Tempest

Now imagine I've SORNed all my 3 Karmann coupes :-( Oh well, another 5 months and I'll retax them again. I hate winters! :-) Tempest

It all depends on what you expect from a car. I'm in the fortunate position to not need a car for daily use, hence I tend to view a car more as a pure pleasure object, which I use only on sunny weekends during summer. That way you also avoid all the idiots clogging up the roads during weekdays, and certainly get more fun out of driving. During work I do have to spend a lot of time in traffic jams in the company van, so know what it's like to deal with the everyday situation, and yes, it drives me insane sometimes. First off, get those b*stard lorries with their useless wares off the roads and back onto the rails again. Read in the ADAC mag that the German minister for traffic and all will stick to the German lorry ban on Sundays and holidays. Reason? Sundays and hols are meant for families to go out on trips. Too right, those are also the days to take out the Roccos and Rado, so I, too, don't want lorries on those days :-) Tempest

Ohhh, well, if I didn't have my Mk1 Rocco as a toycar yet, then I'd seriously consider Lance's (from Trimsport) Mk1 G60, very nice car, have seen it several times at shows this year, and of course enormous fun to drive. BUT: A Mk1 Rocco for me would just be too valuable for the daily drive, I wouldn't want to put that many miles on a Mk1, especially not as their value is bound to go up and up over the next few years. Plus for the daily drive i'd honestly want something more boring, erm, comfortable. Mk1s are pure fun cars for me, fun on the weekends, emptier roads than on weekdays, and you'll love a Mk1 Rocco, also gets more looks on weekends compared to weekdays, when all the stressed out suits are clogging up the roads (yes, I hate them :lol:). That narrows it down to the other 3. Personally I'd take the Goof, as it sounds the most reliable of the 3, even though my heart would go for the VR6 Rado. Comfort-wise I'd expect them to be almost equal, and it's comfort that I'd be after for the daily bash. Tempest

See my website below :-) Tempest

Not what I meant. I thought you were stuck as to how to feed power to the ECU, i.e. which pins to use etc., given what you'd written above (2 plugs found with 4/5 wires, but only 2 id'ed using the Bentley - not sure which plugs you mean, as don't have the new loom here :lol:). That's why I thought it might be an idea to ring the pins through on the new loom to find out which ones go to which of the 25 pins on the ECU connector. You only need 14 and 23 to power the ECU. :-) Tempest

Ring all connectors through and see which ones match which pin in the 25-pin ECU connector: 1. ignition start position signal 2. Lambda-sensor 3. fuel pump relay 4. knock sensor (pin 1) 5. CO-pot 6. GND (also GND for idle switch, FT-switch, Hall Generator on dizzy, CO-pot, blue temp sender) 7. knock sensor (pin 2,3) 8. Hall generator (pin 3, on dizzy) 9. air inlet temp sender (CO-pot pin 2) 10. blue temp sensor (pin 1) 11. idle switch 12. fuel injector rail 13. GND (straight to batt '-'-terminal) 14. ECU relay (power supply, pin 6/87) and ISV pin 3 15. full throttle switch 16. A/C thermostat (not connected on yours ;-) ) 17. n/c 18. Hall generator (pin 2) 19. GND (to engine/manifold) 20. 21. n/c 22. ISV (pin 1) 23. ECU relay (pin 5/86) 24. 25. ignition coil (pin 1, green) HTH, Tempest

There was an interesting review on these in the last (ever) issue of VWM magazine. Will have to dig that out, once home. Tempest

It's a Goof, 'nuff said :lol: Plus, 30 years anniversary? Maybe in the UK, not in Germany, so yes, yawn :lol: Tempest

Can't say it does it for me either. Looks a wee bit like the Audi Shooting Brake concept car, the Iroc, the Joyster ... design cross-feeding within the VAG group. By 2009 that design probably will look dated, as the Iroc will come out 2008, the Joyster sometime around that time, too. Tempest

Why not just connect the loom temporarily to the ignition-on-power contact on the coil (forgot which number that is (Bentley at home, me at work). Should give it power for testing at least. Tempest

Eeewww, the usual secondary shaft hole. Probably a later G-Lader with a rubber seated eye, in which the secondary shaft is located. Those were meant to absorb any wobble in the shaft, but alas did give a few times, too, with the damage as shown in your piccie. As Supercharged said, make sure there is no debris in the boost pipes, intercooler, throttle-body, intake manifold. Best to fit a metal sieve in the boost pipe which prevents any future debris caused by charger explosions to get into the engine. It may cost you 5 bhp, though, as I found out on Vince's RR at Stealth. L&S Cartec are a reputable company over in Germany. Quite a few of my Germ,an G60 mates deal with that company. I would personally not buy a 2nd hand charger off ebay. 2nd hand yes, but as long as you know the previous owner well (like I did, when I bought mine to keep as a spare), which you often don't with bay sellers. Tempest

Good news :-) You can take me to the pub someday now, as I'm car-less for the next few months :-( :lol: Tempest

