Is this true about Corrado?

They make nice race cars: get them cheap with 'everything' broken or sell the bits that work for a profit. I've thought of using one for my next project but the light weight bits cost too much for them.

New they were $25,000 in 1992. All the similar competitive cars were around $18,000.

A good '93-4 Corrado SLC that's been cared for and well maintained is hard to find and still expensive to buy.

Buying one that's been "tooned" or owned by someone without the knowledge or means ($$) to maintain it is cheap, but will very quickly become exceedingly expensive.

Paul_VR6 wrote: They make nice race cars: get them cheap with 'everything' broken or sell the bits that work for a profit. I've thought of using one for my next project but the light weight bits cost too much for them.

Paul, as the kids say.."word up!" Yeah, when they finally got old enough to be legal in SCCA Improved Touring, me and my buddy at my "Trusted Ally" shop (the kind of place David described in one of his columns last year) talked about building one for ITS..thought we could outrun the Speedsource 2nd gen RX7s (there's a bunch of them here in SEDIV) with one..but soon realized we'd have to fabricate a lot of stuff just to get it done. Our shop didn't have the money to do that, but Bildon tried..they built one from Terry Coates' old SSA car:

http://www.bildon.com/racing/racecars/its_corrado/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrDRTVrc1c

It had potential, but you're right. It would take cubic dollars to do it with a car with such limited production (and aftermarket support).

We were tempted to try it again, now that some of the more recent cars have been moved to ITR, but the money problem is still there. Grr.

IIRC, Bildon's trying to sell the thing they built, because they have so many "irons on the fire" at the moment.

All that being said, I'm not healthy enough at the moment to club race..and autocross-even though it's a ball of fun!-just doesn't tickle me running & racing on a full road course used to do. My green C has just kind of been sitting these days..I'm thinking that when SWMBO finishes community college and finds a job, I'm gonna stick a cage in it and do HPDE/time trial/etc. Maybe I should make sure the cage is SCCA legal, just in case I win the lottery..

Sorry to blabber on for so long, everyone..but I really like these cars.

I did a full MS setup for a guy that built an ITS Corrado, nice car but he kept losing bottom ends. Probably due to bad machining, these cranks don't like to be polished AT ALL and machine shops love to do that for some reason. The Bildon car would be a steal if it made good power, not sure if it does... they started to do some real R&D and then fell off the planet.

Paul_VR6 wrote: I did a full MS setup for a guy that built an ITS Corrado, nice car but he kept losing bottom ends. Probably due to bad machining, these cranks don't like to be polished AT ALL and machine shops love to do that for some reason. The Bildon car would be a steal if it made good power, not sure if it does... they started to do some real R&D and then fell off the planet.

Paul, any truth to the old belief (we VR6 guys had over at vwvortex) that the VR is machined to such tight tolerances when it's manufactured that there just ain't a whole lot left to shave? Seems like even the guys who just wanted to bore it out a little kept getting twisted pistons..

EDIT: Yeah, the Bildon car would already be in my garage if I had the dough. I once raced against the Mk.2 ITB car they built back in the day. Well built, well prepared. Suloff's folks know how to build a car. Made ours look like a homebuilt!

I ended getting a '75 Vette instead of a Corrado ten years ago. Have been contemplating the missed track time ever since. I worked on em back in the day. Def one of the best handling cars ever built. If only the ancillary stuff lasted. What about a reliable engine swap? 1.8T or 2.0 crossflow? 16v 2.0L?

If you're going to do a 1.8T swap it'd be best to start with a G60 Corrado. They're cheaper to buy and easier to find one with a blown charger for truly short dough. Although you do lose the 5 lug hubs and "plus" suspension that the VR6/SLC corrados have.

I like the interiors on the '93+ corrados too, but those carry a $$ premium...

friedgreencorrado wrote: Paul, any truth to the old belief (we VR6 guys had over at vwvortex) that the VR is machined to such tight tolerances when it's manufactured that there just ain't a whole lot left to shave? Seems like even the guys who just wanted to bore it out a little kept getting twisted pistons..

