VW Corrado VR6

[_Mja_]

I've had this car nearly 5 years. A true love-hate relationship for sure. I bought at a point where it was MOTd and running but needed some love to bring it back but iin its favour it had full service history for 25 years and low owners so I took the leap.

During my ownership it has had a windows out respray and a Stealth Racing (Corrado VR6 gods) mechanical refurbishment to inlcude chains, clutch, top end refurb, 263 cams, cooling system refresh, all new bushes, new bearings, new suspension, exhaust, brakes (288 upgrade). I also sourced the 16inch speedlines from a warehouse in Italy. These wheels were produced on request of Corrado owners back in the early 2000s. It's also had an underbody refresh and re-protection.

The love elements of ownership are driving something different, the engine note, it's simplicity, that porsche like spoiler and it handles really well. The less glamourous elements are sourcing parts, having to pay crazy prices for 30 year old tat as most stuff is obsolete and actually after putting in lots of effort the Corrado is pretty niche and not a lot of people actually like it!

Yesterday I went out and took some pictures, actually as photos to sell it but probably won't such is the rollercoaster of emotions owning and restoring a car but thought I'd start a thread and share as it was nice scienic spot

[_Mja_]

Thanks chaps That has picked me up as have hit a low spot with it. I fancy a mk4 R32 at the moment but perhaps will sell something else. I am restoring a mk2 16v 3 door in oak green and also have done the mechanical restore of a mk3 16v 3 door in red with edition recaros from europe but needs paint on the roof and bonnet due to lacquer peel (body kit was removed and rust cut out). The golfs are far easier to restore and get parts.

Yeah they were built by Karmann, handbuilt with some robotics. Some nice touches such as each Corrado has it's paint code handwritten on the transmission tunnel under gear/central plastics.

The actual components on the Corrado VR6 are all mk3 golf - axle, subframe very similar and only differs at rear mount points. All bushes have the same part numbers too. The mk3 had more "spongey" dampers from factory, less stiff shell and higher centre of gravity. The 4x100 Corrados (G60 / 16 v) are all mk2 golf.

Parts are the real hassle. I have spent countless hours sourcing stuff and lost lots of money on stuff that breaks soon after i.e. I bought a sunroof mech from a breaker and £250 and it broke a week later. My car now runs a mk3 mech and passat b4 glass roof, a more robust and cost effective solution.

I have become a hoarder of parts "just in case" just to make driving it less stressful. Headlights, fogs, indicators, wings are all obsolete and certainly with headlights an MOT fail if they crack.

There are some great people making parts VW won't in the community however - recently a chap remade the sunroof mechs and there is a guy that 3D printed the console gauge fascia so LHD oil/volt gauges can be fitted (I've got those to go in the car but it feels criminal to cut up a LHD gauge).

[_Mja_]

MDMA . said:

Very nice. I had a set of 263 cams in my VR6. Full stainless exhaust, sounded lovely.
Yours looks a clean one. Not many about now. Wouldn’t mind a silver one (at the right price).

Thanks! Yes they certainly made a difference to the midrange and upper end. I remember the car feeling a bit flat before install, but that might have been because it was tired elsewhere - the chains were stretched and the tensioner was battered.

I have a miltek non res exhaust on the car. It was mapped for the cams by Vince at Stealth and made 220hp & 212 ib ft of torque. Stock power is 190hb, not sure on the torque.

[_Mja_]

Cheers

Next steps I think are:

- Wheel alignment (eagle eyed may see the front wheel camber isn't quite right). I've just fitted new driveshafts as that was the only non new component up front. The car has done 155k, but is triggers broom.

- I think I would like to polish in the inlet manifold

- 90mm splitter to give it a bit more of an aggressive look from the front. The earlier cars had this from factory.


I like to try and keep the car looking broadly as VW intended but have, I hope, tastefully modified it:

16in Speedlines
263 Cams
Bilstein B8 sports shocks
H&R 30mm springs (had eibach prior but H&R are more complient and specific to the VR6).
Miltek exhaust
288 brakes (280 standard)
Vibra Technics front engine mount (controls the lateral movement more so)
R32/Leon Cupra R solid rubber rear wishbone bush (poly too stiff and factory too soft).

In terms of renovation stuff

-the paint, glass out and new windscreen. New metal welded in where needed.
-all bushes replaced with Lemforder rubber oem items
-new hard brakes lines and goodridge flexis
-caliper refurbished
-head and componenets refurbished, new head gasket
-all cooling components renewed
-new fuel pump (VDO, original spec)
-front and rear wheel bearings, driveshaftt, balls joints, inner and outer track rods and ARB bushes

[_Mja_]

ChocolateFrog said:

My gut feeling is that these are still yet to be fully appreciated.

