24v VR6 Corrado - New Zealand

[VeeDub]

I already have a thread on here for this car, but thought i'd start a new one start to finish. I've just copy & pasted it from another site, so it's much easier. The other thread can be deleted :cookie:

So I bought this car when in 2005 when I was 16 - it was my first car.

It's one of 13 New Zealand new VW Corrados (all were 16v), and now one of 10 left on the road here. It is finished in a factory option Helios Blue Metallic (LA5Y), which has a sweet violet pearl in the sunlight.

At first I ***** it and thought it was the most ugly thing I'd ever seen, but then it grew on me.

This is how it looked when I bought it, with 183,000kms on the clock. It stayed like this for a few years while I worked in a pizza shop saving zero dollars. (Pic is really small because I have no old ones!)

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Screenshot20120302at115151AMpng-1.jpg

A few years later I bought another of the NZ New Corrados. The intention was to take the bilsteins & -40mm jamex springs out, along with every other good bit I could find.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Rados-1.jpg

Next up was a FK badgless grill that I bought on the-corrado.net.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/07072010001-1.jpg

Then long nothing. It cost me enough just keeping the car tidy and maintained with genuine parts. Until came the idea of BBS RS. I bought my first set in the hope that they'd fit, not knowing a thing about stud patterns, widths, offsets, adaptors, redrilling etc. They didn't fit and couldn't fit. This sent me on a downward spiral of whoreism. I became probably the country's worst BBS RS whore, buying every set that I could sniff out of the woodwork. I even bought cars just for the RS that were on them!

---------- Post added at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

I went through so many sets of wheels, buying & selling to make a buck to fund more bits for the Corrado. But as I learnt about what was what, I didn't want to settle for anything less than a 16" 4x100 RS - the rs003. It took me three years, but I finally found a set in NZ and snapped them up before anyone else had seen them.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC00190-1.jpg

Imported a bunch of bits for some friends and I from Germany

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC00180-1.jpg

And did a bit of a refurb on them. They went to 16x7.5 and 16x8.0. At the time I thought that'd get them sitting flush, but I was wrong. I was also broke, so it had to do for the time being.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC00192-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/IMG_0188-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0207-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Screenshot20101206at75852PMpng-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Screenshot20101206at75911PMpng-1.jpg

Some more 17" RS that I found for $300, probably around USD$150 at the time!

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC00612-1.jpg

[VeeDub]

This is how the car was sitting on the same -40mm jamex springs, but we had then chopped a couple of coils out to get it sitting lower. It drove like ****.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Screenshot20101206at75614PMpng-1.jpg

Then I found a '76 pre facelift mk1 scirocco - probably even more rare than the Corrado in New Zealand. It needed a full resto, but I had to have it to match the rado. Like brothers, they sat side by side for a while.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Screenshot20110202at72158PMpng-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/310520100021-1.jpg

I then moved to a flat with a MASSIVE garage because I didn't have enough room for both cars & work space.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC00707-1.jpg

Then I found this BMW with another set of rs003s on it! He didn't know what they were, and I bought the whole car for $1200. I took the wheels off the car and sold the car for a profit :eyebrows

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/Screenshot20110523at72152PMpng-1.jpg

These wheels were to become the newly refurbed, wider, better 003s that I'd put on the Corrado. I used the rear lips off the other set and put them on the front. I got some new 2.5" lips for the rears, new black/chrome 3D badges, new chrome bolts, new 1/4 height caps. The final spec was 16x8 et12, 16x8.5 et6. I ran them on 195/45 Kumho tyres, which is the smallest 16" size you can get in NZ.

The front wasn't stretched enough, so I imported a pair of 195/40/16 Toyo T1Rs from Holland, they cost around $400 each. I also had bought some cheap (sh*t) V-Maxx coilovers by this time and wound them right down, but they weren't low enough.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00391-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00371-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/11/DSC_0050-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC01028-1.jpg

Just a few of the sets I had at the time
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00301-1.jpg

[VeeDub]

Here's a little trophy I built for a show that we started called Stance Off (SO 2012 | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/stanceoff))
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00323-1.jpg

I then polished up the original 1" lips for the other set I had and sold them to a nice guy in Luxembourg with an E30 cabriolet.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/DSC_00541-1.jpg

Then I found a little mk1 golf which had not been registered or warranted for 10 years and had sat in a field on Waiheke Island. It was totally illegal to drive it on the road, but I thought it'd be a bit of fun. Over the weekend, I transformed it into the "RatPig mk1". The pig part being the police theme :stickoutt I took the springs out of this thing, but it still wasn't low enough. So we chopped the bottom off the shock housing, dropped the inserts about 30mm lower (through the bottom of the shock), and welded the insert in place. The shocks were ****ed anyway so it didn't matter.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00261-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/07/DSC_0030-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00321-1.jpg

Anyway, by that time, there was one little thing on each panel of the car that pissed me off, so I went balls deep and had a full respray in the original colour. At the same time, I had all the guards hammered dead flat, removed the rub strips from the doors & smoothed the front bumper.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/11/DSC00871-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/11/RadoOctober-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSC_00531-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/11/DSC_00543-1.jpg

Still unhappy with the ride height, I bought some new FK Konigsports from Venom in the UK. They are height & damper adjustable, and they go lower than the V-****s do. Nice.