Don't like any VW standard alloys :-( Stretched tyres look cool IMHO, and as on my Mk1 I have slightly stretched tyres (195s on 8" alloys), I can't say I have noticed any degredation in handling, on the contrary due to its Sachs Racing coilies it handles like a dream :-) Yes, I too hope that these new regs won't apply to old cars. But looking at Germany, they do already apply all these rules to any car, irrespective of age. Which makes my German Rocco and Rado mates' lives such a darn misery, they're having to jump through millions of hoops just to get their Roccos/Rados the way they want them, i.e. personal, not like any other car (the basic idea of tuning is still personalisation). I would agree that it's a good thing to get rid of the ASBO-cars, though :lol: Better to get rid of the ASBOs altogether (deport them to China or something :lol:). The argument that there's too much money in the modding industry doesn't count either, as there's more money still in the automotive sector selling brandnew cars, especially in a car-manufacturing country like Germany (and looking at the list of contributors to that EU document, it's mainly the German MOT-organisations, who in the meantime have also started to make serious amounts of money with approving alloys/coilies/etc. for the big car manufacturers, so don't really care about the small tuning/modding company sector which is by comparison relatively small). So we're being forced to adopt the painful German procedures in the long run. Wouldn't be surprised if we then also have to adopt German emission laws, whereby you roadtax is based on what type of CAT you're running, irrespectively of the age of the car (unlike in this country, where we still operate a fairly fair system), i.e. if your car was built in say 1978, has no CAT, then you automatically pay approximately 450 Euros extra roadtax per annum in Germany, as your car is considered environmentally unfriendly (any excuse for the government to rake in the dosh from the motorist). Tempest

Well done, I know the feeling as about 2 years ago, it took me some time to get a funny judder problem on my G60 sorted (always juddered at 2500 and 3000 revs); turned out the previous owner had had the timing set to 6° after TDC !!! Tempest

Like the Sciwago, a very interesting Mk1 Rocco estate, they don't do it for me, unfortunately. Having said that, using one of these puppies for work instead of the horrid 55 bhp Escort van will go down a treat, I say :-) Tempest

Get both :lol: Tempest

I keep on saying this: A large part of the problem are those f*cking parents (mainly mothers) who insist on driving their lazy offspring the 1 mile trip to school every morning, and clog up the roads. I noticed this again this morning, how a whole queue of nothing but female drivers with kids in the back of their cars ranging from bangers to the biggest and ugliest 4x4s(!!!, why????) were waiting at a junction to turn into a road with a school on it. And no, i don't drive to work, never did, as it would do my head in each morning. I walk or would cycle (armed with a baseball bat to hit anyone threatening me). Why can't kids walk anymore these days like I had to in my days? If Tony Blair is so seriously concerned about CO2 emissions and the environment he should ban this, seriously! Notice how empty the roads are during half-term breaks! Then work out how much less CO2 emissions we would have, if kids walked to school again. Tempest

Yes, back in 1993-1995 in a place called Hohenroda in Germany, there were still loads of tasty, very tasty Mk1 Roccos attending the now infamous annual Hohenroda meet. Have a look here and enjoy/drool: http://www.typ53.com/d740.htm then click on either Bilder 1 or Bilder 2. The event got shut down as back then Rocco-drivers still tended to cause a wee bit of mayhem occasionally :lol:, and the site management weren't too impressed with burn-out antics etc. Shame, as it was very much a cult Rocco gathering. Shame, too, that I never got to go and experience it firsthand. Tempest

Quite right, but using a Rocco during winter with all its nastiness such as gritters, rain, cold, traffic jams etc. is what I call abuse compared to nice sunny Sunday driving along almost empty motorways, country roads with no stupid commuters and other crap road users on the roads :-) Any car other than a Karmann type 53 is perfect for the former, however :-) Being in Cornwall, however, I'll let you off, as you probably don't suffer from the severe traffic that a nbig city like Coventry suffers from (well, more its inhabitants and useless commuters) :lol: Tempest

Abusing Roccos as daily bangers, :roll: ... There are not many good ones left :cry: Jim, you could always go for a Micra Tempest :lol: Tempest

Yup, that's what I was looking for on the Trader today, a cheap banger, because that's what's good enough for boring things like grocery shopping and the daily commute (hence the term in the British language of "commuter car", a totally different breed of cars, dull and drab as most workplaces :lol:). Tempest

Zoran's website has a good little calculator to show at what rpm the Lader would be rotating using various pulley sizes and entering what engine rpm you envisage on doing. Bear in mind that the Lader doesn't like speeds of above 12000 rpm (due to things like permissable m/s-speed for the apex seals). The multiplier of Lader-speed to engine speed is 1.66 (1.7 for later G60s)! http://www.corrado.info/ Tempest

Fortunately I can do just that, as a) it's the best way to get to work (alternative is crawling through morning traffic jams in Coventry, not good for my nerves, my engines - they don't even reach operating temperatures, as the distance to work is so short - and my wallet), as I do so every day anyway, only during school hols will I occasionally, if the weather's OK, treat myself to a spin to work in one of my toys. b) living in a larger city I have pretty much everything within reasonable walking distance (was used to that as a student anyway) c) still have the company shed, erm, 55 bhp Escort delivery monster van to fall back onto, should I need it :lol: I did catch myself briefly visiting the Autotrader site today, however :oops: Tempest

... now that I have SORNed all my 3 Karmann coupes (only 3 cars I have). I did have a rather nice and long last drive this season in my C last night, so that should last a few hours :lol: What will the withdrawal symptoms be like? Let the winter begin, and pass by quickly ... Tempest

Has anyone ever tried one of these "fuel stabiliser and preservative" liquids? With my Roccos you' re not meant to empty the tank during storage, as being a metal tank, it would rust :-( This year I was toying with the idea of chucking some of this magic potion into my tanks. Not if you rest the tailgate on a block of wood, so as to only have a small gap between the tailgate and boot edge (that's enough for air circulation), then cover the C with a cotton sheet or car cover, and the neighbours should leave the C alone. Tempest