Definitely a keeper if you have the space and don't need the cash.

By coincidence I'm just watching the CarSOS episode with the Corrado.

That would be nice, it is soul destroying spending out and being upside down on the car. Perhaps they need 5-8 years to mature. There are still, for a rare car, quite a lot of Corrados about. The classified is showing many for sale but who knows if they have had extensive work or whether it is yet to come. Cost of living crisis and post covid project is probably fuelling the numbers on the market.

I was thinking a mk4 r32 might be a nice alternative to this and easier to get parts for as needed. Perhaps I'll finish off my mk3 16v and save a bit of money and put that towards an r32 instead. The mk3 should do alright with investor type buyers as it is low miles - 78k and will be renovated. It's very similar to my mk2 16v but not as good in someways but easier to live with in other ways. I only have indoor space for 3, tandem sadly but can't complain!

[_Mja_]

That is true! I was about to reply on your thread on G60 thread. Good to hear your paint work is getting done and I can at least thank my lucky stars I did not have to deal with the aftermath of a break in.

Probably better to keep what I have "better the devil you know" and all that.

[_Mja_]

Just thought I would update with some pics of the "journey" from purchase to today

This was taken when I got it home on the first day



I remembered it had a slightly odd idle - vibration in the cabin - saw all the doom and gloom about timing chains and after replacing every sensor with Bosch or similar I decided to book in with Stealth....



.. good job really as the tensioner was battered!





Video on the rollers at stealth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_r3Mx1i2-E


The following year (2020) I decided I wanted it repainted. The car had suffered a bad blow over and there were masking lines around all the rubbers.



The wings did come off for paint also, just didn't get a picture





Bought the speedlines and put it back together



Although it had a nice cloth interior my friend was breaking a Corrado with leather so I bought that off of him to get the car where I wanted. I would love Recaros but far too pricey - c£3k -4k these days

[_Mja_]

MARLBOROLITES said:

Beautiful car OP...I see we hanker after the same next/additional car haha! I've heard lots of good things about Stealth. I'm tempted to instigate a mechanical refresh/rebuild. Just to futureproof her. Then afterwards get the exterior finish A1. I've budgeted for £1k for bodywork. No idea on mechanicals though..... Time for some homework.

Yes we do! Stealth are very good and not terrible on their hourly rate compared to other specialists. I have always found them very accomodating and noticed when I am there they are always helping people out with odd jobs other garages would not touch.

My chains and clutch was about a £grand, the head refurb was £450. I've had an indicative quote of what a bottom end build might cost, I don't need it but just so i know and it's just over 3 grand if I deliver the engine out of the car. Not terrible numbers for engine work by a specialist who has done thousands of them. I briefly had a Land Rover Discovery and saw engine rebuild prices could be up to £12k!

I've found bodywork to be the most expensive work, not sure what you need doing though.

[_Mja_]

Thank you all! Sometimes wish i bought a different colour as miss not having a metallic fleck but I do like white as well.

That video is great. I think i have exhausted every corrado you tube video going.

Couple of my favourites

"Wheelie cool videos" - mine sounds very similar to his but I have a stock airbox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNmnFeeB7uE

and "Langers VW" did a few videos on various cars as a review, has a Corrado himself for many years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAQ72mupWv8

... he also did one of the R32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnXCCqOUybo&t=...

Maybe I sell my mk3 16v and buy an R32 and keep corrado. I've got a mk2 16v so mk3 is just the same thing but a bit more modern. It should be an easier sell having the right sort of mileage for the average punter / investor (78k + big renovation of all bushes, suspension, powdercoat frames)

[_Mja_]

MARLBOROLITES said:

Those numbers are very reasonable, I'm tempted to book her in for the chains based on this. And it's so comforting knowing the car will get expert attention. With my bodywork I have dents to both rear wheel arches which will pull out, There's also small break outs of rust on each rear arch. Superficial and non-structural. There's a dent on the passenger door swage line which I'm told will pull out - I've seen worse damage successfully fixed with PDR. The paint is undamaged. The front bumper is showing multiple stone chips - touched in - but indicative of its age I guess. But undamaged. Other than this, there's just odd blemishes here and there. No welding or metal cutting required at all as she's in quite amazing original condition considering age and mileage. I've used as is for the last few years and she gets many admiring glances and easily passes the 2m inspection. But I crave A1 exterior....

Oh yes you'll definitely get it sorted for your budget on the body. This is the route i would go down going forward. Full resprays are costly and come with issues - water leaks, snagging, lost/broken trim.

