Guess who's back on the road again!?
The Corrado has been good over winter but the near side ball joint has been knocking since I got it (must have caught it off the Golf, see above..)
It came up on the list of notes when the Corrado was serviced, so I decided to book it in to get that, a new track rod and a wishbone bush fitted. The Corrado has never felt particularly tight at the front end, so hopefully this will sort it.
I booked it in for 28th Jan, but since then the ball joint has taken a turn for the worse and the car weaves slightly, but disconcertingly from side to side, so I think it's on its last legs. I'm worried it may not make it to 28th, so I decided to swap it for the Golf.
The Golf hasn't moved for 2 months, so the battery was flat as expected. My missus went to pick it up from the storage place but couldn't get it started and ended up calling the AA. It turned out the alarm/immobiliser had messed itself up and needed to be reset.
Once the alarm was disarmed, it started on the first touch of the key!
I can't believe how much I've missed driving it... it's a lot more rugged than the Corrado, it feels completely square, and has a few more rattles, but it has put the Corrado's (albeit comprimised) handling to shame. That said, the Golf still needs its wheel alignment sorting after the ball joint was replaced. And that noise once it passes 4500rpm...
Even though it's nowhere near as quick as the VR6, it feels so good taking it all the way to the limiter.
One downside though - the driver's side electric window has stopped working - it was working fine before it went into storage, so hopefully it will free up when I look at it. I have a spare, nearly new regulator but I promised it to walchy a couple of days ago, so want to try and fix the one on the car if possible.
Also... stay tuned for an announcement about a debut appearance in a national publication..!