No idea but the quickest motors that I've had in my car have been bone stock, high mile blocks that still had good compression. I've never had troubles with pistons/bores at all on my overbore motors.

On the crank machining I think the machine shops were just getting carried away, however I do know quite a few people that it happened to. Perhaps the crank wears in a bit more then people think and they don't take time to measure, who knows. I have a pile of cranks with cracks in them from the recent crop of scenesters and their pan (and crank) cracking "stance."

Finding good motor cores, cheap, is getting rough.

Surprised no one has mentioned http://www.bahnbrenner.com/vw_audi/products/603/BBM_G60_Supercharger_Kit_Lysholm_Twin_Screw to rectify the biggest problem with the G60's. And now that the Lysholm has the silencing kit you don't have to sound like a fire truck (unless you want to)

I've gotten pretty good at removing those along with the attached engines. One in a Corrado, one in a Mk2. Those chargers, with the BBM designed bracketry aren't much better then the g-lader as far as reliability. Too bad they put their competitor that actually had a quality kit out of business. I suggest turbo.

I hear what you guys are saying about the 'rado money pit, but I still want one badly. Maybe mine would be different??

Ads like this one don't help either...........

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/1988516438.html

A friend of mine that worked for VOA at the time Corrados were new told me "A Corrado is the best $16k car that VW ever sold for $20k." And he was right...

TOZOVR wrote: In reply to wcelliot: VRs really are the best sounding beasts out there....as a friend said, "like 6 unicorns gang banging a mermaid...."

VR6 1996 VW Passat GLX Wagon - $400

Challenge?

I have owned a Corrado since 1992 and they have been very reliable cars for me. My current 1993 VR6 was purchased in 1996 and just turned 162K miles. Very few problems the last 14 years other than regular maintenance.

I haven't driven it too much the last few years, since I have a Jetta as a daily driver, and my restored Capri for fun. I refuse to sell it however, as they are very rare cars that only sold a couple thousand units per year, and many of those have been trashed and parted out.

Mine is a 2 owner unmolested car with very few mods. Like many cars, once they start depreciating and go through several owners who try and do things on the cheap, the reliability can suffer over time.

Finding parts can be a little of a challenge as much of the body and trim stuff is NLA from the dealer, but there are always several people parting them out on the VWvortex website.

Turn2's dad has a 93 Corrado SLC, It spends it's life FLYING between Branford, CT and Providence. About 300K worth. It has been rebuilt twice and the paint is really tired. But it handles well (Bilsteins) and has good body integrity. Except for the motherberkeleying taillight fuse.

I got my Corrado for a steal back in 2000. Both door handles were broken...again...and the PO got sick of climbing in through the hatch in freezing weather.

I think they were around $50 or so apiece then.

I proactively replaced the timing chain guides, after I fished what was left of them out of the bottom of the timing cover.

It ate a waterpump..You have undo a couple of motor mounts and jack the engine a little to get at it. I went through this procedure three times before I got a good waterpump from NAPA.

Those autobelts on the <=92 cars sucked.

It would randomly overheat sometimes. It seemed like it would only do it once it got hot and the fan came on, but then it rapidly overheated. I finally discovered that the fan plug was in upside down. The plastic was so brittle that the 'key' broke off and the fans were running in reverse.

The sound of that uncorked VR6 through a Borla exhaust was magical. There was always something wrong with that car, but it never left me stranded.

First of all, apologies to everyone for dragging out an old thread..my old SCCA buddies conned me into donning the "whites" again (after 8 years) for the SARRC finale. I've been in Savannah all weekend (and saw a lot of GRM stix!).

Paul_VR6 wrote:

friedgreencorrado wrote: Paul, any truth to the old belief (we VR6 guys had over at vwvortex) that the VR is machined to such tight tolerances when it's manufactured that there just ain't a whole lot left to shave? Seems like even the guys who just wanted to bore it out a little kept getting twisted pistons..

