It’s a funny old thing nostalgia, isn’t it? One minute you’re innocently browsing YouTube as you do, the next you’re sucked into a 5-hour long rabbit hole of ‘Remember Need For Speed Underground 2?’ video essays. Maybe it’s just me, but this seems to be happening on an alarmingly regular basis now, and it’s gotten to the point where I almost feel as though I’m living my life constantly looking in the rear-view mirror sometimes (but hey, given the dystopian hell that is Britain post 2020 who can blame me for longing after simpler times?).
Be mindful though, that the comfort blanket that nostalgia provides can sometimes smother you entirely, and can make even rational people do slightly daft things. A prime example of said daftness would be the acquisition of the car this project thread is dedicated to, a humble Corsa C SXi from 2005. What’s so daft about that? Well on the face of it nothing really, but the things the nostalgia bug makes you do will be revealed later on.
Why a Corsa C then, of all things? Well, there are several reasons; firstly, I learned how to drive in one and subsequently passed my driving test in the thing, which tends to forge a bit of a sentimental bond between man and machine. Secondly, I’ve always quite liked the shape of the second generation Corsa (well, technically third gen but I won’t bore you with Vauxhall trivia here, this isn’t migweb!) Finally, I grew up in what’s now often referred to as ‘the Max Power era’, so you can probably see where this is going….. Although spoiler alert, there are no combat kits or Lambo doors to be seen in this thread, so sorry to disappoint you on that front! I always used to select the Corsa C as my first car when playing such gems as the aforementioned Need For Speed Underground 2 so it’s safe to say they hold a nostalgic place in my heart.
But wait, hang on, is a Corsa C even ‘retro’? Well look at it this way, next year the car in question will be turning 20 and the platform itself will be celebrating a quarter-century since it first went into production. Yes, you are old. I know, it hurt me as well!
Now I understand that these cars aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s absolutely fine. They did suffer from a bit of an image problem back in the day but, in much the same way as the Nova that preceded it, things have come full circle now I feel, and it’s time to start viewing these motors in a different light.
My story with this humble Corsa actually began way back in 2018, the same day that I bid a harrowing farewell to my previous project (a crusty Corsa B, which also actually has it’s own build thread on here). After dropping my old B off at the scrap yard and picking myself up off the floor, the only logical thing to do was to jump to what comes after B; yep you guessed it, it was time for a C.
A deal had already been struck before I arrived at the forecourt, and a brief test drive later saw me handing over not a lot of money for a very clean, very low milage (21,000 to be exact), one lady owner from new, Corsa C SXi 1.2 in the magnificent Ultra Blue pearlescent. I must say for a ‘budget’ car from the early 2000’s, this thing felt pretty well spec’d, and was practically a Rolls Royce in comparison to the B. Air con, heated door mirrors, one-touch electric windows, steering wheel stereo controls, this thing felt loaded! I was absolutely made up, and the joy I felt driving it away after the misery of scrapping my old car a mere hour earlier was hard to describe. It was an emotional rollercoaster of a day for sure!
Once I got it home, I hatched a plan. There was never a chance that this would be staying standard, the question was, what direction do I go with it? Full on Max Power spec? Smoothed and Euro’d? A cheeky redtop swap, perhaps? Now back in the day when these first came out, a lot of people were modifying them in wild and crazy ways, but some were also keeping things quite subtle. As much as 17 year old me would have loved nothing more than to have slapped a big fibreglass bodykit on it, I’m not 17 any more, and I fancied doing more of an OEM build with a few cheeky extras thrown in for good measure. Quickly, thoughts of rare Irmscher parts and little-known factory offered upgrades entered my head and things progressed from there.
The first mod was to have the rear windows tinted in a light smoke as a local company was having a discount on them at the time and I thought they’d tie in nicely with the rear lights (which are black on SXi and SRi models).
My second upgrade was the stereo. Now my hand was actually somewhat forced by the car here as daft as it sounds as the factory CD30 unit has a bit of a ‘quirk’. The quirk in question being that it’ll just randomly decide to turn itself on at times while the engine is turned off and just tune into whatever radio station you were last listening too – not ideal! There were more than a couple of times when I would awake in the dead of night to hear what sounded like muffled voices coming from the garage, then go creeping downstairs with a heavy object in hand, make my way into the garage only to find that the sodding thing had somehow tuned itself into Radio 1! If you’re familiar with the cult film ‘Christine’, you’ll know the vibe – it was bloody terrifying (and a bit funny). Anyway, after the 5th time this happened, I decided the novelty had worn off so I treated the car to a swanky new Pioneer head unit (I also later upgraded the door speakers for some choice JL Audio numbers). Needless to say, there have been no more late-night garage visits since.