Oh, forgot to say I had a 24v VR6 motor and VR6 O2A box lying around that was meant to be for the mk1 rocco. But I was bored of the 1.8 16v so decided to whack it into my Corrado instead.

This meant I needed a facelift bonnet, in a country located at the ******* of the world, with 10 nz new corrados (all with the early bonnets) and about two imported cars with the facelift bonnet. ****. Even Germany wouldn't supply me with one after they had quoted me $2,000 to get one. I was running out of options, but luckily I keep tabs on all the other Corrados in the country, and had remembered meeting a nice guy with a facelift 2.0L 16v. I had stayed in touch with him for years, always wanting to buy the car, but he didn't want to sell it. I thought i'd flick him a text and ask if he wanted to sell me the bonnet. 'Nope, but i'll sell you the car'. That night, I bought the whole car... just for the bonnet.

I swapped bonnets, and a couple of other little bits, and sold the car three days later to a young dude in Hamilton.

[VeeDub]

This was the car. For those who don't know - the facelift bonnet has a lump in the middle as you can see, which allows an extra 2" of clearance required for a VR6 swap.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0229-1.jpg

Motor in, bonnet on, things were underway.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0264-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/dispute4-1.jpg

I had sent the ECU away to a guy in the Isle of Man to get remapped & deimmobilised. When we got it back and plugged it in, it wasn't deimmobilised :mad Turns out he had never done one to the point where the car was still running corrado clocks & key. So 13 days out from the SO2013 (Stance Off show) that I was organising, I thought I was f*cked.

Stealth Racing to the rescue! Within 6.5 days, I had expressed the ECU over to them, had the immo removed, tested, and expressed back to me. I try to forget that I spent $400 just posting an ECU around the world!

But I got it back in time for the show and the car was all go. The radiator came in from ECS in the states, and left us no room to mount the fans on the engine side. So we whacked two big 12" and 10" fans on the front side of the rad. These things blow way harder than any girl I've ever come across!

The motor is 204hp standard out of a V6 4motion mk4 Jetta with 77,000kms on the clock. It's now running a remapped ECU, BMC air filter, new Sachs clutch kit, Powerflex nolothane bushes all round, mk3 subframes, 2.5" catback exhaust & solid front engine mount. I haven't had a chance to dyno it yet but I imagine it'll be somewhere around 220 - 230hp.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSCF0221-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/DSCF0220-1.jpg

I got the exhaust done, 2.5" cat back with one resonator & a small back box. It sounds awesome, doesn't drone at motorway speeds and is nice and quiet, but when you put your foot down you hear it alright...

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/photo2-1.jpg

Then I found an oldschool NOS wooden BBS steering wheel, rare as a rare thing. I got it for $50 too! Put that on (excuse the filthy interior and missing dash bits in this pic)

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0515-1.jpg

[VeeDub]

I also gathered together a full set of original half height centre caps for the wheels - quite hard to find. I had them polished and whacked some new badges in to freshen the wheels up. They look 10x better than the aftermarket ones!

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/halfheight-1.jpg

I had the car ready for the show and that's how it sits now.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0514-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0506-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/425056_379118402099968_179422178736259_1-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/MG_7941-1.jpg

I'm pretty stoked on the car now, all it needs is a full beige leather interior and maybe a turbo in the future. The interior will have to wait because i'll have to go to the UK and buy a car and send it home for that, haven't quite got $10k for that exercise yet!

Anyway, if you're interested, here is a write up of our show on the hellaflush website:
Stance Off ’12 ‹ Hellaflush (http://hellaflush.com/society/stance-off-12/)

Be sure to check us out and like us on facebook too:
SO 2012 | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/stanceoff)

I'm also still pissing all my money into the wind on wheels, here's another set of RMs that I'm nearly done. I'm about to try and buy another mk1 scirocco also as a daily driver so will put these on that!

