Volkswagen Corrado

Volkswagen Corrado at a glance

The Corrado is listed in our Volkswagen catalogue. The coupé it overlapped with is covered in the Volkswagen Scirocco history, and the hatchback that supplied its floorpan in the Volkswagen Golf guide.

History: a more upmarket coupé from Karmann

In the 1980s Volkswagen sold the Scirocco as its sporty coupé, also built by Karmann. The Corrado was positioned above it as a more powerful and considerably more expensive coupé. Prototypes ran under the name Taifun; the production name comes from the Spanish verb correr, "to run". The car was launched at the end of 1988, three years before the Scirocco went out of production, and gradually took its place.

Herbert Schäfer's design had flush-mounted windows and a body shell that Karmann partly zinc-plated and galvanised. Its most famous detail is the active rear spoiler. It rises automatically above 100 km/h in Europe and above 72 km/h in North America, retracts below 25 km/h, and can also be raised by the driver.

Production figures show a short peak: 24,389 Corrados were built in 1989 and 21,893 in 1990, then output fell to 8,623 in 1993 and 2,424 in the final year, 1995. The yearly figures add up to 97,465, slightly fewer than the published total of 97,521.

Platform and chassis

The Corrado's floorpan is based on the A2 platform of the Golf Mk2 and Jetta. Four-cylinder cars use A2 subframes, suspension, steering and brakes. When the VR6 engine arrived in 1992, Volkswagen fitted the rear axle and some front axle parts of the Golf Mk3 (A3). VR6 models can be recognised by wider front wings, a different bonnet and a new front bumper to make room for the six-cylinder engine.

Engines and performance

The G60 uses a scroll-type supercharger, the "G-Lader", named after the G-shaped spiral inside its housing. With 118 kW (160 PS) and 225 Nm it was the fastest Corrado until 1992. The VR6 has six cylinders in two banks only 15 degrees apart under a single cylinder head. The 2.9-litre version was the most powerful Corrado, with 140 kW (190 PS).

North America: the Corrado SLC

In the US and Canada the Corrado was launched as the G60. Sales started slowly because it cost much more than the Scirocco; Volkswagen of America later said it had "overequipped the Corrado". The VR6 was announced in October 1991 and arrived for 1992 as the Corrado SLC (Sport Luxury Coupe), with 133 kW (180 PS). About 3,500 VR6 cars were imported for 1992, and about 1,500 remaining G60s were sold alongside them. The 2.0 16V never reached North America, and 1994 was the last US model year. In Japan, Yanase dealers sold the car with the 1.8-litre engine only.

Special editions

• Storm (UK): 500 cars, 250 in Classic Green with cream leather and 250 in Mystic Blue with black leather, with BBS "Solitude" 15-inch wheels and heated leather seats as standard.
• G60 Jet (Germany): an economy version of the G60 in four colours with colour-coded interior.
• Campaign (UK, 1992): six VR6s in Dusty Mauve Pearl with red leather, given to Volkswagen UK's best six dealers; four were known to survive in 2022.
• Volkswagen Motorsport 16V G60: about two factory-built cars in Nugget Yellow, never put into series production.

Dimensions and weight

Reputation and legacy

Contemporary testers liked the way the Corrado drove. Tiff Needell praised the G60's front-wheel-drive handling on Top Gear in 1988, and Car magazine later listed the VR6 among "25 Cars You Must Drive Before You Die". Auto Express calls it one of Volkswagen's best-ever driver's cars and the VR6 "by far the most desirable version". Richard Hammond summed up its commercial problem on Top Gear in 2003: it was a future classic, but it "was too expensive, and nobody bought it". After the Corrado, Volkswagen had no compact coupé until the third-generation Scirocco of 2008.

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