Arif Khan's Blog

Corrado R32 Arrives

My old VR6 Corrado Storm - as featured on this blog previously - was revamped by a VW enthusiast to be a Corrado R32 with a mk5 Golf R32 engine now in it in 2009. The car was sold on in 2010. A few weeks ago I found the same car on eBay and ended up buying it.

The car is now producing around 280bhp as well as having had all rust treated and a full repsray.

I need to get it tuned but once that is done the car should be great :)

More photos and videos to come....

Knight Rider 2008 on Google Video

Due to popular demand (well, a comment from Raash) i thought id share this URL - i had to download this but now its been uploaded to Google Video you can just watch it online:

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8287742167739124243&hl=en&autoplay=1

Knight Rider 2008

I watched the new Knight Rider this morning - and to be honest i was pleasantly surprised! After such a massive show like Knight Rider any follow up has its work seriously cut out. We've already had 'team knight rider' and another attempt too - but this one appears to work.

For me the new driver of KITT needed to have emotional baggage to give him that edge and also needed to be a bit volatile in character - that is certainly delivered. The new KITT had to be modern and cool yet still have a good sense of humour and personality - that just about worked too. The Mustang GT 500 sounds great - and the gadgets in the car seem good too. The pilot even has a guest appearance from the Hoff!

What i didnt like was the amount of CGI! The iconic symbol / footage of KITT driving off a moving truck and on the road - which has now been upgraded to out of a plane and on to the road - was 100% CGI and it looks bad! I guess they were running out of budget!

The music is also a key factor - they have just about kept its essence whilst bringing it forward about 20 years.

Overall its a promising trailor and i hope they go ahead and run the series!

FTO vs Coupe

My brother Ghaalib put this together - i think its great!

Fiat Coupe Video

A group of us went to Guilford to drop off an FTO at a garage and drive back - here's a little video i put together of some of the video footage my brother took of the trip - this one selfishly has no FTO footage at all! We did swap which car the camera was in about 1/2 way along.

Corrado finally leaves #47

I got a message in the week from Dan - who was buying the Corrado Storm - saying that there was a change of plan! I feared the worse. Turned out he had his eyes on another project, yet he'd found another buyer for my car. The deal was him and his mate (also from the Corrado forum) would turn up and pay me the remaining money - and his friend would register the car in his name and the two of them would resolve the fact that they'd each paid a bit for the car between themselves.

So today (Friday evening) it all happened. They came over - checked the car over - paid the money - soretd out the V5 and away they went. They came in a Corrado VR6 anyway and departed in two Corrado VR6s!

The new owner - Ben - said he had plans for the car - when i pressed him about what they are he talked about a possible R32 conversion!! That sounded brilliant - would be great to follow someone doing that to your old car on forums - might end up in some VW performance magazine some day.

Just before they came to buy the car i took it out for spin. The handling is great, the noise from the car awesome, yet it doesnt have the same performance kick that the Fiat does - having a turbo adds a lot. I'm pleased with the sale.

Always sad to see a car like that go though.

Fiat + my Dad

This morning i drove to the hospital in the Fiat which meant my dad had to drive the Fiat back himself. He'd never driven it before! When i called him in the evening to ask him to pick me up i asked if he had gotten the car back in one piece this morning. He replied he had indeed and it was the best sports car he'd driven.

Not only that he even made me an offer to buy it from me! Funny :-)

Going...going...gone!

I sold the Corrado Storm today!

The only one tiny, weeney issue is that the sale is subject to me fixing the passenger window! I have 8 days to do it though. The seller was from the Corrado forum - i re-listed the car there last night and he responded immediately - and was over to see it by 12pm this afternoon. He brought his girl friend along and it turned out they both had Corrado G60's... surely thats the definition of a healthy relationship? :-)

They had a look over the car - both liked it - the guy drove it on a long test drive and was shocked with the smoothness of the engine despite the millage - got back - saw the paperwork and he made me an offer of £2,300 with a deposit today and rest a week on Monday. So the deal was done.

I was quite serious about wanting to make sure the car went to someone who would actually maintain it and keep it - also the Corrado forum has been a great soruce of money savings tips over the years - so i was definately biased towards these two when it came to the sale and really pleased they've bought it.

This gives me 8 days to fix the window.. and say my goodbyes to the car.

Anyone who has wanted to drive it previously too - you got a week!

Corrado Storm Finally For Sale

So i've been talking about it for AGES - here is the proof:

http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-uk/www/cars/VOLKSWAGEN+CORRADO/Ne-2-4-5-6-7-8-27-44-49-53-61-64-67-103-133-146,N-4294952939-4294954082-4294967159/search.action

Its interesting seeing my car right next to that other one! Very similar cars, one with 160k on the clock the other with 240k! One is 2750, the other is 3575.... and as its the lead up to Christmas neither of us will sell our cars i bet!

If you look at the other car tho.. you will see its sold by a trader calling themselves TCS which stands for The Corrado Specialist - so may try selling the car to those guys.... if i get desperate that is... its gonna be advertised in print and online for 3 weeks - then i'll wait till xmas period is over and probably re-advertise it around feb / march - may get the MoT done again too.

Krispy Kreme Video

Here is the video of us in Krispy Kreme - pre-drive!

Fiat Coupe 20V Turbos

I saw one in Wembley - ink black with a Zender body kit and tanned leather interior - but it had turbo issues and needed a respray - but was cheap.

No photos of that one i'm afraid.

I then saw this one in High Wycombe - but the AA car check didnt work out... shame...

Then viewed this one in Southampton - but the price wasnt right

Finally bought this one in racing green

I'm the second owner and its had a full Fiat service history. It needs its cambelt replaced ASAP though - and due to that the seller took off the cost of the cambelt from the price. Nice engine though - already started getting the modifications planned and ordering the parts - step 1 - K&N 57i induction kit.