dr_mat

kev, I'm not saying that VW are lying, just that it's not just about "creating downforce". The majority of it's action is related to "preventing lift".. The two can easily be thought of as opposite sides of the same coin, in practice, as the net effect is still the same. ;) And Henny, yeah, I've heard about the beetles and their stupid lift problems.. A mate had one, used to thrash the life out of it...

Henny is right.. kev, fact of the matter is that without the spoiler, a Corrado would have net lift at high speed, because of the shape of it (and all other cars). The spoiler is there to reduce lift, it's nowhere near large enough to actually generate downforce a-la F1 cars. It's called a spoiler cos it spoils the nice geometric air pattern at the rear of the car, which would otherwise form a nice wing-shaped profile, creating lift. F1 cars have wings that actually act on their own to generate force in a particular direction because of the air flow over them. Different game. Oh, and he's spot on about the whale tails on the Novas too...

They are genuine VAG, they even have the VW logo and part numbers embossed in all the right places. The big drawback is it's not sectioned, so you either have to cut+shut, or you have to drop the axle slightly to get room to manoeuvre.

It's a BMW 3 series, innit. RWD, front engine "wheel at each corner" like that? VW will never make a car like that. Too expensive for them now, they just don't *do* RWD any more.

From ECP? Yeah, I have no idea why they do that, but they seem to charge an EXTRA £150 + VAT for the priv of buying a VR6 exhaust from them. Funnily enough I'll bet they don't sell many when they're drastically over charging like that!!

I don't have the use of a driveway either, so you're not going to see me saying anything about that!! And I use the car everyday (except on the HUGE number of days it's off the bl**dy road). I'm sure most insurance companies wouldn't charge more for a S/S exhaust, but I'm also sure some might.

Good point - you probably do. Particularly as they are advertised for "improved performance"...

"Look better" is purely subjective, as is "sound better". Frankly I like the sound the OEM exhaust makes, and the tailpipe looks, um, like a tailpipe. As for the lifetime warranty - true, that's nice, but who's going to keep their car for 10 years? Not many people, and those that do will be keeping it in a garage where the exhaust won't rot anyway (or nothing like as quickly)! I think more people would go for OEM if they thought it was a bit cheaper. I mean, just a shade over £200 for a complete cat-back system made by VW!! Their own list price for the rear section is over £300!!

OEM is the best.. Quality of fit and finish are superb. :) Lasts 5-8 years.. And you can get the two rear boxes from GSF for £155 + VAT, absolute bargain! Front little box doesn't go very often, and when it does it's £67 from VW..

Tell me about it ... :( Still, we're getting there...

The beast is back... Don't need to say any more...

Coilpack VR6 Corrados certainly have the ability to adjust timing on a per-cylinder basis. So my take on what everyone's said is - tune the car for good fuel, then allow the ECU to retard the timing if it detects detonation under load from poor fuel. Not that I'm an expert, but I have heard both sides and think I understand.......

I know, but you can fit an "original" one by dropping the back axle down slightly. And since it seems to be the middle box that goes, you're left replacing both rear sections at the same time anyway. S'funny, but my copy of etka only details the all-in-one piece for VR6s. The separate ones don't seem to exist. My local dealer confirmed this a short while back. VW of course wanted £298 + VAT ...

German, Swedish and French. http://www.gsfcarparts.com They don't supply the small box directly behind the CAT (this rarely goes though), but the rest (the two main boxes) is £155 + VAT. Apparently it's a genuine VW piece, but as I say I'll see when I pick it up tonight...

It's quite possible we're all running slightly different mixes of Optimax and Ultimate - one person's "less responsive" could well be cos their local shell/bp gets a supply from a different refinery than another person's "more responsive". As someone posted a while back, the RON rating can remain high on a fuel, even if overall it's combustive properties are way down on what you might expect. For once the yanks got it right - their RON ratings are an average of the real RON and the PON figure, thereby showing more about the quality of the fuel.. I've had some optimax that was good, some that wasn't so good. I've only done a single tank of ultimate so far, and my impression has been good, but that could easily be a coincidence..

Yes, I should be having one fitted today... Will let you know how it goes if you're interested..

No point in getting a chip done unless all your engine sensors are working properly. You can't make an ECU that's running blind run any better...

One question Nick - how come your car doesn't have a million (or a billion) stone chips on the bonnet??!

I'm interested in downloading... Can burn my own CD, but I'd like to get an archive of TV clips if poss. Just out of curiosity, were there ever any TV commercials for the Corrado? Maybe in germany?

120 degrees is not unusual on a VR. There's nothing wrong with the cooling system on mine, and on the motorway it'll sit at 110-116 all day long. Absolutely no worries there, mate. I'll admit there's been varying info appear in a number of threads on here, but no-one's ever said modern oils can't cope with 115 degrees. If you sit at 130+ mph on an autobahn I'll guarantee the MFA will read higher than 120 degrees on any car, and lets face it, that's what the VR was designed to do...

As with most cars what you should find is that the more excursions above 3000 rpm you do, the more oil you use. My VR doesn't noticeably use oil if I drive it gently, but can use plenty when I'm, ahem, exercising it's muscles... :)

As usual I think there are scales of "gone-ness" with the dampers, just like everything else. There's a huge difference between unsafe and fine-but-not-good-enough, but that distinction comes down to personal preference. My preference is to have good, so I'll be replacing at some point soon...

Yeah true... Didn't look at other items, actually. I did notice that all his purchases were for Corsa bits though...!!

Hi all. I know that pretty much all of us late Corrado owners will have to replace a set of fog lights at some point in the car's lifetime. I also know we're all reluctant to pay the round about £70 to get new ones even from GPC... (I am.) The thing that worries me is that we're driving the market for "hooky" ones. None of us wants to wake up with ours stolen, but none of us are prepared to buy new ones! Consider the following item: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 2444144724 -- why would the cable be cut unless they've been nicked? Any self-respecting car breaker will trace the cable as far as the connecting plug and disconnect it cleanly. I could be wrong - maybe the guy selling these has a perfectly genuine reason, but you have to admit it looks suspicious to see such an easily removed part coming onto the market... Any thoughts? Matt.

Mine has the original VW ones on. They fail the bounce test at 115k... I'm saving my pennies....