Have owned a few mk'2s lol and driven lots of customer cars and the Corrado is a better handler ,seems stiffer in the chassis to me so I must be honest and say it runs a bit harsh on my 17" wheels. I don't mind the Passat stuff as it works with the era,however what really pisses me off is placement of parts and servicing of them ,what was a quick job on a mk2 is a mission on my Corrado....kinda like they just crammed it all in ?. Yes they are stiffer than mk2 and the mk3's that I owned ,reckon some of the extra weight of the Corrado is in the bonnet and the doors.
For me i havent done any real miles on the mk2 but love its looks. The corrado is a muscular bruiser and handles around bends like it is on rails - a lot of mechanical grip and I remember once cornering hard on a large empty roundabout and decided to tighten the line even harder and it just tucked in with no understeer/oversteer but did loose fuel pressure so I imagine the angles were pretty harsh Mk3 was never as good as the corrado, even though its chassis bolt on parts are the same but I also like the looks of them too. I ought to get down to 1 old VW but cannot decide between the Corrado and mk2 16v. First World problems for sure. I do think the mk2 is a better looking car from more angles than the corrado but both have their charms.
The powertrain on the non facelift Corrado, is 100% borrowed from a Passat 31 and shared with the G60 FWD Golf MK2. Corrado's never use the 020 for example. Always an 02A. Even the 2.0 8v and 1.8 16v engines were bolted to a 02A. Dashboard very similar to a Passat and also the Seat Toledo. Powertrain parts from the facelift Passat, are shared with the MK3 Golf and 3A Passat. The key thing about the Corrado is as I said, they have a lower CoG than a Golf 2 and are better planted on the track and by extension on the road when driven in a sporty but legal manner.
ElsaWIN manual tells you how many turns lock to lock all the racks are, no mention of 16v being quicker than the 8v ones. Which is why I said it I have what I believe is a 16v rack, but it seems to be the same number of turns as mentioned in Elsa. However this could just mean I actually have an 8v rack its hard to be sure due to the lack of markings on it. What I can say is it feels a lot more sporty than other 8v I've driven nice and heavy while driving. I originally put this down to it being a 16v rack, buuut this could be down to the fac the restrictor on the return line is missing. Something Nige mentions in his MK2 build which can increase the weight of the steering
I repeat myself. You have to experience the difference dynamically and I will add, on track and on road, with some seat time behind it. Etos, Elsawin, and ErWin are OE technicians reference materials, which all give an indication to the make up of components and construction patterns. But they cannot replace the experience of 200k miles of road and track driving in old MK Golf 2 8v, 16v or Corrados. My experience is the Corrado is a very sorted chassis for handling and directional change.
yes I understand what you are saying about the overall feel of the corrado vs the mk2 golf, you have to experience it. That isn't what I was talking about. We were talking about specifically, why is the corrado/mk2 16v/g60 rack a different part number to the mk2 8v one. From the workshop manuals, we can see the number of turns lock to lock is the same. So what is the difference? My thoughts were the weighting is a little different, from my own experience with what I was told was a 16v rack. Now since you have all this experience, do you find that the 16v/corrado rack feels a little heavier vs an 8v?
