dr_mat

5" in the door. Dash only houses tweeters by default. The old door pods had Nokia speakers in but the cones don't travel very far, which is presumably why they don't offer much in the way of bass extension. Don't know what the original rear speakers are I haven't looked yet.

The performance differential between them and non-electric cars is less pronounced from a rolling start, but it's still capable of producing well over 700bhp, likely around 800lbft at the wheels. There are different energy saving modes though, he might have been in "normal" instead of insane.. (limits to around 380kw output, or about 560bhp I think). Round corners they actually handle really really well. All the weight (2 tonne of it) is about at the height of the axles so the car is exceptionally stable, plus four wheel drive and it'll pull round corners like it doesn't care. Perhaps he had a cup of coffee in his lap... As for the environmentals of it.. it's great - assuming you only use green electricity to charge it. If you burn fossil fuels to charge it it's capable of consuming a vast amount of energy very quickly, and the effective mpg drops quickly. Physics says there's no cheap way to accelerate 2 tonnes that fast...

Yeah the front speaker pods are always going to sound a bit crappy and boomy without a decent structure behind them. Best I can hope for is a lack of rattles at the moment.. Really wish I had a garage at times like this..

So I got a pioneer.. works well, but have to say it's tight behind the dash. The new unit is about 12mm deeper due to a large heatsink and it's basically sitting wedged against the back. Works though. Unfortunately I now know for sure that both door speakers have gone (and it's not the wiring either..). So I stripped the doors down.. (never an end to the jobs on these cars..) will pick up some speakers in the next few days hopefully and finish the job.

Haha, young one then! Mine was made May 95, but not registered till Jan 96...

Sad to say it's made up, of course. http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/wd40ad.asp

Not just the speedo, the more rolling radius you add the slower the car will be. The car will be slower just from increasing the size of the wheels on its own without any additional help.

Does look superb in a studio environment. But twenty five K? Not a good investment any more.

Bizarre how it's 2016, and they keep talking about turning off FM radio inside the next year or two, and yet DAB is still an optional extra for another twenty quid.. (and probably needs an extra aerial to boot).. I like the pioneer ones. Look a bit less like an explosion in a Chinese LED factory.

Did you ever do the Corrado badge itself?

Wonder if they can do that for wings and sills.. :)

Epic devotion to buying a car!

Correct, light steering is not a failing rack, generally. Clunking on full lock while stationary is more likely to be ball joints, top mounts or track rod ends (which could also make the steering feel really bad, particularly you would experience weaving under braking or acceleration), and clunking on lock while rolling e.g. while parking would point to CV joints instead. The racks themselves are extremely reliable and as long as there's no excessive play and the PAS is even both left and right chances are there's nothing wrong with it. Fwiw a lot of modern cars have reduced PAS assistance now in an effort to make up for the total lack of feel from an electric power steering rack. In fact the Corrado's hydraulic power steering is superb by comparison but can feel a little light. This is partly because the gearing is so slow, requiring nearly a full additional turn to get from lock to lock, but also note that with an electric PAS car the steering wheel sits absolutely still where you left it and it feels like you have to overcome friction to turn the wheel at all. This gives you stable, steady driving and feels "heavy" when in fact it's not. The high level of assistance only becomes apparent when you actually turn the wheel. The Corrado steering is friction-free so is very easy to turn initially, though the weighting of the assistance is not that high so if you are on lock while going round a corner at speed you will easily feel the weight of the car working against you and frankly when the car is stationary and you're turning the wheels to park it can be quite heavy compared to a modern electric PAS system. An old Mini has no PAS so is hardly a fair comparison and if it's a BMW mini it has electric PAS. (And a higher level of steering assist than the Corrado in fact. Though I have a vr6 and it's possible the g60's steering feels different.)

Slightly different topic where and how much is the cleanup and powder coating likely to cost?

Who isn't? Question is, are you prepared to pay the silly money people usually want for one? :)

Does it have to be working?

Pretty sure your username is wrong.. :)

Yep, really only the Corrado VR6 and Mk3 Golf GTi got the 205/50/15.

They will be hardly noticeably different, I doubt you will have issues. Yes the VR6 came with 205 for a bit of extra grip, but it also came with the plus suspension with a wider track and 5 stud hubs. I have found the choice of tyres in 205/50/15 diminishing rapidly but 295/50/15 is probably still relatively common.

Apart from them being more expensive..?

Wow now I heard it properly that's pretty bad.. Not your usual worn out bits.

Ok so with 205 45 16s it would be OK.

Certainly could be, but you would want to see if you can look at the measuring blocks for ignition timings and any error codes while you're driving along. Some codes, such as the crank sensor, will simply be overwritten when you stop the car so they won't show up unless you catch it in progress. BTW the fuelling map is fixed and does not use the MAF/Lambda sensor if you're on full throttle on the Corrado, so if the engine cleans up and starts responding normally on full throttle that would point to that. Also, do you have any modifications? But I've had similar symptoms with a blown head gasket actually. Sorry. .. check the oil and water for mixing and watch for the colour of the steam out the back.

The wheels do look good. I presume the wheels themselves are too wide, or is it the 225 width tyre that causes the issues?

Real pity I can't borrow that Tesla again ... would have to strap it down though, and I don't think Vince's rollers go up to 700..? :)