Corrado 16v Track/Race Project

So after nearly three years of building my race car build is on its final stages, and I thought while Im offshore and i have the time id reflect on the work Ive done so far and knock together a long overdue build thread.

The car was bought from down in luton, flew down and picked the car up. It was in a semi track car state:

1.8kr on bike carbs
ebay coilovers
semi stripped interior
bling bling ronal split rims
scorpion exhaust
recaro sportser seats and ebay harnesses
horrible momo wheel

here is the photo from the for sale ad:


I used this for a while as a daily, and really fell in love with it despite the poor parts that were on it, it really felt like it added up to something more.

After a light spin on the road, I decided that something had to be done to tighten the whole thing up and general make it a bit more purposeful than the look a like it currently was.

At this point I was introduced to danster, who took on the task of directing me through the cars first rebuild (on a budjet). The car was taken out to Dan's place and we quickly set about stripping anything unessecary from the car, including interior trim, alarms, electric windows, power steering, spoiler motor, central locking, radio etc etc...

In addition the car got the treatment of:
new custom braided lines and copper lines throughout
polybushes all round
custom uprated engine mounts
new headgasket and shrick 276's
4 branch and modified magnex system (back box replaced with straight pipe)
new discs and mintex 1144 pads in 280's
compomotive MO5's and yokohama a048's





This transformed the car into a cracking fun road car and something that was pretty nifty on the track. Some photos of it after its first rebuild





From here I moved onto using a set of Weber 40's on it as I wasnt happy with the bike carb set up. It ran really well on these after a good tune from Danster!


The car was run like this until december 2009 when I got caught out in the snow on R888's and ran up the back of a parked alfa at 5mph, no damage to the alfa, but destroyed my slam panel, wing, grill, head light and indicators. I did some bodge repairs and ran it for a few weeks but shortly after on my way home a ticking noise developed into a large bang, which upon investigation resulted in this:

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This was the real turning point for the car, it needed a new engine and a fair bit of bodywork, and after already putting a lot into it it was make or break really. So I bit the bullet and decided to take it off the road and have my best stab at turning it into a proper circuit racing car for use in the northern saloons/hill climbing/smrc. The next stage of rebuilt has happened over the last two odd years, held up by my budget and a heap of other complications on the way, but ill try and not get into that.

So I set about getting the old engine out and prepping the car for paint (usefully had the use of an empty unit my dad had for rent)



Pick up another donor car for general panels and odds and sods i would need in the rebuild




The car was then sent to paint





2 months later





meanwhile, I had been collecting parts and having my first stab and an engine build using a gas flowed head the schricks and a new set off 45's:


unfortunately when i got it in the car and tried to fire it, the head had been skimmed more than i had been told and had a valve collide with the piston (gently but enough to bend the valves). So i sent the engine off to a local engine builder where i had the engine rebuilt fresh with all new bearings and seals, had the block decked and the pistons remachined (I wanted to keep it relatively standard internally for budget and ease of sourcing parts). He also installed a set of newman 288's and internal and external verniers.

Meanwhile, I took the car to Tornado motorsport who installed a custom six point bolt in cage for me (great guys would really recommend them). When I got it back I went about prepping and painting the interior myself:





After this I carried on fitting parts as and when I could afford them, negotiating the seemingly inifite complications Ive had along the way until we reach today, where the car sits in my unit awaiting a new brake line and some electrical tidying before I drive it out of the garage to start running it in and giving it a shake down. It will be road legal purely for testing and bedding pads in etc.