Yeah definitely go to stealth. My mate has a lovely black corrado vr6 (with recoros, VWMS manifold etc) and before he bought his car the chains had been done by some random VW specialist. Anyway, it was burning oil so he took it to Vince and he found a couple of the valves were bent. Likely prior to the chains being done as the job sheet in his paperwork stated to investigate bad running. So long story short take the car to someone who can do it blind folded. The bill Vince charges is comparable to what a random garage would charge anyway its just the hassle of the trip if not local.

[_Mja_]

Cheers Tommie. You're right and that's the way I am heading in my head now - get mk3 gone, too similar to mk2 anyway. 2 old cars is enough for me, 3 stretches me too far on time and I only have indoor space for 2.

[_Mja_]

A few weeks ago I receieved a private message from an owner of another car bought from the same dealer, same company owner "TA Smith" 2 weeks after my car was purchased. I found it fascinating that my car and this car would have been parked next to each other in the company car park for the first four years of their life.

The Audi was a 2.6 model and looking very lovely.

[_Mja_]

Its Just Adz said:

Really nice! I bet it sounds great with the mods. Do the cams make much difference?

I had a 95 in Blackberry with full Miltek stainless and K&N cone filter, sounded great.

What are they worth now? I would hang onto it if I were you.

The cams are possibly the best modification I have done to the car. They have a lump of midrange torque, similar to what the VSR manifolds do. The remap also increased power so it feels a lot more "muscular" than when it was stock





Values wise they have risen but the cars are very niche and a hard sell. VR6s can be 6-7k for a project, 12k for a nice one with renovation history or 15k+ for something very restored with new engine build, nut and bolt etc

The trouble is though at those prices you're not far off say a 996 or a E46 m3 so even though values have risen they are an even harder sell. I believe their values are capped now at current prices and you may well get a bargain as people dump their covid projects in light of the cost of living crisis. Cars like this will die out as they are now at an age where extensive renovation will be needed, especially as they cross over 30 years and a good paint job is going to be £10k-12k with welding work, engine rebuild £5k+, running gear and bushes probably £2k, allow another £2k for parts plus the headache of sourcing stuff makes the renovation of a project car an enthusiast only venture and once you make your bed (like me) you really have to lie in it or be out of pocket.

Edit to add I know of a couple of big £££ renovations - one guy is estimating his spend on renovation to be £70k and another guy has spent £50k on his. There are others but I don't know the details. The £70k one was mostly body - had new 3/4s, new inner 3/4 panels etc etc.

[VeeReihenmotor6]

Not a great deal to update (aside from changed my username to something a bit more corrado related ) - passed it's MOT in october with no advisories. Hasn't had any since 2018 and after all the work done i would be pretty miffed to see any on the sheet.

I fitted new rear brake calipers and carriers to match the refurbished 288s up front.

The cars are currently outside as I am in the middle of extending my timber garage to make more room and build an insulated home office to rear.



The mk2 is awaiting works. Mostly tidy but will be stripping it back to a shell and rebuilding. It does need some welding in areas. It is a 16v but with an abf block under the original kjet fuelling.

Next year the Corrado will need to go back to a bodyshop to rectify some areas I have been unhappy with since the respray. One of those things that most people would not notice but they annoy the hell out of me.

Edited by VeeReihenmotor6 on Tuesday 29th November 11:58

[VeeReihenmotor6]

And bringing this thread to a close. I've put the Corrado up for sale via Classix auction near Lincoln. The car was bought and lived the first 18 years of it's life up there so a nice end point.

I have loved the car as I hope can be seen but our time after 5 years and too much money spent is drawing to a close. There is nothing wrong with it I just didn't really use it for fear of damaging it and I hope the new owner will use it as intended having not got the attachment I have from doing all the work. I'm pleased with the level care and service Classix offer, far more than I would be able to do alone.

I still have my mk2 16v which needs a little love under the bodykit to get up to my somewhat OCD standards. I basically want the cars to look like they are only a few years old and like to think I achieved that with the Corrado.

Next time I will buy a car that is in excellent condition to start with rather spending £thousands to get the car up there myself. I handn't bargained for the emotional element of putting heart and soul into something nor the knock on affect of using the car i.e if it got a door ding I would have been really upset.

[VeeReihenmotor6]

Thanks Pablo. The car has now been sold. I'm pretty impressed with Classix auction group. Corrados have a habit of sitting on the market for ages so I am more than happy it sold within a week. I got more for it than I set out to achieve as well but must admit I am glass half full type of chap.

What next? Sell my corrado parts and rare parts stash and also my low mile also freshly restored mk3 golf 16v 3 door after its had its paint on the bonnet and roof due to lacquer peel.

I'm keeping my oak green mk2 16v and will probably buy either a well sorted mk4 r32 or a mk7 clubsport (not s).

[VeeReihenmotor6]

Best to join the Corrrado Club GB (facebook) if looking for parts - almost impossible to find stuff without being part of the club these days.