Corrado
1.8T 20v.

In fall 2003 Pekka and Jaska were offered an engine package that might have potential to some interesting project. It was pretty cheap, and the mileage was really low. The engine lied in the backyard of Jaska for a couple of months until they found a chassis in which to start fit all the fancy parts.

The chassis, from a completely rustfree Corrado G60. Some small dents, but that doesn't matter. It was completely ripped of all excess parts like engine, transmission, axles, interiour...

This is where the engine comes from. The front end of a crashed '98 Audi A4, with a mileage of about 4000km.

150hp 1.8 liter 20-valve turbo engine (AEB).

This is where the engine will be located. Front axle and steering box from Golf 3 16v already installed.

The gearbox and starter from Golf 3 GTI 16v.

The clutch and engine front mount from Golf 2/Corrado G60.

The alternator, water pump and pulleys Golf 3 1.8 90hv.

Power steering pump from Golf 3 16v. The crank pulley will be made from Golf 3 2.0 8v pulley.

Ooops there it is already.... so far it's been basicly all bolt-on.

Because the engine in Audi is mounted longwise, the engine mounts has to be replaced. The rear mount is from Golf 3.

The original exhaust manifold from Audi can't be used when the engine is mounted sideways, and the original turbocharger is... ineffective.

At least there's plenty of room to play between the engine and the firewall.

Pekka and Jaska went for shopping into a HEPAC store and bought some material for a new exhaust manifold that they started to work with.

The charger is brand new, made by Mitsubishi, model TD04HL-15T, used for example in Saab 9-3 Viggen and 9-5 Aero (2.3 liter, 230hp). This charger should be OK up till 300hp.

The exhaust manifold and the charger bolted together.

The wheels are Borbet's 9x16" with 15mm offset, both front and rear. The VR6 axles are also a little bit wider than the originals, hence some modification needs to be done to the arches.

The work is started by cutting the arch open, and adding some crosswise cuts to make the arch spread well. All the time the arch was still connected to the fenders from both ends.

The correct shape is achieved by welding some metal to support the arch.

While the fender is modified anyway, a Transporter intake grill is also fitted in. It's placed in with a couple of screws and spot welds, then the fender sheet metal under the grill is sawed away.

In the arch the gap is filled with a narrow sheet of metal.

Welding of the front fenders finished. BTW, the original grill had five holes.

Inside view of the arch.

Smoothed before the filler.

Some filler and primer paint added. In this image there are no springs on the suspension... but it should be low like this anyway, shouldn't it? :)

Below: a before-after comparison.

In the rear it's a little bit more tricky, because there are two layers of metal. In the beginning it's still similar... just saw the arch open.

Then the outer layer is separated from the inner by drilling the spot welds in the arch. The inner arch will also be sawed just like the outer one.

The arch sawed and bent wide open.

The shock absorbers were removed to get the chassis low enough to make it easier to get correct width for the arches. In this phase the inner arch is already sawed away.

The correct shape is again achieved with small pieces of sheet metal.

Then more metal and some hammer...

The outer arch welding finished.

Welding seen from the inside. The inner arch still missing...

...but not anymore. Some narrow piece of sheet metal needed here too.

The arch finished... plenty of room for a 9" wide offset 15 wheels.

First we take one piece of brand new Dietrich front bumper for Golf 3. From this bumper we utilize the blinker holes...

Then we take a used Corrado's Dietrich-bumper and saw away the blinker holes.

The piece from the Golf bumper is attached to the Corrado bumper. The reason for all this: it's quite a lot easier to find nice blinkers for Golf.

The recess for the license plate is also smoothed.

Front bumper primered.

Front view.

The washer holes from the hood were smoothed.

Audi handles were fitted in the doors.

Inscriptions were ripped off.

In this condition the car was taken to Hot Rod & Rock show in Tampere, Finland.

In this project the flap for fuel filler was taken from a.... Honda!

