Weekend pleasure car to complement your AMG?

[Engadine]

Not an AMG owner but this is the weekend toy that takes me across country lanes to my favourite pubs. A decent Z3 can be picked up for not very much cash and provides reliable top down motoring. Not as much fun as my Eunos which was up there with an Elise for pure motoring enjoyment but I like the way it looks.

View attachment 145574

Eunos / MX5 is definitely one of the most pure and fun to drive cars of the last 30 years. Such a bargain also. There are many supercars which are less fun.

 

[TrueSpirit]

I'm a sucker for a convertible. It sounds pretty good. 4.4l naturally aspirated v8. I'm looking to get a super charger installed to bring it somewhere in the 500hp ball park. And taking out the resonator first

 

[Jobsworth]

Eunos / MX5 is definitely one of the most pure and fun to drive cars of the last 30 years. Such a bargain also. There are many supercars which are less fun.

Yeah, I’ve got one of those too

J-2 Limited. 800 made

 

[Iggu]

Lovely idea between Dad and daughter, and whatever model, Mini’s are always great fun to drive.
BMW have kept and undoubtedly enhanced the original idea of drivability, the JCW even more so.
If ever in my neck of the woods Ant, a steer is always available.

Never driven a JCW but 20 years or so ago (yikes) my girlfriend had a manual R53 Cooper S (supercharged) which was a hoot. I crashed it - more than once - wringing the absolute life out of it. Superb car. I wanted to track it at Oulton Park but she wouldn’t let me ….

 

[davymead]

Yeah, I’ve got one of those too

J-2 Limited. 800 made

Such a brilliant car to drive, and as you certainly know are no trouble much to own. Not your particular model but there are alot of MX5’s living on the IOW, a perfect place to drive one methinks.

 

[E55BOF]

...I did not know that ....on the saloon the 218 CLS 350, 400, 500 (4.7).....are all ULEZ friendly

The pre-facelift V6 diesel isn't, and the only engines offered in the SB in the UK were the 250 diesel, which may be, the V6 diesel and the 63. The post-facelift diesels will be, but they'll also use Adblue; no chance...

 

[davymead]

Never driven a JCW but 20 years or so ago (yikes) my girlfriend had a manual R53 Cooper S (supercharged) which was a hoot. I crashed it - more than once - wringing the absolute life out of it. Superb car. I wanted to track it at Oulton Park but she wouldn’t let me ….

Nothings changed, still an absolute hoot to drive and in my F56 JCW’s case the superb BMW 2.0ltr lump gives the car an extra dollop of performance. Pound for pound difficult to better IMHO.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

If i remember right, the G60 was LHD but officially available through main dealers in the UK. I wonder whether that changed during production lifecycle.

I had a RHD G60. J reg. black metallic. A foolish attempt to have a baby friendly 2+2, bought as an ex-company car from work.

Lighter to throw around than the VR.

My wife and I advertised it in Exchange and Mart with three landline phone numbers. (This was in ‘96) “If you want to see it, come round on Saturday at 10am,” said the three of us to all callers.

Not realising that more than 30 separate people had called.

We had a crowd waiting in the garden. More than 20 separate people were after it.

It went to the first person who turned up.

Different times.

 

[Iggu]

I had a RHD G60. J reg. black metallic. A foolish attempt to have a baby friendly 2+2, bought as an ex-company car from work.

Lighter to throw around than the VR.

My wife and I advertised it in Exchange and Mart with three landline phone numbers. (This was in ‘96) “If you want to see it, come round on Saturday at 10am,” said the three of us to all callers.

Not realising that more than 30 separate people had called.

We had a crowd waiting in the garden. More than 20 separate people were after it.

It went to the first person who turned up.

Different times.

View attachment 145649

Lovely example!
Prices for Corrados are on the up. Sharp examples are selling for £20k+ and the rarer ones (like my Storm) are in demand if the provenance is good. The prices for fast Fords (RS Turbos, Cosworths etc) seems to have peaked but I think (hope) that classic fast VWs are the next in line. A good Golf GTI 16V Mk II for eg would be a good investment I think.
I had all this in mind when I bought my Corrado but it’s so good to drive that these intentions are now all out of the window. Sod it, I’m owning it to drive it - on roads like these.

 

[sgregory124]

Eunos / MX5 is definitely one of the most pure and fun to drive cars of the last 30 years. Such a bargain also. There are many supercars which are less fun.

Perhaps caveat that statement? ‘If you’re no taller than Danny De Vito’

 

[E55BOF]

View attachment 145629
I'm a sucker for a convertible. It sounds pretty good. 4.4l naturally aspirated v8. I'm looking to get a supercharger installed to bring it somewhere in the 500hp ball park. And taking out the resonator first

Doing it on the cheap, then, eh...

