Fine wine, Belgian chocs.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with French motors. They're no more unreliable than anything else I've ran. No extra rattles or squeaks. They don't rust any more than anything else and bits don't drop off. In fact I can say that in all honesty the least reliable cars I've ran have been German. Don't believe the hype.

I put Mahle pistons in mine when I did it. They were perfect quality as far as I could tell and looked exactly the same as the OE pistons I took out. I know Mahle used to make OE Beetle pistons back in the day so I could believe they made the originals in a VR6. (I bought mine from German Amazon at a right bargain price as I recall but that was a few years ago).

I bought one of the Chinese ones a few years back. It looked fine and worked fine (but it didn't solve the problem I had so I flogged it on and put the original back on after a couple of weeks).

Still here. She's going for a set of new tyres tomorrow followed by an MOT. The tyres are in a dreadful state. Not completely bald but cracked like crazy paving all over and they're only 13 years old (!) I'm going for Pirelli Zero Neros. I'll report back in 13 years and tell you if they're better than Continental Sport Contacts.

http://www.nme.com/news/happy-mondays/3235

I'm pretty sure that Shaun Ryders Corrado got nicked and used in an armed robbery.

When I stripped mine down I found the original clutch was a Sachs so I bought another Sachs. I didn't pay dealer prices I just bought a Sachs one on line from somewhere or other. Fitted fine, works fine. No judder, no slip, not particularly heavy or light.

I used a normal old o-ring on mine out of a set of hundreds of various o-rings I bought cheap from somewhere or other. That was a couple of years ago and I've never had a drip from it.

Is this definitely from the nearside (passenger side)? In the first pic it looks like an offside (driver side). I could do with the carrier for an offside fog lamp.

http://the-corrado.net/showthread.php?93392-Corrado-models-a-couple-of-other-bits-for-sale Looks like this pair of bars are still for sale. Should be able to buy a rack to fit on them?

That's looking absolutely magnificent. Proper quality paintwork like this really gets me going. I've tried and tried and tried to paint and can never get anything like this sort of finish. It's a real talent and disappointingly rare to find.

I can lend you a manual, a bag of spanners and a hammer? ;)

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? I've had this for over thirteen years now and can't see me ever getting rid of it. It's been an interesting couple of years since my last update and I'm pleased to say that I've used it more over the last couple of summers than I have done in the previous seven years. I changed jobs early last year and now, thankfully, I do without a company car (absolutely despised the BMW 1-series with a passion anyway) so over the summer I now alternate the Corrado and the 2cv as my daily driver and I'm loving it. In May last year (2014) I had a smashing day out at Rockingham as I'd somehow managed to blag my way onto a photoshoot for Practical Classics... ..the subject was 90s coupes... ...and we all got a go on the track in the rain... ...this was taken at about 30mph while the photographer hung out the back of an old 5-series estate... The article was in print later in the year... ...and although there were a few inaccuracies in the article (24-valve head?) the guy who wrote it (veteran journalist John Simister) was a proper fan of the car and loved blasting it down the lanes surrounding Rockingham with me in the passenger seat. And the verdict of the comparison? Quite right too. This year (2015) has been a bit more challenging and expensive. The old thing has always had a bit of an appetite for oil, and the coolant has needed topping up every few months but when I put it back on the road in March something was wrong. Sometimes when I put my foot down I got a lovely blast of blue smoke out of the back and one of the spark plugs kept oiling itself up every hundred miles or so. A compression test showed that one of the cylinders was down so I had to bite the bullet and get stuck in... Now, I've had engines apart before but nothing like this. I can rebuild a 2cv or Beetle engine no problem but this was something else. It seemed pointless to take the head off with the engine in the car as the clutch and timing chains would have to be done while I was at it so I whipped it out and took the head off. It was obvious what the problem was: I presume that the head gasket had been weeping very slightly and allowed some coolant into this bore which had sat there over the winter and corroded the cylinder wall which then damaged the oil control ring when it was started up. By the time I'd finished it's had a rebore (to 82.5mm), six new pistons, timing chains and tensioners, oil pump, water pump, every seal and gasket, new valves, valve guides, stem seals, very minor head skim, etc, etc. The only thing I didn't replace was the bottom end bearings as there was absolutely no wear at all down there. The block was acid dipped and painted in heat resistant light grey, the gearbox was cleaned up and painted Citroen 'Gris Nocturne' as I had plenty of that and I'm quite amused at painting my Corrado engine and box to match my 2cv. It was a pleasure to rebuild and I learned a lot along the way. Every single nut and bolt was torqued to spec according to the genuine VW manual I'd thankfully bought many years ago. I've done 17oo miles in it since then and (touch wood) it has been no trouble. It hasn't used a drop of coolant and the only oil loss was down to the only thing I neglected to torque to the correct spec - the sump plug. That could've been nasty! So we're all set to go for another 13 years with a bit of luck. She's going to get a bit of paintwork over the winter (just bumpers, spoiler, mirrors) and I've been looking into getting something done with the drab original upholstery but I suppose they'll be stories for next year (or whenever I get around to updating this again).

Beautiful.

Evening all. My rear VR6 badge is looking tatty as the chrome has worn off it. We've all seen the crazy prices on ebay for new genuine ones so when a cheapy option from China came up I thought I'd chance my arm and order one. Well it arrived yesterday and on the face of it I think it's alright: The edge of the chrome where it meets the black plastic is good: and it looks a good match for the original VW one that is currently fitted: Of course it remains to be seen how long the chrome will last and whether the adhesive will hold it in place for more than a day or two. Here's the ebay link at £5.89... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VR6-CHROME-Car-Rear-Sticker-for-VW-Golf-Passat-VR6-Car-Boot-Badge-Sticker-415-/271863626965?hash=item3f4c55bcd5:g:dZkAAOSwe-FU3IBR ...although I got one for a massive £1.04 inc postage from China as they put one on for auction and I got lucky!