Purple Tom's Corrado TDi - gone

[chubbybrown 0]

What a great writeup, I do enjoy coming back here and seeing the updates.

 

Its a tempting thing to try and do when the Valver gives up

[Purple Tom 0]

Thanks for the comments guys, I have to admit it is nice to be not worry too much about fuel costs anymore. Last weekend was the Corrado Club National Day so although I knew I was only going for a couple of hours I decided I'd spend literally all day (12 hours!) on Saturday doing a full clean, deeper than its ever had before! The arches have always done my head in, I hate having a shiny car on the outside with all dirt/crap on the underside. The arches have been totally ditched since last winter, when I used the car as my daily driver and it ended up in conditions like this...

 

 

 

So, I decided it deserved a proper wash. I took it to work where luckily I have access to some really good cleaning facilities, and got cracking. I also wanted to try out some new cleaning products that I'd bought, including some GTechniq trim treatment and some wheel wax which I should have used on the refurbed RC's when I first fitted them! Anyway, here's a few piccies of the progress:

 

 

 

There are some pictures of what the underside of the arches looked like somewhere a bit further back in this thread, but after a few hours of tar remover, degreaser, car shampoo and lots of elbow grease I was able to get them looking like this:

 

 

 

 

Once I'd done all of that I gave the bodywork a good clay treatment, a couple more washes, dried it and then put the wheels back on, reversed it into the garage, jacked it back up, took the wheels back off and got on with the polishing/waxing/sealing/trim stuff etc, I think it looks ok:

 

 

 

By the time I'd finished it was dark so I wasn't able to get any pictures of it finished but you all know what it looks like :lol:

 

I'm taking it to the Nurburgring at the start of September so the cruise control mod is definitely next. I also need to MOT it but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem :)

Edited July 29, 2011 by Purple Tom

[Supercharged 2]

Superb - great pics!

[davidwort 0]

looks like you drove it in and out of the garage shed on axle stands :lol:

nice pictures too though :)

[Purple Tom 0]

I did a nice little mod to the car on Saturday - fitted a shortshift. Daves16V very kindly modified the gear selector from the VR6 that I broke, basically moving the pivot point upwards by 15mm, reducing the throw of the stick. It's made a really noticeable difference to the experience of changing gear as you don't have to move the gearstick quite so far - lazy I know :lol: Here's a couple of pictures of the modified selector - modified on the right, standard on the left. It took about an hour to fit and I'm very pleased with it :)

 

 

[Purple Tom 0]

Did a couple more modifications yesterday. Since doing the conversion I've not been happy with the scuttle area; the ECU gets dripped on if the bonnet is opened when its wet, and the modification I had to do to the inner bulkhead is visible if you look closely. It's also a prime area for leaves to collect and as I live near lots of trees it inevitably means it fills with annoying little leaves/pine needles quite quickly!

 

I've been looking around for a solution for quite a while and I found a couple, notably the mk2 scuttle cover, however I wasn't keen on it because it didn't cover the full length. Then I was at a local meet and spotted on another Corrado a full length scuttle cover which looked quite nice. Turns out it was made by a company called SWG - I really liked it! A couple of phone calls later and I'd ordered one, they're made to order so it would take a few days. They come in black, in normal gloss gelcoat so when it arrived I decided to paint it satin black for a slightly OEM look. It arrived on Friday, I painted it on Saturday and got it fitted, have a look:

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty pleased with it, I think it finishes off that area quite nicely and just hides all the gubbins underneath - exactly what I wanted.

