Got a new car....

[Purple Tom 0]

Hey,

 

As I no longer have a Corrado that's on the road I thought I'd write a quick thread about my new daily....some of you might appreciate it, some of you probably won't ;-)

 

After finishing the Corrado TDi build I thought I'd got exactly what I wanted - a frugal car that fulfilled my wishes in terms of looks, practicality etc. And I had. However, I took it off the road last October and got myself a project mk4 Golf TDi as a daily driver. Once the Golf was on the road I really enjoyed it - economical, practical, refined, comfortable and generally needing absolutely no work at all over the winter period. It did what I asked of it without fuss and I quite enjoyed not having to fiddle with it to be honest.

 

As spring approached I started to think about the modifications I wanted to do to the Corrado in terms of power. Turbos, remaps and injectors started swimming through my mind as I pondered on what to do. I took on another couple of small projects in February/March and the time to put the Corrado TDi back on the road fast approached. It sort of struck me that I didn't really WANT to do any work on it....I'd spent the last few years working on cars, rebuilding them, taking them apart, breaking them, fixing them, using them, fixing them, rebuilding them etc etc and I was getting a little fed up of it. When the offer of a new job (and career) came up I grabbed at it with both hands - the only thing being a fairly intensive 5 month training period with lots of extra curricular activity required.

 

That sort of sealed the deal for me really, I didn't want to be spending time modifying the Corrado and dealing with the inevitable teething problems that almost always arise when modifications for power are carried out when I had other things to be concentrating on. I pondered on keeping the Golf and putting the Corrado in the garage for a year, but the new job offer came after a four year wait (and lots of interviews/tests to pass) so I decided to reward myself....with this:

 

 

It's a 2004 330Cd (6 cylinder, turbo diesel, 204bhp 300lb/ft) and I got it for a very good price :-) I've wanted one, in that colour and spec, for quite a while, ever since I got the chance to drive one at work a couple of years ago. I love the refinement, the economy and that little shove in the back when you boot it. It's not as quick as a Corrado VR6, and it's not as involving to drive, but for the time being it suits my needs perfectly.

 

I think I'll keep it for a couple of years, by which time I'll hopefully be earning enough in my new job to afford a practical daily driver AND a decent Corrado. It'll probably be a VR6 too ;-)

 

Cheers

Tom

[easypops 8]

Very nice mate :)

[Butterfly 0]

Congratulations on the new job, especially after the years of working hard to make the change.

Enjoy the BM and see you back in a Corrado soon.

[Portent 0]

Well done on the job and the car looks great.

[Jim 1]

Are you sure with those specs it's not as quick as a VR mate..?

[24V Renshaw 0]

Power/torque to weight Jim.

 

Nice car btw.

 

Jay

[KADVR6 0]

nice cars those 330d, get it remapped mate and trust me you will love it even more, E MAPS which are very local to you do a very very good job on remapping those, and you havent got any swirl flaps to worry about either, there remap gives i think 245bhp and 500+lb, and then they are a quick car but with better economy also.

[PeteL 0]

Very nice, did you sell the C TDI?

[Purple Tom 0]

Thanks for the replies :-)

 

As said, its a heavy car so while it boasts better power and torque figures than a VR, its probably carrying an extra 300 (ish) kg which makes up for the slight drop in performance when you factor in it being RWD and the associated slight transmission losses over the increase in traction.

 

KADVR6 - I'm already looking at remaps but I've got a little bit to do on the drivetrain before I go any further. The giubo (common problem on the 330d) needs replacing and it's still on its original clutch and DMF so not sure how much life is left in that. I don't want to immediately go for more power without looking at other weak areas first. I'm also afraid to say that it does have swirl flaps although they're not quite as prone as the 320D - I'm going to remove them anyway and sort out the breather and EGR valve, inlet etc.

 

PeteL - Yeah, the TDI C has gone to it's new home down in Aylesbury - being used daily now and the new owner seems to be really enjoying it so job's a good'un :)

[KADVR6 0]

i thought ony the early 330d with 184bhp had swirl flaps, but the later ones did not??

 

karl

[Purple Tom 0]

Nope, 330D's going right up to 2007 had them fitted, although they're the later sized 32mm ones which BMW revised so the screws didn't fall out quite so easily. Still pretty paranoid about mine so I've ordered the blanking plugs anyway.

[OSV 0]

How are you getting along with the BMW?

[Laser Mark 0]

I think it's in the garage after the turbo blew.

But knowing Tom it's probably been fixed already.

[mjcp 0]

I've just changed to a Bm too... I had a 530d touring a few years back, chipped, it was fun to drive (for a very large car) but still got 33-37 mpg !

 

This one's a little less frugal!

 

Edited August 22, 2012 by mjcp

[VAG-hag 0]

I have a question: what is a swirl flap??

[OSV 0]

Its a flap in the intake to apparently restrict air flow at lower rpm to improve torque but it opens up as revs increase, the flaps and their screws can prove brittle and head south into the engine causing damage. Straightforward blanking kit solves problem with no real detriment.

[Tempest 0]

Ah, sounds like BMW haven't designed that properly :lol:

 

928 S4 and onwards use a flappy-valve (yes, that's the technical term), does the same thing, opens up second valve to let in more air from 4000 revs upwards. Problem there can be vac leaks hence valve not opening fully or not at all.

 

Hey, German cars :lol:

 

Tempest