All in the family

I made reference to my brother in previous posts on several occassions. He was one of the original Corrado enthusiasts back in the early 90s. I’ve still got volumes of tech notes that he downloaded from many of the original members of the CorradoList. Some of them are from the BBS days and they were printed using a Dot Matrix Printer! There were some great notes back then and very few of those original members are still around today. I was saddened to see Niko—who is in Europe—finally sell his corrado and is now racing BMWs. I did purchase a set of the European Spec headlights from him before he ended his efforts for the Corrado. (More on this later) My brother’s Corrado G60 had a similar history as mine. My particular example was manufactured in August of 1989 making it one of the original imported G60s on American soil. The Corrado sold poorly in North America with only 17000 units in the US and Canada. If you consider that it sold for five years, those are dismal sales records. Unlike in England, the corrado was a total flop on this side of the Atlantic. According to the original owner, my car was purchased from the VW dealership in 1992. That means it stood on the lot for more than two years before it sold. The car was used as the dealership delivery car and as a loaner vehicle for repairs. (That would explain some of the body damage to the bumpers and front airdam) My brother's car on the otherhand had no miles on the odometer and it too was purchased in 1992. However, no one even bothered to test drive his car so it gathered dust for two years before my brother purchased the car. He still owns it today. A 1990 model year automobile purchased new in 1992. The enthusiasm for the model never faded from our family. And my brother purchased another one, this time a 1992 SLC with a blown VR6 engine. Other than that, it too was in fairly good condition. He purchased that inoperative car for a mere $500! I’ve seen several corrados offered over the years for that price. One recently listed on Craiglists in Southern California for $500. I can confidently conclude that the Corrado will NEVER be a valuable classic regardless of what anyone may speculate. So rest assured, I am totally aware that any money I invest in my own car will never increase the resale value of this car. What I do is done purely for the enjoyment of the task and for the pleasure of the pursuit. Regarding the pictures, I drove the car one day to my parents home and found this opportunity to take all three corrados and replicate a german flag. Outside of a Corrado meet (Which is a rare occasion) you will never see three of these in one place at the same time.

Update 2021:

My brother has since sold his 92 SLC and decided to keep his 90 G60. He's built a rock solid PG bottom end with overbore pistons, forged connecting rods, ARP studs/Bolts and had the crankshaft balanced. The 8V cylinder head has been bored and rebuilt with new valve seats. He has two professionally rebuilt GLaders on the Shelf, one an original TEC 2RS built by New Dimensions back in the day. He's got several simultaneous project cars going on. Personally, I've slimmed down to just one - and relinquished my other Project MKII GTi to friends. 

It appears I was wrong about resale value of the Corrado. After so many years, I'm now seeing low mileage Corrados for sale fetching $15000, $20000, and some near $30000 on the used market. The trick is the car is near stock and low mileage. Modified high mileage examples are not nearly as valuable as the stock examples.