 

I also found time to do one other little useful mod - Passat B4 centre sunvisor :)

 

[Purple Tom 0]

I've done a few jobs on some cars, sold a few bits and earned a few extra pennies in the last week or so, so I decided to invest in something that I've never had on a car before - cruise control :) The TDi engine is DBW (drive-by-wire) with an electronically controlled injector pump and a variable potentiometer in the throttle pedal which basically means cruise control is a pretty straightforward fit. The plug is ready and waiting in the engine loom, so all that's required is the correct stalk and a wiring loom. A quick look on eBay revealed VW Teeside were selling some retrofit cruise control kits, so I bought one on Sunday. Pretty good service too, it was delivered to work this morning so I decided to fit it tonight:

 

 

Here's the original Corrado L/H stalk next to the retrofit C/C stalk. It's a genuine VW part and as you can see is totally identical to the non C/C stalk except for the obvious extra switch:

 

 

 

It's dead easy to retrofit, just a case of removing the lower dash trim, steering wheel and column trim, routing a bit of wiring and job's a good'un, all fitted:

 

 

 

A quick drive up to my mates house later, we activated C/C on VCDS which is a two minute job, tested the clutch and brake switches, both of which proved to be working properly, and I had fully working cruise! I'm hoping it will improve the economy even more on longer motorway journeys, I currently get about 63-65 mpg when cruising at 70-75 mph, but hopefully this will tweak a little bit more economy. Plus, it's nice to have another function to play with :-)

 

All in all about an hours work!

[Supercharged 2]

Nice!!

[davidwort 0]

Cool mod to have, but doesn't cruise tend to worsen economy? It seemed to do that when we fitted it to the 1.8T, perhaps because you lose fuel shutoff that you get when completely backing off the throttle. Does a diesel do that anyway???

[tim20vt 0]

great read and conversion,well done mate very impressive

[Purple Tom 0]

David - I don't know if the TDi does the total fuel shutdown when the throttle is closed...I'm going to guess that it does but I can find out for sure! However what it is is that at 70-75mph the car is doing 2300rpm ish which is right in the middle of the sweet spot of boost so its very easy to squeeze a tiny bit of throttle just to feel that surge of acceleration! Cruise will eliminate that hopefully :) I have found that my work cars (Merc E-Class 3.0 V6's) tend to return better economy on longer journeys when using cruise compared to when not using it, but it depends on the car I guess. The proof will be in the pudding!

 

Tim - thanks :)

[chubbybrown 0]

Well Done you!

 

Once you have cruise you cant do without it.

 

Great when the cops are up your hoop and your spot on the speed limit no more of that 28-32 in a 30 trying to hold it steady.

 

Mpg increases for me as My Lead foot refrains away from the throttle

[Purple Tom 0]

Not long back from a 5-day trip to the Nurburgring - absolutely loved it.

 

The Corrado behaved pretty much impeccably apart from a slight drone from a rear wheel bearing which got slightly louder by the time I got home. It hasn't used a drop of oil or coolant and overall I returned exactly 60mpg throughout the 1400 mile journey. That includes 2 hard laps of the Nordschleife :)

 

The cruise control was really useful on the European motorways, just set it at 110km/h and let it get on with it. I even managed a little snooze (kidding!).

 

I would have loved to have done more laps but unfortunately the Touristenfahrten was blighted by track closures throughout the weekend, and on the Sunday morning a British guy was thrown out of the back seat of a Clio when it crashed and he very sadly died which put a damper on the whole day to be honest. Decided to not do any more laps after that.

 

Managed to find a picture of the car on the track, negotiating the Mini-Karussel right near the end, hope you like:

 

Edited September 9, 2011 by Purple Tom

[Supercharged 2]

Great photo and good idea with the helmets...

 

Me and Jim we're in Germany also last week - big Scirocco meet and Karmann / Wolfsburg trips!

 

The Ring - was speaking to a German guy who said they still have on average at least one fatality a week - not a great record :-(

[wy906 0]

One of my favorite cars of the forum!

 

Hope to go to the ‘ring in the near future but in organized track day rather than Touristenfahrten.

[Jim 2]

Absolutely superb.... picture looks excellent. Glad you had a good time at the ring! How was the TDI on there? Did you notice the extra weight over the nose on the corners or was it well behaved?

[davidwort 0]

great picture, what wheels/suspension is it on now?, it looks spot on height and 'wheel-filling-arch' wise :)

[Leonard 0]

Hi mate

 

Glad you had a good trip and car performed well. Looks good on track!

