The new Snowflakes are finally on the car. I can’t afford to put new rubber on the green Corrado right now (unless they’re Coopers or Sears “Road Handlers”). I had two Toyo Proxess directionals bagged up and hidden in a dark, cool place..the last time I needed tires for the Golf, I only needed two. At the time, 14” performance tires were already an endangered species, and the guy wouldn’t sell my any unless I bought the entire set. So, I mounted two (dry rotten now, ugh.) and bagged the other two up for the future.
The future is here. We had to replace the rears on my girlfriend’s Bravada (some sort of Uniroyals we bought at the Wal-Mart, and still $250!), and lucky for me, I had the Toyos around so I only had to buy two. Ended up with a couple of Falkens. I intended to put the Toyos up front, and the Falkens out back, but I took the loose wheels to the store instead of taking the car. Sure enough, when I got them back, both Toyos were mounted for one side, as were the Falkens. I’m hoping the guys at the tire shop did it for cosmetic purposes. They’re a good shop, and probably wouldn’t have screwed it up if I’d been a little more explicit. They get a lot of poseurs these days..
Even though the car’s been off the road since February, it still fires right up and runs strong. It’s a well known fact that you can’t get much power out of the old 1.8s, but it’s becoming well known that if you take care of it, you can’t kill one, either. 222Kmi, and after I had the valve seals replaced, it doesn’t even use any oil. No ABA swap for me! If I want a toy, I’ll go find a 16v and restore it.
Took it to work today (70mi round trip). After driving the “stock” Corrado for so long, the A2 feels like a toy. Much lighter, and much tighter, since the Neuspeed springs and Tokico Blues are still doing the job, especially on the twisties close to the new house. And a healthy 8v has no problem keeping up with the 75mph Atlanta traffic all day long, even if the noise reminds me that I need a bigger stereo. I can tell it’s been sitting up for awhile though…it finally got warm here, and I need to recharge the A/C…oh, and the brake light switch died on the way home tonight. Oh, well. They’re all projects, aren’t they?
