Krazee 0 Posted February 2, 2012 Hello All! It has been six years since I was last posting on this board. Long time...I still have my Corrado, though it has been in various states of disrepair and assembly over the course of the last five years. Ironically enough, it has also been in different States, here in the US. With the project finally drawing to a close, I decided to try something new. Instead of your common build thread, with hundreds of posts spread out over such a long period of time, and the inevitable banter that takes place as we all eagerly await the next update, I chose to blog about the direction of my project. I have gone through what modifications I chose anew, and why I elected to remove past mods. I thoroughly explore my entire thought process, as best I can, so we can all see the insight that goes into our projects. Rarely do we as enthusiasts chronicle our trials and tribulations, so I thought it a unique idea. I began a thread at the beginning of this year - here - but it just wouldn't be fair to only let them have all the fun. Feel free to follow along on Vortex or here, as I plan to update this thread just as frequently with the latest blog and progress updates. Enjoy! Corrado RS Blog Corrado RS Facebook page Latest pictures on Flickr ---------- Post added at 11:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:32 PM ---------- Corrado RS, Introduction The best cars in the world are not your generic grocery getters. They aren't the Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys that run forever with barely an oil change, rarely (if ever) leaving you stranded, and lulling you to sleep on the highway. No, the best cars in the world are the ones that slap cartoonish grins on your face. They are so raw and unapologetic about their purpose that they make you bow before their race-like suspension and impractical interiors. Their sole purpose is to make driving fun... Continue reading here. ---------- Post added at 11:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 PM ---------- Corrado RS, Chapter 1 - The Vision Takes Shape Driving like a banshee is great. It's fun, it's exhilarating, it's therapeutic, it gets your senses working overtime. Channel your anger through the steering wheel of your “RS” car, and the combination of burnt fuel, crackling exhaust, and melting rubber combine to calm you better than any scented candle on the market. But it's all for naught if you begin to sweat profusely at the first sign of traffic because you binned A/C in search of a modicum of extra power. It's all for naught if you lose your two front teeth on the first road imperfection, or worse, toast your oil pan because the car's suspension is too low. Was five minutes of motoring bliss worth all those exceptions? NO. Continue reading here ---------- Post added at 11:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 PM ---------- Corrado RS, Chapter 2 - The Heart As with any great car, the engine is of the utmost importance. Sure, the suspension can be godlike and the car can handle phenomenally, but at the end of the day a capable chassis needs an equally capable engine. In its heyday, the 12v VR6 engine received multiple awards from the automotive press based on its compact packaging – with its staggered piston placement, the engine allowed for V6 performance within the footprint of a common 4 cylinder. From a VW enthusiast's perspective, before the advent of VW's highly popular and highly tunable 1.8T and 2.0T motors, the VR6 was pure motoring bliss.... Continue reading here ---------- Post added at 11:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 PM ---------- Corrado RS, Chapter 3 - Suspension, Part 1 Chassis and suspension tuning are subjectively objective. Every production vehicle is tuned with a goal in mind, be it highway cruising, back-road bombing, or city russian roulette. Some manufacturers try to blur the lines in one direction or another, but the generalization is hard to skirt: Aim for sublime handling on the back roads and the car might bounce around a bit too much on the highway or knock your teeth out in the city. High-end cars have managed to deal with this accepted norm very well – electronically charged dampers have driver-controlled presets to deal with everything from a pot-hole riddled New York City to a glass-smooth Mid-Western highway. But much of that tech is sparse in the aftermarket... Continue reading here ---------- Post added at 11:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 PM ---------- Corrado RS, Chapter 3 - Suspension Part 2 The everyday driving aspects for the RS will not change much, though I might not cover as many miles. The major change will be more competitive driving – SCCA autocross, High Performance Driving Events, random track days, and, with some hope, Time Attack. If Sport Compact Car was still in print, I'd throw Corrado RS into the ring for The Ultimate Street Car Challenge. The goal is to drive to the events, swap brake pads, compete, and drive home. There will also be the odd Volkswagen show or automotive gathering thrown in. The first requirement was a weld-in roll-bar. In Stage 2 of the Corrado's progression, I had purchased an Autopower bolt-in street bar but sold it after only test fitting it. Admittedly this was largely for cosmetic reasons; while it would have increased the stiffness of the chassis, I would have had to make some modifications to my rear interior panels that I wasn't ready to make. Secondly, the mounting location for the main hoop of the Autopower bar is not ideal for the Corrado. Since the bar is bolt-in, some concessions are made in its design... Continue reading here Album ---------- Post added at 11:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 PM ---------- Corrado RS, Side Bar: An Ode To Quality The hardest part of any project car is parts selection. – Quality parts are hard to come by. When I first started out with my Corrado, back in 2002, I relied heavily on the existing knowledge of Volkswagen veterans, scouring online forums and reading old magazines separating quality from crap. I began to process Physics 101, (despite not passing in three through College) reading The Way Things Work for the first time since I was five, and amassing some 10,000 posts on one of the largest automotive internet forums, learning from other people's mistakes. Along the way I made some misguided purchases as the direction of the project evolved, but I made it a point to focus on quality products. The problem with long running projects, however, is when you see the light at the end of the tunnel. No matter how far away it still might be, your judgement starts to waver. The prospect of finishing your beloved project causes you to become borderline rabid, requiring ridiculous concentration to calm yourself. But in that brief moment, the effort to hasten progress causes you to falter. You chose a product at face value, assuming that the quality is there, lulled into a false sense of security by reputation and internet perception. When you realize your folly, the resulting anger bears no correlation to the size or cost of the part. The frustration building over the duration of the project is unleashed on an inanimate object in a rather unhealthy manner. In my case, seat brackets... Continue reading here More pictures here Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
