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Tag: Type A

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Tuner Tuesday: A Tale of Twin Tornados – 1990 Volkswagen Corrado Magnum Wagons

We live in a world of soundbites and short attention spans. Some days it seems like a bit of a coup to remember just what you had for breakfast or where you left the keys last night – never mind to go back a week, a month, a year, or a decade. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a history teacher when I’m not doing this, and I’ve found it increasingly difficult to keep the attention of my students through the 1.5 hour lectures and if it’s a night class, forget it. The proliferation of the internet – the promise of limitless and immediate information – instead seems to be a flood which has washed away the interest, the researching, the enthusiasm for finding something new. But I came across something very interesting when looking for more information about an interesting duo of Corrados that our reader Jesse sent in. It was an internet thread on a forum – nothing special there. What was special was the timeline that thread covered and the subject matter. It started with the announcement of the purchase of the two prototype Corrado Magnum wagons in February, 2007. What followed was 15 pages of comments that spanned an amazing 9 years in what must be one of the longest threads out there documenting the owner trying to get these two unique G60 Corrados to the U.S.. If you want a snapshot of the development of the internet fora in one spot, look at the comments here. In typical VW Vortex style, there are insults tossed, claims the cars don’t exist, that the seller is a liar, threats to steal the cars and that they’re ugly. But there’s also adoration for the buyer who endured an arduous 7 years of storage in the Netherlands before finally getting the clearance to bring the forlorn Volkswagen prototypes to the U.S.. Back to my original point, though – after all that, you’d assume that they’d be locked away by the new owner, never to be seen again save an occasional show, yet here they both are for sale today, along with a few other neat and unique Corrados from the same collection:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1990 Volkswagen Corrado Magnum at LuxSport

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Wednesday Wheels Roundup

Time for another wheel roundup, and today I’ve focused on some great looking 5-spoke wheels. One of the cult BBS designs in the RF 3-piece wheel that was sold alongside the more common RS, RM and RA wheels in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This set looks awesome! The MOMO Stars look great and period correct on that M3; they’ll need some work but would be a cool winter project. The 993 Speedline Targa wheels are some of my favorite OEM Porsche wheels, and the Speedline Mistrals are a favorite aftermarket design – I’ve owned a set of one-piece Mistral wheels for some time that are for sale in the self-service classifieds right now. Then we have some great OZ Mitos, a popular design with the Porsche crowd, along with some Borbet Type As that are popular with the BMW and VW crowd. Both to be great in their custom configurations. Lastly we have some Fittipaldi wheels that were likely intended for a Fox-body Mustang but could work on a B3 Audi Coupe Quattro and would be really neat. I think the offset is a bit too aggressive for the early B2 cars but with some flares and stiff springs you might be able to make it work. What’s your favorite?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: BBS RF 17×8.5,9.5 5×112 Wheels on eBay

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Tuner Tuesday: 1996 Volkswagen Golf Supercharged Harlequin Replica

Pretty much everyone knows that Volkswagen enthusiasts are a special breed, but even within Volkswagen enthusiasts there are some really devoted fans of a particular sub-model. One such example of this is the Golf Harlequin, seemingly a joke by Volkswagen dealers to get rid of excess body panels. In truth, it’s one of the really neat exercises by a major that reinforces my belief that Volkswagen just does things differently than most other manufacturers. Seriously, could you imagine Mercedes-Benz shipping a bunch of S-Classes out to dealers in different colors and telling them to swap body panels around? The Harlequin Golf was and remains a neat page in Volkswagen history that generally brings a smile to VW fans. So, it’s no surprise that the Harlequins are very sought after, even if they appear all in one color because the dealer was lazy – no joke! But are they sought after enough to warrant a replica?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1996 Volkswagen Golf on eBay

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1986 BMW 325es M60 swap

Motor swaps are always a lot of fun, especially when someone else has done the heavy lifting. In the case of the E30 platform, it seems there is no end to the different motors that get swapped in. We’ve seen S14 retrofits into 325s, plenty of S50, S52 and even a few S54s pop up. But let’s say you really like torque. And aluminum. What’s an E30 enthusiast to do? Well, of course you could swap a M60 4.0 V8 out of the E34 540i into a 325es. In its original form, the 325es was a bit of a slowpoke good handler looking for more power. The E34 540i was a great motor toting around a fair amount of weight. Couple the two together, and Viola! You make the folks at the local tire depot quite happy. Take a look at this tuned 325:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 BMW 325es on eBay

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