 

Im amazed the ring is allowed to stay open. Was most exciting and terrifying place I have ever been. Two fatalities and a number of really bad accidents weekend I was there.

 

Good to have you back in one piece

 

Matt

[Big Adam 0]

Love the car and love the ring.

so easy to get it so wrong on the ring, similar story when i whent in terms of accidents!

will bve going again tho :)

[Purple Tom 0]

Thanks for the replies :)

 

Regarding the 'Ring, it certainly is an amazing place. I've been 6 times now and have done a little over 50 laps. I am by no means 'experienced', but I know the layout of the track and am pretty confident with the turn-in points and general characteristics of each corner. I'm also very aware of the changes in track temperature as the lap goes on (due to some of it being very much in the forested areas etc), but I'm nowhere near experienced enough to know where the grip changes through the corners etc so I tend to go out and just enjoy the TF for what it is - a chance to drive an awesome race track without worrying about speed limits. I think its very easy to get carried away, especially when you're inexperienced, and thats when trouble can happen. It is also very busy! My first few trips were in a Mini with a full roll cage and it would have been silly to have not worn a helmet in that car, I guess the habit has stuck with me.

 

Jim - the car behaved impeccably, apart from the slightly noisy wheel bearing. I didn't push it amazingly hard on the track, I think my quickest lap was 10.20 but I had the chance to enjoy some of the lovely roads around the track itself. The section between the Nordschleife entrance and Adenau is very good with a couple of tight hairpins; and while having a play with a VX220T (he was behind otherwise I wouldn't have stood a chance!) I found it to be very nicely balanced without wanting to wash wide at all, even in the tight corners under power.

 

David - its just -25mm on Eibach springs with standard shocks and has the same 16x7.5 ET35 BBS RC's that I had on it when you saw it at Stanford Hall. It does sit quite nicely and I'm pleased with the picture, I think I might purchase it!

 

Matt & Adam - Thanks - it can be a little intimidating but also amazingly good fun if you approach it with the right attitude. I love going and will keep going until either I can't afford it anymore or it gets closed for political reasons. Visit www.savethering.org for more info!!

Edited September 9, 2011 by Purple Tom

[til2143 0]

Hey Tom,

Ive read this whole thread twice and id like to complement you on a fantastic build, ive done a tdi corrado myself about 8 years ago with a 110 bhp asv engine from a seat ibiza so ive a good idea of all the work involved.

After reading a few threads on the tdi forum and then comming accross your build im itching to take on another one with the more factory like b4 passat as a donor. How is your one going for you? did you remap yet? heres a wee picture of mine

 

[Purple Tom 0]

Hey, yours looks great, any more pictures or information?

 

I haven't done any tuning work yet, unfortunately I've laid it up for the winter and haven't really done anything to it in that time, but once summer comes around I'm going to be doing the necessary work to increase the power. Looking forward to it too, its going to the 'Ring again in September :)

[til2143 0]

Ill get a few pics up soon, the ring is class, love to go back myself

[Purple Tom 0]

Just a bit of advance notice that I'm putting the TDi up for sale this coming week. Only because I fancy a bit of a change and for me the pleasure is in building the car, not so much in just using it.

 

It makes a fantastic, distinctive, economical daily driver (55-60mpg all day long) and literally needs for nothing. Fully rebuilt and ready to go, as you can see from the build thread.

 

There'll be two options - either as it stands now with the fully refurbed 16" BBS RC's and heated black leather interior at one price (£4250), or with 16" Audi TT wheels and a mint condition cloth interior at a considerably lower price (£3250)

 

Need to get some pictures of both wheel combinations and I've also got a set of Jay's poly engine mounts to fit, doing that this week and then it'll be ready to go :-)

 

Thought I'd give you guys a bit of a heads-up in case anyone's interested before it goes on Pistonheads/the other forums etc.

 

Cheers

Tom

[James. 9]

I want this in my life. Saw it at Harewood last year and the finish is electrifying. Wonder how long I could keep up the pretense to wifey that the 8V and this are actually one and the same.

 

Best of luck with the sale all the same. James