In the inside it needed a short extension.

The flap fitted in. Still a little welding and filler...

The cold air intake is improved by modifying the inner fender.

The intercooler.

The engine room painted. Originally the car was supposed to be totally painted in this phase, but the guys decided to get more motivation for the project by installing the engine.

The crank pulley is modified from Golf 3 2.0 8v pulley... to save 250eur from buying a new one.

The exhaus manifold and the charger installed in the engine. The chargers oil return hose was modified from the original. The oil sump is also from Golf 3 and also needed some modification because of the oil return hose.

The motor oil.

The engine ready for installation.

This time the suspension is FK's Koenigsport coilovers.

The brakes were originally planned to be 280mm ones from Golf 3 VR6, but finally they were swapped to the 312mm brakes from Audi S3.

The brake caliber housing hardly fits inside the 16" wheels... with a minor modification.

The intercooler fitted in it's place.

Then engine ready for first run! The electronics work is mostly done, it does not give any fault codes with VAG-COM. It's running really nice!

The ECU is from the same car as the engine, a '98 Audi A4. The instruments cluster is from Golf 3, and the immobilizer is from a '99 VW Polo.

Peksi welding the exhaust pipe. Also the downpipe is selfmade..

The brake lines ready for the dyno. In this image can be seen the little grinding that was made to the brake calibers to fit them inside the 16" wheels.

Corrado ready for the dynamometer... the car was driven the first time ten hours before the dyno. Dyno time was reserved weeks earlier... so it was about the time to get the car drivable :)

In the dyno the ECU of the engine was programmed with a custom software to get the most out of the current components of the engine. The target, 250bhp, was reached easily.

The engine room's getting ready. In addition to the intercooler and the pressure pipes, Pro Turbo did the pipe between the air filter and the turbo.

The dashboard (that is originally from Vento/Jetta 3) was napped (is this the correct term?), and is here already almost completely installed.

The seats from OMP's Comfort line, with a tilting back rest.

Before the dyno Jaska painted whole car black...

...well, not completely :)

The same Volvo colour in the doors.

Corrado almost ready for the final paint job. The hood is now supported with a gas lifter.

Some images from the painting. First some covering and outlining, then painting the lower parts of the body, then removing the outlining tapes and finally lacquering the whole body.

Still the bumpers and some other small parts to go....

At Sunday (four days before the trip to Bug Run in Sweden) the rest of the parts (bumpers, the grille etc.) were painted, and the car started to look pretty much finished. However, there's still many little things to do.

Only the stereo and some other little details missing from the interiour. The back seat was dropped off at least temporarily partly because of the 4 fixing point seat belts.

On Monday we got the license plates when the car was finally registered to Finland. Rear lights were replaced with these more modern ones.

Driving to Sweden. The trip to Bug Run was the first longer trip to Corrado, and we didn't have any real problems.

At the destination (Mantorp racetrack), Corrado being just washed.

Waiting for our turn on the drag stip (1/4-mile)...

...where the opponent was Rolle with his awesome 1.8T Golf 1 Cabby.

We were really happy with Corrado's result, 14.037sec (165km/h). Rolle's time was about a second slower.

Copyright of the image: hastig.se.

Leon and Corrado parked in front of our camp.

The hood was almost always open as there were so many interested... including the jury of Bug Run :)

Corrado got the first price in wasserkühler-class (a class for Corrados, Sciroccos etc. which did not have a class of their own).

A little finetuning before the way back home. The suspension was lifted up couple of centimeters to avoid problems when running into the ferry boat (between Sweden and Finland).

The price... a water pump from some V6 engine :)

Xtreme

July the 25th, 2004, we visited an Xtreme Challenge track day in Alastaro racetrack in Finland. Pekka went to try 1/4mile, the new numbers are now 13.850sec, 175.2km/h (108.9mph).

Sold in August 2004. Good luck to the new owner.