1991 Volkswagen Corrado VR6

I've been a passionate about cars since I was a four years old, and was dreaming of owning Lambos and Ferraris if ever wining the lottery, and filled about two of my room's walls with posters of sports cars and tuned cars, by the age of twelve.

Most of the magazines that I had at that time were brought to me by a neighbor that was traveling to Austria quite often, and was bringing quite many of them, which unfortunately were published in German but, reading specs for a car guy is no mission impossible no matter the language, and in most of the cases the pics were actually luring me more than NMs and HPs.

One of my favorite ones back then, which were relatively new at that time, and tuned in the German style, were Corrados and Golf MK IIIs. From what I remember ABT was tuning them back then, and it seems to be still doing that for Audi, even these days.

At that time, Romania didn't had sports cars to be seen quite often as nowadays, thus getting to touch a Corrado, have a look through the windshield, and hear its engine roar, for a twelve year kid, was a quite rare event.

This one is a 1991 almost stock Volkswagen Corrado that I saw when I got to spend two days in Gothenburg, Sweden, about three years ago. It has a 2.9 VR6 engine and 190 HP with an exhaust sound of its kind. The VR6 engine seems to be somehow of a mix between an inline six and a V6, a bit longer than a V6 but, not that wide, placed under that 90's style bonnet.

The name VR6 comes from the German initials for a V engine (German: V-Motor) and a straight (inline) engine (German: Reihenmotor), therefore the VR engine is described as a "Vee-Inline engine" (VR-Motor). VR6 engines shares a common cylinder head for the two banks of cylinders. Only two camshafts are needed for the engine, regardless of whether the engine has two or four valves per cylinder. This simplifies engine construction and reduces costs. Since the cylinders are not located on the centreline of the combined cylinder head, the lengths of the intake and exhaust ports are different for each bank. Without compensation, these varying port lengths would result in the two banks of cylinders producing different amounts of power at a particular engine RPM. The difference in port lengths are compensated for with the length of the runners in the intake manifold, the camshaft overlap and lift profile, or a combination thereof
A bit of history from wikipedia on what a VR6 really is, and where does it has its name from.

Volkswagen has had some VR5s as well, produced for Volkswagen Bora, Golf MKIII and MKIV, and Passat. They ditched the VR6s and VR5s once they started downgrading the engines, and mount turbos on them, to reduce consumption and make them more eco friendly, while the new ones being somehow being quite powerful. It was obvious that they wouldn't mount the old engines endlessly and to compete against other car manufacturers they jumped in the downgrading fuel efficiency race that left reliability aside.

Not a fan of new cars and would probably never buy one. I feel like the price is way overvalued when out of the factory, and that nowadays cars are mostly meant to be functional as long as the warranty goes. I bet thirty years from now we won't see any of the new cars that we have nowadays still running the streets, like those good old ones do.

For the moment I don't own a car, and never had a new one but, my option for when I'll buy a vehicle will be something around the year 2000, probably a gasoline one, not a diesel, and I would definitely not buy any that is produced after the year 2006. I believe that the best cars, meaning most reliable ones, have been produced till 1998.

The newer ones have definitely more gizmos and options, and they are more pocket friendly when at the gas pump but, when it comes to reliability the balance tilts towards the older ones. Not too many sensors and computers, and light materials that break easier, leading to reduced maintenance costs over a longer period of time.

That doesn't mean that you would find a Corrado like this one, or any other one considered a sports car, at a cheap price just because they're old. I've noticed that the quite rare and reliable ones , having a bit of history and quite a few passionate of the brand, hold their prices very well.

They deserve it if you ask me, and I'd rather own a thirty years old one that runs and keep on running without asking for the mechanic too often, and it's cheaper to repair than a newer model that has rain sensors on it, and parking sensors, and massage seats but, gets broken all the time. Maybe I'm getting old but, I'm starting to appreciate this types of cars more than the new ones, no matter how much tech the latter ones have to offer. I would trade the 2020 comfort, shinnies and futuristic looks for a Corrado like this one at any time. I feel more in touch with those...

Let me know in the comments sections what's your favorite all time car, or the one that you had as a poster on your bedroom when being a kid, and how much does reliability and uniqueness matters to you when buying a car.

Thanks for attention,
Adrian