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/02/IMG_0147-1.jpg

---------- Post added at 10:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 AM ----------

Here's a little video of the exhaust note and another one of me pulling up the hill at the show

24v Corrado - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2s8pfcBGY8)
Volkswagen Corrado 24v VR6 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STr4TQ6j1kg&feature=share)

And one of the show:
Stance Off 2012 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/37458127)

[Bflat]

I also gathered together a full set of original half height centre caps for the wheels - quite hard to find. I had them polished and whacked some new badges in to freshen the wheels up. They look 10x better than the aftermarket ones!

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/halfheight-1.jpg

I had the car ready for the show and that's how it sits now.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0514-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/IMG_0506-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/425056_379118402099968_179422178736259_1-1.jpg
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/MG_7941-1.jpg

I'm pretty stoked on the car now, all it needs is a full beige leather interior and maybe a turbo in the future. The interior will have to wait because i'll have to go to the UK and buy a car and send it home for that, haven't quite got $10k for that exercise yet!

Anyway, if you're interested, here is a write up of our show on the hellaflush website:
Stance Off ’12 ‹ Hellaflush (http://hellaflush.com/society/stance-off-12/)

Be sure to check us out and like us on facebook too:
SO 2012 | Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/stanceoff)

I'm also still pissing all my money into the wind on wheels, here's another set of RMs that I'm nearly done. I'm about to try and buy another mk1 scirocco also as a daily driver so will put these on that!

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/02/IMG_0147-1.jpg

---------- Post added at 10:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 AM ----------

Here's a little video of the exhaust note and another one of me pulling up the hill at the show

24v Corrado - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2s8pfcBGY8)
Volkswagen Corrado 24v VR6 - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STr4TQ6j1kg&feature=share)

And one of the show:
Stance Off 2012 on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/37458127)

You're a madman.

Hat tip to you, sir!

[VeeDub]

Oh, and when the road workers were resealing my street, I went out and spoke to them one night.

Explained that my car was quite low to one of the bros and that it scrapes like a c*nt, and asked if he could hook me up. Next minute I had a custom driveway and they wouldn't even accept a box of beers!

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/03/driveway-1.jpg

[thestu]

So jealous! amazing ride and cool driveway mod! :D

[Jarred]

I approve of everything in this thread!

loving it all dude! keep it up!

[GoLfMan]

now thats a cool build thread :D well done sir, well done.

[RDMaxwell]

I cant see the photos! :(

[balkanac]

Cant see photos either

[stevienix]

where's the photos ?
photobucket pro , dont have

[stevienix]

ah can see the pics now .......

:cool:
very nice there, you seem to have a healthy obssession with bbs , nice one
missing my rado now , cant beat a vr rado
hows the roco comming on

[VeeDub]

Pics fixed.

Rocco is good, got a different one which won't need as much work! Will put the other one on hold for a while. This is the new daily. Plans are french spec headlights, low, something 14" and wide. If I can't find any nice 14" splits I'll run some red 15" RMs that I have.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/04/6996048743_abdb23ef71-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/6996048743/)
photo-25 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/6996048743/) by tbagnz (http://www.flickr.com/people/75992928@N05/), on Flickr

[VeeDub]

A cool shot of the rado rolling the other day. Needs all red tail lights (coming soon) and delocked handles (this week).
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/05/6992077444_d24bbfe136-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/6992077444/)
rolling (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/6992077444/) by tbagnz (http://www.flickr.com/people/75992928@N05/), on Flickr
Rocco is looking like this at the moment - currently converting the front wings & lights to pre facelift. I got an engine stand today to so i'll start cleaning up the KR 16v (ex rado) for use in the mk1. Over the winter I want to make the motor show spec, super polished & painted and want to run a carb setup of some sort.
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/05/7127152719_4c5f31386c-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/7127152719/)
photo-63 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/7127152719/) by tbagnz (http://www.flickr.com/people/75992928@N05/), on Flickr

[OEM G60]

Nice work mate!! I haven't had the time to read through this till now! I remember you asking about RS' a long time ago, and me telling you how rare the 003's were, you done well to find 2 sets in NZ! They are not seen very often. Can't believe you had to buy the whole car for that bonnet!! All good that you sold it on easily though. Good on Stealth Racing for helping you out too, i've dealt with them in the past and they are the #1 guys when it comes to Corrados... I was reading through and thought you were gonna say you went to 5 stud when you did the engine swap and changed the RS' again!! Sounds nice in that vid, looks the dogs dangly bobs too. All red rear lights will look rad, i say get rid of that rear wiper too, neatens up the ass nicely.

Whats the story with that white Rallye i spotted on the vid? Personal Import? LHD still? Only one in NZ??

[Jarred]

loving the updates!

can't wait to see the rocco get some love!

