Center court at RTC

Early in the morning, SL and I headed out to E@RTC. This was my first drive with working catalytic converters and I was anxious to know if they worked to reduce the exhaust smell. I'm happy to report that they do seem to work. SL drove behind me in his 360 and he said that the stinky smell was gone. Hurray -- just what I was after.

However, having operational cats brought on another problem. Every now and again under acceleration, the 1-4 bank slow down light comes on. When I back off the throttle, the light goes out. I seems like some unburnt fuel is passing through one of the cats and it's getting too hot. I'll need to do some work to figure out what's happening here.

Today was a special event at E@RTC. We were expecting a Bugatti Veyron and a Lexus LFA. Sunny Saturday and center court at RTC means lots of cars and people. We were at one end of the road with Ferraris on one side and Lamborghinis on the other. As VT said, "boys on one side, girls on the other." I'll let you decide which is which. We set a record too at over 250 cars.



Here it is, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport



Here's something most people have never seen before -- a Lexus LF-A. I must say, I was not terribly impressed. I mean, it looks like any other Japanese sports car. And really, who would pay $378K for a Japanese sports car? For that money, you could get two Ferrari 458s.



This is unusual. It's a replica vintage Ferrari race car. I don't know what's under the hood, but if the clear hood bubble covering the 8 Weber carburetor throats were any indication, I'd say it was a Ferrari 250 V12. I heard a rumor that it was for sale for about $200K.



Here's something truly rare. A 1957 Aston Martin DBR2, chassis number 2. Only 2 of these were ever made and this one belongs to Greg Whitten.



There were lots of other cool and unusual cars including a 1960s Ford GT40 and other old race cars. Here is something that caught my eye. I actually have no idea what it is, but it's very cool. It's got an air suspension and when parked, it sits right on the ground and you can't even see the wheels. I wandered over just as the owner was about to leave and saw the car rise up a few inches, then float away.

Catalytic converters -- part 2

I thought that I was done with one catalytic converter. I was wrong. When I fitted it to the car, I realized that the threaded nipple for the thermocouple was in the wrong place. Because space is really tight at the back of the car, the cat had to be installed at a very specific orientation. Turns out I welded in the fitting 120 degrees from where it needed to be. Oops. I wish I would have realized this before welding it in place. I well, out with the grinder to make a small modification. I cut the fitting back out and put in the correct place. I then had to weld a patch to fill in the old hole. My welds are no stacks of dimes, but I think they'll do.



Here's how the new cat looks compared with the old. Because the new cats are oval, and the old one offset, the main challenge is how to orient the new ones so nothing touches anything else.



Here's the dry fit that I should have done earlier. It fits pretty well so on to cat #2.



Doing the work on the other converter was pretty straightforward. However, I had to be much more careful with the orientation to make sure everything fits.



After a bit of final welding, new exhaust donuts and tightening bolts 1/8th turn at a time, everything was back together. I started the car and the first thing I notice is that the exhaust note is different. The car used to have a really deep rumble at idle and now it's not quite as deep. Just as I'm about to head out for a test drive, it started to rain. Guess my drive down to E@RTC will be the test drive.

Mission: Eliminate the Stink

My mission, whether I choose to accept it or not, is to try and reduce the rich exhaust smell. I realized that while I love driving this car, I don't really love the smell from the tailpipe. That rich exhaust smell wafts up from the back and just gets into everything. After a drive, my clothes and hair smell like exhaust. I think this is part of the reason TK doesn't really like to ride in the 308.

So, how to get rid of the smell? I figured I can start with the catalytic converters. Rather, my lack of cats. That's not entirely true -- my cats are still there but they just don't work. Somewhere in the past, they've been hollowed out rendering them useless as a catalyst device. Putting in some cats that actually work should help.

The OEM cats are NLA so I have two remaining choices. There's a company called Hyperflow that makes high performance direct replacements. However, these are REALLY expensive ($800 EACH!) The other option is to get some universal cats that are about the same size as the originals (less than $100 each). I can't justify spending almost $2000 on cats so needless to say, I chose door #2.

Here's my starting point. I got two Magnaflow 94103 stainless steel universal cats. These are pretty close to the same size as the originals, although they are oval vs the original offset egg-shape.



I started by building a jig out of wood and bolting the original cat to it. This would ensure proper alignment of the flanges on the new cat.



My plan was to cut off the original flanges and weld them on to the Magnaflow. I also had to cut out and weld in the threaded nipple where the "slow down" thermocouple attaches.



Next came the chop saw to cut off the original flanges.



Lots of grinding was needed to remove the excess metal around the thermocouple nipple.



I had marked on the jig the location of the nipple on the OEM cat. I transferred my marks to the new cat and drilled a 1/2" hole to accept the nipple.



Ok, looking good so far. Here's the Magnaflow bolted up in the jig with the old flanges. This model has an 1 3/4" inlet and outlet, which happens to be exactly the right diameter. The old flanges slide perfectly inside the Magnaflow pipe. All I had to do was to trim off about 1/2" off the length.



After some welding, here is the final product. I have one day left to get the other cat cut and welded and the exhaust put back together in time for E@RTC on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll make it!

Over a month of updates

Shame on me. I've been driving the 308 for over a month with no blog posts. 30 lashes with a wet noodle. We had a string of sunny weekends (which ended last Sunday) and I've been able to get out and about. I haven't had much of a chance to do any long drives so it's been mainly a few hours a week at E@RTC. Here's a brief photo diary.

April 22nd, All Italian Car Show at the XXX Root Beer Drive-in. Weather started off cool and cloudy with not a lot of cars in the early morning. However, by late morning the sun came out and so did the people and cars.

An old Fiat 500 next the the new Fiat 500. I had never seen an old 500 before and this was pretty cool. It's amazing how much the new 500 looks like the old 500.

Old Jaguars at E@RTC

Maserati Merak SS

Citroën 2CV with a roll top. I had no idea they only had three lug-nuts per wheel!

Here is a car I saw for sale locally a while back. The it's got the most unusual color combo I've seen on a 308. The outside is called Chiaro Verde and the inside is beige with red carpet. I can't say I'm too fond of the color, but no denying that it's very unusual.

Early 1970s Saab Sonnet III. What the heck is that? I've never heard of this car. With a V4 engine too!

Yeah! 1957 Cadillac convertible with a fairly young guy driving it. This thing is so big you can play half-court basketball on the trunk.

Ahhhh, one of my favorite cars of all time -- a Ferrari F40. I've seen several of these in collections and shops, but this is the first time I've seen one "out in the wild." The owner (who has an Enzo and a 599 GTO among others) was good enough to bring it out so we could drool over it.

KTM's reply to the Ariel Atom -- The KTM X-bow

Have an extra $110K laying around? How about this electric Fisker Karma? Check out the solar cells built in to the roof panel.

Porsche 356 racer

The obligatory shot of me in "Ferrari Row"

Series I Lotus Esprit

Finally, me coming back from the local propane distributor to get my propane bottle re-certified. Who knew that they needed re-certification after 12 years?