berwick was gritted and the other side hadn't been touched. As for the M8, there had certainly been craters but by the time I drove down it on the 5th Jan they'd all been fixed. Down here in Bournemouth there are still some monster potholes which have been untouched since before Christmas. You've never had it so good mate :D

Before you do anything get back to the scene and take some decent photographs of the pot hole you hit, as well as the damage your car sustained. Without these there is no point in going any further. Then contact the council for the forms. Remember that if they just stonewall you, you may have the option to take the council to the small claims court, especially if the pot hole had been there for a while unfixed. If it had appeared (as opposed to being dug up) in very recent history then they will attempt to defend it on the basis that it just appeared & they didn't know about it.

Too right :D The Corrado won't be going until I've got at least 300K out of it :lol: Keeping your old car rather than buying a new one is, of course, the most environmentally friendly thing to do anyway. I was going to agree with your sentiment about getting 300k out of the car as well, but sometimes I wonder if putting 300k into it might be nearer the truth! doh!

Updated calenders at the top of the thread for 2011. Hope you find them useful :)

Of course you could sell the Corrado & the A3 and use the money to put a S2000 engine in the MX5. You wouldn't need the Lotus then. I read it's becoming a common conversion... :twisted:

Indeed, or just go with an exchange VR from Vege at less than 2k - a mate has now done over 60 k miles in his and it's still silent, uses no oil and and pulls like a train! I know I know im always complimenting the Vege engine ive got. But as Steve says it cost less the 2k for the lump. Just swap the ancilaries over. Glad to hear at 60k its still silent and still using no oil. Mines only done half that mileage, your mates will be just about run in now ey Steve :D I was thinking smaller than that. For reference the (93,000 mile) 2.8 engine I sourced last year cost me just £265 delivered to me!. Even with the cost of the various gaskets, bolts & garage time I had the engine in the car & job done for around £1200 and it's been faultless (taps wood) for 13,000 miles since then. No shortage in the performance dept either. I'm sure the Vege engine is an excellent, safe option but with 2.8 24v engines at the price they are currently you're most of the way at the Vege's price to covering the cost of an ECU and the other ancillaries required for a 24v conversion. In my case I'd already spent a fortune previously on rebuilding a 12v, and my heart just wasn't interested in spending that money all over again when it went pop.

If you enjoyed the car's performance before the engine started to fall apart and don't want to spend a fortune then consider swapping the existing 2.9 unit with a fresher 2.8 Golf AAA engine. The difference in performance is negligable if you move across the 2.9 throttle & inlets and relatively young (sub 100k) 2.8 engines can be sourced for buttons. Indeed at these prices you can put some schimmel cams in and still save money. You also avoid all the complication of changing manifolds & ECUs etc. I did a whole swap including sourcing the lump and garage labour for about £1200. A 24v conversion will cost you nearer £3k realistically, at which point buying a whole car is a more sensible solution. Depends on whether you want to go bonkers with the performance or not, but worth considering.

If they really bumper push you too hard, just slow down even more. If you feel the point is worth making, stop altogether & get out and have a go at them face to face. In my experience 4x4 drivers have big cojones when they're sitting in thier little tanks but that all disappears quickly if you break their safety bubble. It's almost worth doing for the shock on thier faces. And before anyone says "that's easy to say" I have speed bumps on a one way system at the end of my road and I have resorted to direct confrontation of this kind in the past. It's a very satisfying response to being unable to even see the headlights of a range rover in your mirror when they follow too close.

I saw superunleaded at 144.9p at Sandbach on the M6 yesterday. That's £6.58/gallon. Covered 500 miles yesterday back from Scotland. I don't want to even think what it cost me. The January increase has put something like £2 on a cost of every tankful. Apparently there's another 4p/litre increase due in April, which was announced by the last Government, but has still not been cancelled by the coalition. I don't think it will be long before people start taking to the streets again on this issue. Just think the 2001 fuel protests happened when petrol broke through the 80p barrier. :(

When you consider what real racing cars can be bought & run for the cost of the FXX, you have to admire how Ferrari manage to get so many people to part with vast amounts of so willingly. Ferrari milk them like cows.