So here is how she sits now


and here is the spec:

Engine:
2.0 9a block, decked, honed and rebuilt
Ported head and newman 288 rally cams with internal and external verniers
weber 45 carbs with inlet dowled to head
malpassi fuel reg
facet pump under tank
4 branch manifold
windage tray and baffled standard sump
vr6 rad and spal 11" fan with override switch
standard box (4.2 final drive and kaaz lsd to be sourced and used once i have a good idea of the ratios i require for the car after testing)
rebuilt cvs
custom uprated mounts
shift tower rebuilt and machined to use thrust washers
b&m short shift (I have a VWM shifter but am still needing to get the cables made for it)

Suspension/Wheels:
manual steering rack from diesel mk2 golf
Avo coilovers with custom spring rates
Polybushed all round
ball joint extenders
tie rod flip
compomotive MO5's 1580 (white)
Compomotive MO5's 1570 (black)-wets
Ats DTC's 15x8

Brakes:
Wilwood midilights with ferodo ds2500s
cooling ducts to cult society ducts in bumper
grooved brembo discs (280)

Interior:
All sound proofing removed
doors cut and lightened
all original bracketry and mounts for seats and trim removed
poly windows all round
full 6 point cage
luke 3" harnesses
corbeau revolution seats
4 litre lifeline mechanical fire extinguisher plumbed in
all standard ignition and wiring removed
ignition and cut off switches on dash
momo two spoke 'wheel
Varley 25 battery in passenger foot well

Exterior:
Arches pulled and rolled
Full respray in alpine white
spoiler and wiper motors removed
lightened standard bonnet (17kgs to 5kgs!)
removable front bumper smoothed
sunroof welded in and smooth with black roof

There is a million things I have missed I know, and there are many things left to develop on the car but after two years I got to the stage where I am pushing to finish it and drive it so I can see how I feel in the car and see what I think it needs!

I will add more photos as the car is finished.

 

Nice project would loved to have seen the build in stages.

 

awesome mate, i would really like to hear this! hehe

same engine as mine, although mine is standard for the moment

baz

 

Awesome car mate

 

Cheers for the feedback guys, means a lot!

 

Car looks brilliant. Attention to detail is great.

When you planning on taking it to knockhill?

 

I have to finished replumbing the brakes (just one brake line on one corner, then bleed them. Then its off to get corner weighted and have the engine run in, so maybe a month i hope!!

 

Superb. Hopefully see it sometime taking abuse like you've built it for.

Who built the engine for you?

Who's corning weighting the car for you?

 

A local guy in Stirling called Jim Cuthill built the engine fore me, bit of an old school kinda guy with some great tricks and tips. Would really recommend him. The corner weighting will get done by a guy who competes in the MG trophy Colin Robertson, he runs a garage local to me so will just run it over when i get the chance!!

 

This is lush. Love to get mine to this standard...one day.

 

Great Corrado, looking forward to hearing more about it.

 

Who painted it? I recognise the lorry behind you see.

Good to see a proper Corrado track car. Mine is in semi retirement now.

 

Was painted by alan dougan in auchterarder

 

Not so local then. Sandy Kydd lorry is a Forfar mannie. Feels like 2 years since I drove mine but its only been a month, 2years to you must feel like eternity!

 

Yeah thats been the most frustrating part. at least with a rolling project you get a sense of development as you do things to it. this has just felt like a long slog haha

 

This looks ace! If I could get my Rocco looking half as good as this I'd be more than happy!

Keep up the good work!

Andy

 

Hiya fella, really like ur motor.

Would you mind telling me where you got ur cage and how much u paid for it?

 

Cage was a custom job by tornado motorsport (great guys, really helpful and great standard of work, wasnt cheap though, around 800 AFAIK).

Update, car moved under its own power for the first time yesterday after some more work. Not running very nice but it goes and stops which for me was an awesome moment!

Anyway here are the pictures when she got her first wash!

v



(Ignore the wires-getting these sorted asap)

 

This is brilliant mate! This is how corrados should look, it's so mean!!!
Nice looking pad too... lol

Engine looks a really nice spec. Hope you manage to get it running nicely soon, bet you're itching to take it for a spin. Can't wait to get mine finished.
Just wondered what the hoses are coming from the cam cover in the pics? Some sort of breather setup?

Cheers,
Bruce.

 

Has to be one of my favorite corrados , you have any onboard footage?