 

[Londonscottish]

Lovely example!
Prices for Corrados are on the up. Sharp examples are selling for £20k+ and the rarer ones (like my Storm) are in demand if the provenance is good. The prices for fast Fords (RS Turbos, Cosworths etc) seems to have peaked but I think (hope) that classic fast VWs are the next in line. A good Golf GTI 16V Mk II for eg would be a good investment I think.
I had all this in mind when I bought my Corrado but it’s so good to drive that these intentions are now all out of the window. Sod it, I’m owning it to drive it - on roads like these.View attachment 145651

God, I can almost hear the soundtrack as that VR6 rips through that landscape.

I'm sure I've told this story before but I was working for a fast-growing tech company in 1991 when I put an order in for my first company car; I originally chose a Mazda MX3 V6 but my allowance went up. I then borrowed a colleague's Golf VR6 and spent a weekend howling through tunnels in West London with the windows down. That was enough to make me switch to the Golf. But then my allowance went up once more and I could get into a 200SX Touring and that was that - the main thing being the better chassis.

Of course, once I had a 140mph Coupe, my mate had to upgrade his Corrado from the 2.0 to the VR6 to keep up. And my other best petrolhead mate followed suit with a Fiat Coupe Turbo 20v. Happy days.

Roll on three or four years and my mate sold his VR6 to one of our mutual friends and he and I turned out to be planning to drive from London to Edinburgh on the same day. Cue a two car Cannonball Run and by far my all-time best London to Edinburgh time by a huge margin.

Anyway, the Corrado was a great are and I'm sure it's still a great steer today. Keep on enjoying it!

 

[Jobsworth]

Perhaps caveat that statement? ‘If you’re no taller than Danny De Vito’

Lol! I’m 6’2”

 

[ALFAitalia]

Corrado's do respond well to light mods if you are more interested in driving than originality. A better exhaust (they are quite restrictive from the factory)....and lowering them onto bigger wheels will sharpen the handling further over the caster wheels with balloon tyres they come with. The wheel/tyre combo is the only thing that dates it visually..especially those thin multispoke BBS ones. Mine did not come with this thankfully (impossible to properly clean. Mine had these.


The BBS were not stock even for in the Storm.....there were a dealer fit option....factory ones where 6 spoke like in this catalogue for the Storm model

https://autocatalogarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/VW-Corrado-Storm-Edition-1995-UK.pdf

 

[Iggu]

Corrado's do respond well to light mods if you are more interested in driving than originality. A better exhaust (they are quite restrictive from the factory)....and lowering them onto bigger wheels will sharpen the handling further over the caster wheels with balloon tyres they come with. The wheel/tyre combo is the only thing that dates it visually..especially those thin multispoke BBS ones. Mine did not come with this thankfully (impossible to properly clean. Mine had these.
View attachment 145672

The BBS were not stock even for in the Storm.....there were a dealer fit option....factory ones where 6 spoke like in this catalogue for the Storm model

https://autocatalogarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/VW-Corrado-Storm-Edition-1995-UK.pdf

Yeah I have those factory fit 6 spoke Solitudes on mine. The Speedlines in your pic were for the standard VR6. Both are great wheels.
My car is 100% OEM as it left the factory in Osnabruck in 1995 - I agree it could be modded but that’s not an option for me with this car. I want to keep it totally original. I have full provenance - even down to knowing it was the 8th Storm off the line, out of 505 made (250 in Mystic Blue like mine and 255 in Dragon Green).

 

[TrueSpirit]

Doing it on the cheap, then, eh...

100% an m6 convertible is 20k hahaha and then I'll bet there's a few K on top to bring it into good condition. I'm cheap and proud of my primark dna

 

[AMGeed]

I don't have a weekend/pleasure car to compliment my shed. But if I did it would be either an SLK cab' or an open top MX5.
Small inexpensive fun cars with an open top for fine weather. Never had one before and I'd like to try one.

 

[Wearsthefoxhat]

Have this one for sunny days..

 

[Iggu]

I don't have a weekend/pleasure car to compliment my shed. But if I did it would be either an SLK cab' or an open top MX5.
Small inexpensive fun cars with an open top for fine weather. Never had one before and I'd like to try one.

I’ve given some thought to an SLK too. I’m 6’3” though and thought I’d read somewhere that the seats are pretty un-adjustable in them? Hoping this is wrong as I’d like to give one a go some day.

 

[E55BOF]

Have this one for sunny days..

I had one of those too. It was a bit of a shed, and I ended up scrapping it when the camchain tensioner let go at about 4000 rpm and thew engine was scrap...

Mine was an early one -1994. It had the full genuine AMG bodykit on it; I sold it to The SL Shop, and he doubled his offer when he found that out.

I’ve given some thought to an SLK too. I’m 6’3” though and thought I’d read somewhere that the seats are pretty un-adjustable in them? Hoping this is wrong as I’d like to give one a go some day.

There's plenty of adjustment if you're 5'8", but at 6'3" you're likely to be a bit tight for legroom. I have a 31" inside leg, and I wouldn't want to be any more than that.