No idea but the quickest motors that I've had in my car have been bone stock, high mile blocks that still had good compression.

Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. Maybe the stuff I've heard about rebuilt bottom ends has a lot to do with the "tuner" stuff we were talking about, combined with the machine shop's tendency to make it pretty, instead of cut it to the berkeleying measurments I gave them? I'll bet some of these cars were the first engine some of the youn'uns tried to rebuild..can't slam the kids for that, I made the same mistake of not being specific to the machine shop when I first started rebuilding, too! If Triumphs had ghosts, there'd be about three 6-cyl cranks haunting me for not giving them the specs I wanted.

Paul_VR6 wrote: I've never had troubles with pistons/bores at all on my overbore motors. On the crank machining I think the machine shops were just getting carried away, however I do know quite a few people that it happened to. Perhaps the crank wears in a bit more then people think and they don't take time to measure, who knows. I have a pile of cranks with cracks in them from the recent crop of scenesters and their pan (and crank) cracking "stance."

Yeah, I can see that. And to think that when the current "import tuner" fad started, we considered ourselves the "tasteful" alternative to the budding "drifter" folks (IMO, that's why the "Unpimp Your Ride" ads were so funny!).

Paul_VR6 wrote: Finding good motor cores, cheap, is getting rough.

Man, I hate to hear that. New plan for my potential lottery winnings-buy a tanker full of synthetic oil, so I don't have to worry about having to rebuild either of mine.

Tyler H wrote: I got my Corrado for a steal back in 2000. Both door handles were broken...again...and the PO got sick of climbing in through the hatch in freezing weather. I think they were around $50 or so apiece then. I proactively replaced the timing chain guides, after I fished what was left of them out of the bottom of the timing cover. It ate a waterpump..You have undo a couple of motor mounts and jack the engine a little to get at it. I went through this procedure three times before I got a good waterpump from NAPA. Those autobelts on the <=92 cars sucked. It would randomly overheat sometimes. It seemed like it would only do it once it got hot and the fan came on, but then it rapidly overheated. I finally discovered that the fan plug was in upside down. The plastic was so brittle that the 'key' broke off and the fans were running in reverse. The sound of that uncorked VR6 through a Borla exhaust was magical. There was always something wrong with that car, but it never left me stranded.

Fletch1, this is why I said "don't drive one"..

Tyler, there's a kit out there to actually fix the handles (you can replace the strikers on the handles you have) but it's a PITA to do.
From Volksport:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFrckGTbmKU

I've done it on my green one, and I've been very tender with the handles on my black one..just so I don't have to do it again.

Autobelts in anything emit the stench of dead animals. They still work in the green one, but the black one's a real mongrel, so I took a weekend and disabled them. Pulled the relays, taped over the sockets, cut the cables and locked the shoulder belt anchors down. You have to buckle up manually, like an old 1970s car with separate seat/shoulder belts. Worth that extra five seconds not to have the voltage drain anymore.

And yeah, "something always broken, but never left me stranded" is the Corrado's theme song. The basic mechanical structure is typical late 80s-early 90s VW, tough as nails. The electrical garbage is typical 00s VW E36 M3, just something else to break.

vwcorvette wrote: I ended getting a '75 Vette instead of a Corrado ten years ago. Have been contemplating the missed track time ever since. I worked on em back in the day. Def one of the best handling cars ever built. If only the ancillary stuff lasted. What about a reliable engine swap? 1.8T or 2.0 crossflow? 16v 2.0L?

In Europe, you could buy them new with a 16v. Otherwise, the 1.8t's been done.

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3513322-My-Corrado-1.8T-project-begins/page5

And even a TDI! I can't find the original build thread over on vwvortex, so here's a tuner mag article about the car.

http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_0802_1992_vw_corrado_slc_tdi_swap/index.html