Shortly after this I did a bit of ‘tarting up’ around the car, replacing the usual things like wiper blades and filters, as well as polishing up the faded headlights using the old toothpaste trick.
One day, during the dark days of lockdown, my car wouldn’t start. As I’d had the foresight to add breakdown cover to my insurance a week earlier, I called the AA out. The chap who arrived advised me that the battery was toast and replaced it with a nice new Bosch one (no expenses spared right). He also noticed that there was no battery clamp so once he’d gone I did some investigating, what I found was shocking! I whipped the new battery out and shone a torch into the depths of the battery compartment to find not only was there no clamp, but the tray was loose and there was a massive gaping hole in the metal directly underneath it! There was a bit of an eggy smell also so my guess is that the old battery had developed a leak at some point and the acid had eaten a hole in the car. It had that suspicious look of someone having gone in there before and they’d seemingly had a bit of a nightmare of a time as well as the plastic battery shield that is attached to the scuttle panel looked to have been crudely snapped off. Quite how it had gone through who knows how many MOT’s with no battery clamp is beyond me, but there was no way I was leaving it in that state.
I rang round a few bodyshops and eventually found a local guy who said he’d check it out if I brought it down. Luckily, he said he could sort it and on New Year’s eve of all times. I managed to source a new tray and clamp off Ebay and even found a replacement scuttle panel complete with intact battery shield down the local breaker’s yard. I managed to have the car welded, painted and new parts fitted in a day for a couple hundred quid which I didn’t think was too bad as it’s probably saved the car in the long run thinking about it. Good job I caught it when I did really.
More calamity soon followed as I had a handbrake cable snap on me at the top of a steep hill the day before I was supposed to have some custom work done, a suspension spring snap a couple days before an MOT and then my car developed a crazy indicator problem. This turned out to be a dodgy flasher relay, which took a bit of head scratching to diagnose at first. What would happen was sometimes when I indicated to go right, the ‘ticking’ noise would be extra fast, as though a bulb was blown, but NO bulbs would be illuminated on that side, which was massively annoying and also a bit dangerous. I did some research and started by swapping bulbs around, then changed the indicator stalk but still the problem persisted. Eventually I stumbled across a YouTube video of someone having a similar issue and discovered that the flasher relay actually lived in a separate fuse box that the Haynes manual refused to acknowledge (FGS!) Upon swapping this out for a brand new genuine GM unit I finally fixed the problem that had been plaguing the car for months at that point.
Feeling jubilant, I felt it was time for some more mods. First up were some swanky black headlights which also have an angel eye option that you can splice into your sidelights. I feel like these suit the car and tie in well with the rear lights and tints quite nicely. I then did a few little dress up bits, like adding some chrome SXi kick plates to the door sills and fitting some obligatory HEKO wind defectors (complete with blue pinstriping because I’m artistic like that).
I then decided that it was time to start making some serious changes. I sourced some SRi wheels from a nice guy who lived locally as I’d always liked the design of these and felt they’d set my OEM vision for the car off a treat. At 16 inches, these are an inch bigger than the standard SXi rims and also sit 10mm further out as the SRi’s had bigger brake calipers. Sadly, these wheels stayed in my garage for the best part of 5 years before I eventually got round to fitting them – I guess sometimes life just gets in the way, you know? That’s sort of why I’m writing this thread now, as I’ve only very recently got them on and I’ve got a new lease of life for the scene again I’m pleased to say. Anyway, the wheels were eventually taken out of storage, de-spidered and relieved of any dust and cobwebs (of which there were plenty) and taken down to a local wheel refurbing company for a complete overhaul. I didn’t want to do them in the factory silver as I felt it was too safe and a bit boring, and I’ve never really loved black alloys so the obvious choice was a lovely gunmetal grey finish. The guys did a superb job on the wheels, removing what were some pretty serious kerb marks and getting in and around the awkward little griffin badges on the centre caps in the process. I went for a deep gunmetal grey powder coat with added metallic flakes in the lacquer which really POP whenever it’s sunny. I’m made up with them and I think they’ve completely transformed the overall look of the car. Rubber wise I opted for Yokohama Advan Fleva V701s, mainly because I enjoy looking at the tread pattern, but they’re actually pretty good tyres to be fair.