[VeeDub]

My whole idea with the rado was the OEM+ kinda thing and I only wanted to do "reversable" mods. It's not a really common car here and I didn't want to butcher it too far from its original form.

Looking back now to when I resprayed though I wish I had have smoothed the rear wiper. Maybe something I'll do in the future. I only smoothed the front bumper because I had a spare bumper, I have the original still.

That rallye is a 1.8t replica build. The guy spent tonnes importing genuine guards, lights, seats etc and built a quick 1.8t motor for it. It's for sale now for around 20k ono ($NZ).

[OEM G60]

Oh wow he went to a lot of trouble, got a link for the ad?

With the rear wiper, a lot of people just take it off and put a little rubber grommet in the hole, hardly noticeable and reversible easier as that part of the panel is slightly raised where the hole is...

[nacnud]

Slick rick!

[VeeDub]

I've seen the grommet, but i'd rather have the wiper than the grommet. Do it right or don't do it at all. I think i'll end up smoothing it one day.

Check out VASK Forum (VW Audi SportKlub of NZ) - Index (http://www.vask.org.nz) - I'm not on the forum anymore so can't see the trading post but it's in there. Go through a few pages and you'll find it, or search Rallye and it'll be the only one! I can put you in touch with him via facebook if you like.

[OEM G60]

Thanks mate, it's cool, just curious to see pics, i wouldn't be able to import it anyway..

[VeeDub]

So the 24v motor seized over the weekend so it's coming out this week. No idea how/why it seized yet until we open it up, but it's time to get on with it and get it running again. On the look out for a Mk4 R32 motor if anyone has one.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/05/7247122650_4449b911da-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/7247122650/)
photo-81 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/7247122650/) by tbagnz (http://www.flickr.com/people/75992928@N05/), on Flickr

[GoLfMan]

So the 24v motor seized over the weekend so it's coming out this week. No idea how/why it seized yet until we open it up, but it's time to get on with it and get it running again. On the look out for a Mk4 R32 motor if anyone has one.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/05/7247122650_4449b911da-1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/7247122650/)
photo-81 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/75992928@N05/7247122650/) by tbagnz (http://www.flickr.com/people/75992928@N05/), on Flickr

bugger mate. There is one in the classified section as a bare refurbed block and head I think??? Check it out

[VeeDub]

Mmm yeah that'd work, but unfortunately my budget doesn't stretch that far. I can get a complete motor out of the UK for less than that.. I suspect anything in Australia will be out of my reach because supply < demand there, compared to UK anyway.

[VeeDub]

Bought an R32 motor out of Japan. This should be interesting.

[GoLfMan]

Bought an R32 motor out of Japan. This should be interesting.
hell yes! this is going to be wicked!

Stand alone management? Or does it come with an ECU?

[VeeDub]

I have a guru mate here who has the software to load a Viper Tuning R32 map onto my ECU, should be sweet. Will be a nice jump up in power from the BDE motor I had in there.. Even that was a ****load of fun.......

[VeeDub]

Old motor seized because it obviously bottomed out (I know when it happened now) but I didn't feel it touch at all. Sump kissed the ground when I was going a bit quick. The sump smashed the oil pick up into pieces so when I dropped the sump I found a chunk of it sitting there.

R32 motor is in now:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Haus102/250992111652838

[mk3pete]

nice man very cool!

[Water Boy]

When I was in Queenstown last month saw this:

http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/386800_10151056629230918_1743087037_n.jpg

[OEM G60]

That plate = Corrado Storm VR6.

[VeeDub]

That car was a private import ex UK and one of two Storms in the country. It's a nice car!! Doubt they'll ever sell it though..

I have just bought a complete beige leather interior out of a Storm in Northern Ireland. Any leads on how to get it sent to NZ cheaply!?

[VeeDub]

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2012/10/photo124-2.jpg

[VeeDub]

I'd be super stoked if everyone on facebook could do me a huge favour and like a pic for me! The most likes will win a free cut & polish & stone chip repair!!!! Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151124529786129&set=o.193017005294&type=1&theater

[Jarred]

bonnet-less to a show?

[VeeDub]

No updates here lately, but I have had a dope video put together. It's gonna be released when their facebook page hits 250 likes.

Get amongst it if you wanna see the video. Here's the teaser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx2hTc4y9lY&feature=youtu.be

And here's the page you'll need to like!
https://www.facebook.com/digitalmediahut?fref=ts

Also the car got a feature on www.canibeat.com today :)
http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2013/03/vr6corrado41110x742_zpsffe96481-1.jpg

[mitch750]

So sick, anymore updates? Keen!


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