SOTW: VW Corrado VR6

This week Shed picks out a cult classic rather than a bestseller

Today's SOTW is an unashamedly biased one. I've picked out this admittedly rather tired-looking Corrado VR6 not because it's so rare to see a roadworthy example within the strict bounds of Shed's £1k limit (although it is unusual, despite Corrado VR6 values having softened up somewhat recently), but because I have a very personal soft-spot for them.

You see, back in 1995 (before I was able to legally drive, but long after I'd started avidly devouring any car magazines I could get my grubby little mitts on), I persuaded my father, precocious youth that I was, to pick a Corrado VR6 as a company car.

This was largely because the UK's motoring journalists almost universally wet themselves over the VR6 Corrado, often declaring it to be among the best-handling front-wheel-drive cars ever and awarding it victory in any number of group tests - even against rear-drive opposition.

As an impressionable child, I felt it was my duty to make sure one arrived on our family's drive. So when M610 VMU turned up one May evening in 1995, I was pretty much over the moon. And the chunky black coupe did not disappoint.

I loved the body-hugging seats, the great curved wall of dash and the growly V6, while the Karmann badge (for it was the Osnabruck coachbuilder who manufactured the car for VW) stuck just in front of the gearlever made it seem that little bit more exotic. And of course my 12-year-old self thought the spoiler that rose automatically at, if I recall correctly, around 60mph was just bloody brilliant...

The Corrado was also a significantly more exciting proposition than the rather more soggy and mundane Golf VR6. Aside from far better handling, the Corrado got a 2.9-litre narrow-angle V6 with 192bhp, rather than the miserable 174bhp 2.8 the Golf had to put up with. The result was 0-60mph in 6.4secs and a top speed of 145mph - more than enough for mid-90s playground bragging rights.

But for some reason, perhaps because VW hardly had a strong reputation for producing premium sports coupes, perhaps because the chunky styling wasn't exactly en vogue, the buying public never really took to the Corrado; VW sold fewer than 100,000 of them worldwide during the car's seven-year life.

As a result, the Corrado has been pretty much erased from VW's official history; when it resurrected the small coupe theme in 2008 it brought back the Scirocco name - and barely acknowledged the existence of the Corrado in its press material.

The general public might not take particularly well to this particular one, either: it's tatty, in need of a respray and, by the admission of the seller, would be 'ideal for someone who likes to tinker'.

On the other hand, it's got plenty of kit, 12 months MOT, and it is pretty much half the price of the next cheapest VR6 we could find out there.

ANd at £995 it's surely a bargain for one of the greatest front-drive chassis ever...

Advert is reproduced below

Volkswagen Corrado VR6 1995 - N (1995)
157,000 miles £995

P/X to clear

A slightly tatty N-reg Met Blue,Corrado vr6 in need of some body work mainly respray, the car starts and drives very well with a very smooth gearbox - lots of service history and bills.

Spec:
Vr6 2.9 12v dohc model
Electric windows and mirrors
remote alarm,power steering,front fogs,abs, Alloy wheels,sunroof, adjustable rear spoiler and steering column.

Now with 12 months MOT...

Ideal for someone who likes to tinker...

Priced to sell...
07799475219 Supercoupes team.

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