BEFORE
AFTER
In between buying the new wheels and actually fitting them, I also decided I was fed up with the factory suspension. Anyone who knows these cars will know that the standard springs snap for fun and are seemingly made out of chocolate. After having a couple snap on me I realised that merely replacing them like-for-like wasn’t the way to go, and so it was time to hit the car with the lowering stick. Now I didn’t want the car to be ‘slammed’ as that wasn’t the look I was going for here. Instead, I eventually opted for a subtle -30mm drop all round courtesy of some H&R lowering springs. While I was at it, I had the standard shocks replaced with Bilstein units up front and KYB units at the rear as the factory ones were all completely shot by this point. To say this transformed the handling of the car would be an understatement! This thing is legitimately like a go-kart now (especially since I’ve twinned the suspension upgrades with the Yokohamas) and you can throw it into corners at silly (yet legal) speeds with confidence, knowing that it’ll hang on. It wasn’t the cheapest of upgrades to do but my word was it worth it. Quiet, tight country roads are a real event now, and isn’t that what being a petrolhead is supposed to be all about at the end of the day? The joy of driving.
(Even got a cameo from Godzilla himself when I went to have the new suspension fitted).
I think that pretty much brings us up to present date. If you’ve somehow managed to read through all my rambling then I doff my beanie hat to you. Future plans include spraying and fitting the lovely rare parts I’ve managed to pick up over the years, including an Irmscher ‘heck’ spoiler and genuine Hagus door mirrors. I’m also on the look out for an Irmscher back box as well to keep the OEM theme going. You’ll also be pleased to know that the combat kit and Lambo door hinges are on order as I type this….JK.
Oh yeah, did I mention it made it onto the cover of a magazine? Remember that Need For Speed Underground 2 rabbit hole from earlier? Yeah, the PS2 may have been liberated from the attic…. Amazing how the game offers you the best car on the roster right from the start!
I also recently hit a milage milstone while pulling into my garage which i thought was amusing (if you know, you know).
I’ll be sure to try and update this thread as and when I do more to the car, but for now I’ll leave you with a couple of very recent pics of how it’s looking currently. Thanks for reading.
Be mindful though, that the comfort blanket that nostalgia provides can sometimes smother you entirely, and can make even rational people do slightly daft things. A prime example of said daftness would be the acquisition of the car this project thread is dedicated to, a humble Corsa C SXi from 2005. What’s so daft about that? Well on the face of it nothing really, but the things the nostalgia bug makes you do will be revealed later on.
Why a Corsa C then, of all things? Well, there are several reasons; firstly, I learned how to drive in one and subsequently passed my driving test in the thing, which tends to forge a bit of a sentimental bond between man and machine. Secondly, I’ve always quite liked the shape of the second generation Corsa (well, technically third gen but I won’t bore you with Vauxhall trivia here, this isn’t migweb!) Finally, I grew up in what’s now often referred to as ‘the Max Power era’, so you can probably see where this is going….. Although spoiler alert, there are no combat kits or Lambo doors to be seen in this thread, so sorry to disappoint you on that front! I always used to select the Corsa C as my first car when playing such gems as the aforementioned Need For Speed Underground 2 so it’s safe to say they hold a nostalgic place in my heart.
But wait, hang on, is a Corsa C even ‘retro’? Well look at it this way, next year the car in question will be turning 20 and the platform itself will be celebrating a quarter-century since it first went into production. Yes, you are old. I know, it hurt me as well!
Now I understand that these cars aren’t everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s absolutely fine. They did suffer from a bit of an image problem back in the day but, in much the same way as the Nova that preceded it, things have come full circle now I feel, and it’s time to start viewing these motors in a different light.
My story with this humble Corsa actually began way back in 2018, the same day that I bid a harrowing farewell to my previous project (a crusty Corsa B, which also actually has it’s own build thread on here). After dropping my old B off at the scrap yard and picking myself up off the floor, the only logical thing to do was to jump to what comes after B; yep you guessed it, it was time for a C.
