1989 VW Corrado
Discussion
A few of us needed to get stuck into a proper project, something outside of our day job where making off a few cable ends is about as dirty and manly as it gets.
The need to learn to weld and fabricate, beat, prep and paint as well as wire and map are strong. We're all petrolheads with a decent collective car history ranging from a Mini Cooper, Renault 5 GTT various Imprezas to air and water cooled N/A and super/turbocharged VW's. Current fleets include a MK1 Golf Gti, T25 Caravelle, Lupo Gti and e46 M3... One of them is also into 2-wheeled death machines of all vintages.
The first and last time I wielded a spanner in anger I stuck a 1.8l 20v turbo (AGU) in a mk2 Golf and had great fun doing it aside from skinned knuckles, sleepless nights and a broken nose. I learned a massive amount and managed to rebuild the car from a shell with only a Haynes and a few excellent forums like Club Gti, Edition38 and VWVortex for reference and support. With that experience being a good base to work from and all of us being VW fans we decided on a Corrado to scratch a collective itch.
The chap we bought it from was a good photographer, it's a real turd, been sat for a year and drives like crap apart from the engine which runs great! Perfect for a complete restoration anyway, no real choice in the matter!
Initial plans are for another 1.8t transplant. It practically drops straight in, will give everyone a chance to get up to speed on the mechanicals and puts the year of research I did in the past to good use, rebuilding and upgrading the brakes and suspension along the way. The plan is to enter it in this guise initially, to get a feel for amateur competition while we collect the parts and skills together for phase 2.... RWD.... All a bit of an unknown right now but there talk of going all 80's F1 with massive boost and a block per event, we'll see but it sounds good to me!
Thanks for looking, will try to document everything as we go.
The need to learn to weld and fabricate, beat, prep and paint as well as wire and map are strong. We're all petrolheads with a decent collective car history ranging from a Mini Cooper, Renault 5 GTT various Imprezas to air and water cooled N/A and super/turbocharged VW's. Current fleets include a MK1 Golf Gti, T25 Caravelle, Lupo Gti and e46 M3... One of them is also into 2-wheeled death machines of all vintages.
The first and last time I wielded a spanner in anger I stuck a 1.8l 20v turbo (AGU) in a mk2 Golf and had great fun doing it aside from skinned knuckles, sleepless nights and a broken nose. I learned a massive amount and managed to rebuild the car from a shell with only a Haynes and a few excellent forums like Club Gti, Edition38 and VWVortex for reference and support. With that experience being a good base to work from and all of us being VW fans we decided on a Corrado to scratch a collective itch.
The chap we bought it from was a good photographer, it's a real turd, been sat for a year and drives like crap apart from the engine which runs great! Perfect for a complete restoration anyway, no real choice in the matter!
Initial plans are for another 1.8t transplant. It practically drops straight in, will give everyone a chance to get up to speed on the mechanicals and puts the year of research I did in the past to good use, rebuilding and upgrading the brakes and suspension along the way. The plan is to enter it in this guise initially, to get a feel for amateur competition while we collect the parts and skills together for phase 2.... RWD.... All a bit of an unknown right now but there talk of going all 80's F1 with massive boost and a block per event, we'll see but it sounds good to me!
Thanks for looking, will try to document everything as we go.
joema said:
There's a couple of corrado threads on cgti. One is ginger nuts race car and the other is phatvr6's 4x4 r32 conversion. They may help!
I have a mk2 and a pile of bits including a 20vt engine too. I think I need your help!
Good luck with it
Rather shamefully, I haven't really been back to the forums since I finished the mk2, a good 5 years ago. Sold it shortly after to fund our wedding as the fun sort of wore off once the mechanicals were complete, didn't even have rear seats or door cards and going everywhere in a heat haze of whooshing and banging grew a bit tiresome. Besides, the look on my wife-to-be's face the first time I picked her up said it all...I have a mk2 and a pile of bits including a 20vt engine too. I think I need your help!
Good luck with it
I'm sure you'll be fine, there's so much info out there, just go to Quantum Performance Engineering for the clever bits, there's an excellent guide on their site too, all my build pics are on the same photobucket album which might help
4WD is tempting and easier in a way with so many options for floorpans and OEM parts but we're wanting to do something a bit Swedish and mental, not necessarily the quickest up the hill but something that makes us laugh like girls every time it goes and makes a lot of fuss about it!
This was the Golf as I bought it, with zero experience...
Turned it into this from browsing (lurking in!) forums and an ECU (slightly tweaked) and loom from QPE. It was an AGU with a k03s and some choice other bits, saw well over 200bhp. Great fun!
Eta: it wasn't a single wiper conversion I just hadn't shortened the other to fit aero blades yet.
This is my favourite one.
Anyway, the Corrado...! ;p
Turned it into this from browsing (lurking in!) forums and an ECU (slightly tweaked) and loom from QPE. It was an AGU with a k03s and some choice other bits, saw well over 200bhp. Great fun!
Eta: it wasn't a single wiper conversion I just hadn't shortened the other to fit aero blades yet.
This is my favourite one.
Anyway, the Corrado...! ;p
I'm a VW man myself, my highly modified mk2 golf was sadly written off by a stolen car.
But the shape of the corrado is classic.
Qpeng is a good choice, but why not go OE. There's a chap on cgti that now does plug and play looms. Utilizing all OE software. Better reliable power.
But the shape of the corrado is classic.
Qpeng is a good choice, but why not go OE. There's a chap on cgti that now does plug and play looms. Utilizing all OE software. Better reliable power.
Edited by paultownsend on Sunday 23 February 11:19
paultownsend said:
I'm a VW nan myself, my highly modified mk2 golf was sadly written off by a stolen car.
But the shape of the corrado is classic.
Qpeng is a good choice, but why not go OE. There's a chap on cgti that now does plug and play looms. Utilizing all OE software. Better reliable power.
Sorry to hear that, it's amazing how attached you get to them, I'm currently trying to stop myself doing the necessary man maths to buy my old one back!But the shape of the corrado is classic.
Qpeng is a good choice, but why not go OE. There's a chap on cgti that now does plug and play looms. Utilizing all OE software. Better reliable power.
Qpeng is a known quantity to me I guess and the 2nd hand setup I had was really well developed via one of their friends. Since the first fire up it didn't fail on a single occasion, scorching heat to snow, the most reliable car I've ever owned!
Love the corrado shape and looking to go as OE looking on the outside as possible, OEM+ I think the cool kids call it
paultownsend said:
To be fair, you only really hear the negatives on forums. I'm sure MBE is utterly reliable, i just wouldn't have a clue when it comes to mapping and tweaking. does it give the opportunity to run without a MAF?
I ran OE management, in my mk2 digi. It was plug and play-
The hardest part for me was separating the wheat from the chaff... It's all really straight forward when you break it down, mostly thanks to VAG's extensive sharing of parts, ETKA and my inability to sleep without understanding the fundamentals.I ran OE management, in my mk2 digi. It was plug and play-
Mine ran on a MAP sensor, MAF just seems like a right royal pain in the ass when all it really needs to know is the pressure in the intake manifold (assuming economy is well off the radar I guess!).
Scorching heat, rain, snow... Never missed a beat in 18 months of incessant kicking. Quite something considering my complete lack of experience!
Really, we should go Megasquirt from day 1 to get a handle on the programming / mapping. We'll cross that bridge once the mechanicals are done.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff