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There are already several very good sites on the Corrado, so I won't go into its history or the various models. I will simply concentrate on the Corrado VR6 since that is the car I own. Even though it ceased production in late 1995 / early 1996, the Corrado VR6 is still seen by many as one of the best front-wheel drive performance cars available. It wasn't until almost 8 years later that the competition caught up to some extent with cars such as the Ford Focus RS, Honda Civic Type-R and the Audi TT V6. Even Volkswagen themselves haven't bettered the car, although the Golf R32 is seen by many to be close whilst others argue that its weight and AWD are too far removed from the ethos of the Corrado for it to be comparable. Owning a Corrado VR6 is quite a special experience. It is the model of understatement, but can embarrass and humble almost any hot hatch that dares to take it on at the traffic lights. Round town its docile and easy to live with, the ride is comfortable and compliant, and its practical too, being a hatchback with fold-down rear seats. Get the Corrado VR6 out onto the open road (or even better, a race circuit or airfield) and
it is transformed into a hard-charging performance car. The chassis is very well
balanced and forgiving, the brakes are adequate and fade-free, and the low-down
torque of the 2.9 litre 6-cylinder engine hauls you out of bends and catapults
you down the next straight. The suspension, which round town was comfortable and
compliant, becomes firm and well-balanced, absorbing bumps and irregularities
without any of the body roll, wallowing and sloppiness of the equivalent Mk.3
Golf GTi - the Corrado is a very well sorted car indeed. This can be further
improved with a variety of aftermarket suspension options. Yet for all this performance (0-60 in 6.4s and a standing quarter of 15.1s @ 93mph) one can cruise at 70mph on the motorway with 4 adults (including driver) and their luggage and still return an mpg in the low 30's. With just the driver, a light right foot and a long motorway journey you can even expect to be in the 40's. The Corrado is based on the Mk2 Golf floor-pan with some parts donated from the Passat. However, some of the parts and much of the bodywork was made by Karmann. Those parts that are common to the Golf and/or Passat are cheap to buy, but the Karmann parts are very expensive (eg. £500 for an unpainted rear bumper) and it is this factor that made the Corrado expensive to produce and what ultimately killed it as VW didn't make sufficient profit on each car sold. The fact that the VR6 engine was also offered on the Golf for a significantly cheaper price probably did not help matters either. The VR6 engine for the Corrado was originally designed to benefit from a dual tract variable-length inlet manifold called the VSR (German: "Variables SaugRohr") and made by Pieronberg for VW Motorsport. This gave extra low-down torque but was deleted before production on cost grounds and was instead offered as an aftermarket option. The design was later sold to Schrick who redesigned it and offered it as the Schrick VGI ("Variable Geometry Intake") which is what I currently have fitted to my car. My particular Corrado was first registered in March 1996 and I bought it in
October 1996 with 7,662 miles on the clock. My car has been extremely reliable and has rarely missed a beat. It is only in the last year or two that anything has really gone wrong. Even then, repairs have been easy and relatively inexpensive. Prices have fallen significantly in recent years making a used Corrado VR6 a tempting purchase.
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