A deal had already been struck before I arrived at the forecourt, and a brief test drive later saw me handing over not a lot of money for a very clean, very low milage (21,000 to be exact), one lady owner from new, Corsa C SXi 1.2 in the magnificent Ultra Blue pearlescent. I must say for a ‘budget’ car from the early 2000’s, this thing felt pretty well spec’d, and was practically a Rolls Royce in comparison to the B. Air con, heated door mirrors, one-touch electric windows, steering wheel stereo controls, this thing felt loaded! I was absolutely made up, and the joy I felt driving it away after the misery of scrapping my old car a mere hour earlier was hard to describe. It was an emotional rollercoaster of a day for sure!
Once I got it home, I hatched a plan. There was never a chance that this would be staying standard, the question was, what direction do I go with it? Full on Max Power spec? Smoothed and Euro’d? A cheeky redtop swap, perhaps? Now back in the day when these first came out, a lot of people were modifying them in wild and crazy ways, but some were also keeping things quite subtle. As much as 17 year old me would have loved nothing more than to have slapped a big fibreglass bodykit on it, I’m not 17 any more, and I fancied doing more of an OEM build with a few cheeky extras thrown in for good measure. Quickly, thoughts of rare Irmscher parts and little-known factory offered upgrades entered my head and things progressed from there.
The first mod was to have the rear windows tinted in a light smoke as a local company was having a discount on them at the time and I thought they’d tie in nicely with the rear lights (which are black on SXi and SRi models).
My second upgrade was the stereo. Now my hand was actually somewhat forced by the car here as daft as it sounds as the factory CD30 unit has a bit of a ‘quirk’. The quirk in question being that it’ll just randomly decide to turn itself on at times while the engine is turned off and just tune into whatever radio station you were last listening too – not ideal! There were more than a couple of times when I would awake in the dead of night to hear what sounded like muffled voices coming from the garage, then go creeping downstairs with a heavy object in hand, make my way into the garage only to find that the sodding thing had somehow tuned itself into Radio 1! If you’re familiar with the cult film ‘Christine’, you’ll know the vibe – it was bloody terrifying (and a bit funny). Anyway, after the 5th time this happened, I decided the novelty had worn off so I treated the car to a swanky new Pioneer head unit (I also later upgraded the door speakers for some choice JL Audio numbers). Needless to say, there have been no more late-night garage visits since.
Shortly after this I did a bit of ‘tarting up’ around the car, replacing the usual things like wiper blades and filters, as well as polishing up the faded headlights using the old toothpaste trick.
One day, during the dark days of lockdown, my car wouldn’t start. As I’d had the foresight to add breakdown cover to my insurance a week earlier, I called the AA out. The chap who arrived advised me that the battery was toast and replaced it with a nice new Bosch one (no expenses spared right). He also noticed that there was no battery clamp so once he’d gone I did some investigating, what I found was shocking! I whipped the new battery out and shone a torch into the depths of the battery compartment to find not only was there no clamp, but the tray was loose and there was a massive gaping hole in the metal directly underneath it! There was a bit of an eggy smell also so my guess is that the old battery had developed a leak at some point and the acid had eaten a hole in the car. It had that suspicious look of someone having gone in there before and they’d seemingly had a bit of a nightmare of a time as well as the plastic battery shield that is attached to the scuttle panel looked to have been crudely snapped off. Quite how it had gone through who knows how many MOT’s with no battery clamp is beyond me, but there was no way I was leaving it in that state.
I rang round a few bodyshops and eventually found a local guy who said he’d check it out if I brought it down. Luckily, he said he could sort it and on New Year’s eve of all times. I managed to source a new tray and clamp off Ebay and even found a replacement scuttle panel complete with intact battery shield down the local breaker’s yard. I managed to have the car welded, painted and new parts fitted in a day for a couple hundred quid which I didn’t think was too bad as it’s probably saved the car in the long run thinking about it. Good job I caught it when I did really.
More calamity soon followed as I had a handbrake cable snap on me at the top of a steep hill the day before I was supposed to have some custom work done, a suspension spring snap a couple days before an MOT and then my car developed a crazy indicator problem. This turned out to be a dodgy flasher relay, which took a bit of head scratching to diagnose at first. What would happen was sometimes when I indicated to go right, the ‘ticking’ noise would be extra fast, as though a bulb was blown, but NO bulbs would be illuminated on that side, which was massively annoying and also a bit dangerous. I did some research and started by swapping bulbs around, then changed the indicator stalk but still the problem persisted. Eventually I stumbled across a YouTube video of someone having a similar issue and discovered that the flasher relay actually lived in a separate fuse box that the Haynes manual refused to acknowledge (FGS!) Upon swapping this out for a brand new genuine GM unit I finally fixed the problem that had been plaguing the car for months at that point.