I havn't sent copies of the file to CrazyDave or Jim as I assumed they would just pull copies posted here to use for CCGB events list like last year. Am now back from New Year festivities in Scotland (500 miles in just 7h10m today!) and will do another update for the weekend, so if anyone has any dates / events they want put in let me know. Aside from that, happy new year everyone! John

That's what I say. The car is there to be driven, and driven hard. But then I don't do concours :wink: and it shows at the shows

Ok here's a go 1) Best thread was the one we used to hook up with everyone in Scotland when we did the big group trip this summer. 2) Best show I went to this year was Stoner Park. It was a great show this year, even by Stoner's high standards, and the weather was terrific. 3) ok I'm going to start with coullstar's VR6 turbo. What an absolute monster. Really well looked after, noisy and quick as hell, and the red paint is as red and unfaded as the day it left the factory. Graham is a great bloke too. Second I'm going for lilfuzzer's VR6. I just loved those banded steel wheels, and I know I'm not the only fan on here. And finally I have to say how nice it was to see OSV's satin VR6 again at Stanford Hall. He was parked next to my car most of the day, was great to see it back in safe hands again. No matter how long I look at that car I cannot find a fault with it. 4) Supplier : My vote goes to Venom Motorsport, who still offer a decent range of Corrado aftermarket bits. Some of it is on sale at the moment so get in there. Roll on 2011 :D John p.s. anyone reading this who was one of the 6 Corrados that I managed to catch and lap in just 6 laps at Castle Combe back in July really should give my car a vote. Not to mention the owners of the two VR6 turbos who couldn't catch me despite starting right behind me as we left the paddock, haha.

Buy the 263s instead of the 268s. Unless you want to go really mental in which case I have a set of 284 race cams here with only 1500 miles on them. They are properly mental if you want something a bit different to the normal VR6 route, but you will need solid lifters to run them. £100 + postage and you can have them. They are great cams but I don't need them. [/blatant rent seeking] John

That's not very nice! Presume you meant "lucky" + what you wrote?

I sort of enjoyed it. They've already done every good gag available on a road trip story but at least they've stopped trying so hard on this one. Was interesting to see the three cars together. Before I watched it the GT3 would have been my third choice out of the three cars but the SLS seemed almost too powerful and tail happy, although I love the noise of that AMG engine the best. Better to acquire an original SL perhaps and have the real thing. The Ferrari was, for me a bit of a disappointment. There's just too much of everything. Too many buttons, too many settings, too many computers. It's just trying too hard. Too Playstation... Against that the simplicity, performance, and raw experience that the GT3 offers seems quite attractive, even without a sat-nav. As Hammond pointed out, it's also a helluva lot less money, which is an important point even at this price level.

I have a friend with a supercharged 4Motion. It's one of the best sleepers I can think of, and it does 165mph. But to the original point I'm not sure if you can compare a 4Motion with an S3 from the same period. They are such different cars in so many ways. Just because they both have Haldex doesn't mean they are similar at all. But my money would be on the Golf in terms of market cost, plus I like understated cars and the 4Motion is definately that.

Blimey the Covini is back again. This car has been in various stages of development for at least 15 years, but now they've given up trying to give it a 16 cylinder in house engine and put an Audi V8 in it the thing may have a chance finally. Personally I really like the novelty of the 6 wheel design. Given where the engine is they should have put the extra wheels at the back, but that would look naff. Hopefully they'll sell some this time around. Hopefully someone will give one to Top Gear. The dynamics should be interesting. Remember that back in the 1970s the Tyrrell P34 was actually a fairly successful racing car amongst the Cosworth dominated teams so there is presumably some kind of performance potential there. Will watch this with interest.

That really is a quality clip. What's kinda funny is that the person who filmed it realised early enough to get the camera out, seemingly in the sure fire knowledge of what was going to ensue. And don't forget, the video is admissable to the insurance company as well. What a total klutz.

My wish for the future :

It's a subjective thing, a list, but since you ask : BMW E39 M5 Plymouth Barracuda Hemi Audi Quattro 20v

It's not a silly idea. That is exactly the principle that all the Toyota hybrids use (Prius, RX450). The technology is good enough to massively improve the mpg, although (for small cars) the VW Blumotion cars are very close in terms of economy now, and they don't need the technology (or weight) of batteries. Full on electric cars will never take over transportation. For one thing there isn't enough lithium available in the world market to meet demand (and there's a huge international politic going on as producer countries try to control & limit supply). The future frankly will be with hydrogen cell cars, but that will take a while because hydrogen - being the most abundant element in the universe - won't be able to be controlled by Governments and petrol companies commercially in the way that petrol is. No matter that it's 100% emission clean; there are too many people who need to make money to make it happen as quickly as we need it to.