Feeling jubilant, I felt it was time for some more mods. First up were some swanky black headlights which also have an angel eye option that you can splice into your sidelights. I feel like these suit the car and tie in well with the rear lights and tints quite nicely. I then did a few little dress up bits, like adding some chrome SXi kick plates to the door sills and fitting some obligatory HEKO wind defectors (complete with blue pinstriping because I’m artistic like that).
I then decided that it was time to start making some serious changes. I sourced some SRi wheels from a nice guy who lived locally as I’d always liked the design of these and felt they’d set my OEM vision for the car off a treat. At 16 inches, these are an inch bigger than the standard SXi rims and also sit 10mm further out as the SRi’s had bigger brake calipers. Sadly, these wheels stayed in my garage for the best part of 5 years before I eventually got round to fitting them – I guess sometimes life just gets in the way, you know? That’s sort of why I’m writing this thread now, as I’ve only very recently got them on and I’ve got a new lease of life for the scene again I’m pleased to say. Anyway, the wheels were eventually taken out of storage, de-spidered and relieved of any dust and cobwebs (of which there were plenty) and taken down to a local wheel refurbing company for a complete overhaul. I didn’t want to do them in the factory silver as I felt it was too safe and a bit boring, and I’ve never really loved black alloys so the obvious choice was a lovely gunmetal grey finish. The guys did a superb job on the wheels, removing what were some pretty serious kerb marks and getting in and around the awkward little griffin badges on the centre caps in the process. I went for a deep gunmetal grey powder coat with added metallic flakes in the lacquer which really POP whenever it’s sunny. I’m made up with them and I think they’ve completely transformed the overall look of the car. Rubber wise I opted for Yokohama Advan Fleva V701s, mainly because I enjoy looking at the tread pattern, but they’re actually pretty good tyres to be fair.
BEFORE
AFTER
In between buying the new wheels and actually fitting them, I also decided I was fed up with the factory suspension. Anyone who knows these cars will know that the standard springs snap for fun and are seemingly made out of chocolate. After having a couple snap on me I realised that merely replacing them like-for-like wasn’t the way to go, and so it was time to hit the car with the lowering stick. Now I didn’t want the car to be ‘slammed’ as that wasn’t the look I was going for here. Instead, I eventually opted for a subtle -30mm drop all round courtesy of some H&R lowering springs. While I was at it, I had the standard shocks replaced with Bilstein units up front and KYB units at the rear as the factory ones were all completely shot by this point. To say this transformed the handling of the car would be an understatement! This thing is legitimately like a go-kart now (especially since I’ve twinned the suspension upgrades with the Yokohamas) and you can throw it into corners at silly (yet legal) speeds with confidence, knowing that it’ll hang on. It wasn’t the cheapest of upgrades to do but my word was it worth it. Quiet, tight country roads are a real event now, and isn’t that what being a petrolhead is supposed to be all about at the end of the day? The joy of driving.
(Even got a cameo from Godzilla himself when I went to have the new suspension fitted).
I think that pretty much brings us up to present date. If you’ve somehow managed to read through all my rambling then I doff my beanie hat to you. Future plans include spraying and fitting the lovely rare parts I’ve managed to pick up over the years, including an Irmscher ‘heck’ spoiler and genuine Hagus door mirrors. I’m also on the look out for an Irmscher back box as well to keep the OEM theme going. You’ll also be pleased to know that the combat kit and Lambo door hinges are on order as I type this….JK.
Oh yeah, did I mention it made it onto the cover of a magazine? Remember that Need For Speed Underground 2 rabbit hole from earlier? Yeah, the PS2 may have been liberated from the attic…. Amazing how the game offers you the best car on the roster right from the start!
I also recently hit a milage milstone while pulling into my garage which i thought was amusing (if you know, you know).
I’ll be sure to try and update this thread as and when I do more to the car, but for now I’ll leave you with a couple of very recent pics of how it’s looking currently. Thanks for reading.