It’s usually the other way around, the reasonator they could ticket you for being noisy, but not for emissions. The cat’s are a big deal even though everyone does it (my C5, Nissan and Acura all had at least 1 set of cats removed).
Every state is different, but in many states any removing of a cat (even if it’s un-necessary such as a 3rd cat) is illegal (most shops won’t notice/care, but some will, especially if it throws a CEL from the O2 Sensor). Usually it’s just the fact that they can’t tell which makes it fine.
In VA they would actually do an emissions check and look around the car, so you’d have to disguise the fake cat with some bogus heat shields and an O2 Simulator to avoid the check engine light. The Acura had 3 cats so you could remove the 3rd one without it throwing any lights, but it was still technically an “off road” pipe.
I’d like to see the plumbing for the rad. I always wanted a Subaru powered Type 3 squareback with AWD. I lack almost all of the engineering ability to make it happen though;)
I have the “engineering ability”, I just don’t have the motivation to bang through all the trial and error. Guess what Ray, it’s already been done for us!
Which now has me thinking… VW transmission, 3.3 liter Subaru engine, and then throw away the rest of the VW in favor of something home-brewed to hook all the pieces together.
Love the personalized plates (FRFGNGN) even if the “spelling” is incorrect. Kinda dates those plates to the early 90’s when VW was using their Fahrvegnügen campaign. FahrVerGNüGeN
We sold our '68 KG about 15 years ago and I still see it on the street occasionally. Having been thoroughly restored by it’s new owner, it now in about the same state of decline that it was in when I sold it to him. I should consider approaching him with an offer.
I’ve hit the sweet spot on cars I love to drive (Gretchen the M3 is a growling RWD beast and Rolf the X5 handles better than most sedans, has XDrive for winter and lives up to its ‘luxury’ description) Since both are sticks and I maintain them I plan to keep them for the long haul. If I could add a few bays to the garage and spare a few hundred thousand to boot without the wife questioning my intentions I’d definitely pick up a pre-25th Anniversary Countach and a Z1 or Z8 - those I would probably kill to keep! I’ve got no love for our Prius though - sad huh…the most responsible car we have and I see it as nothing more than a big coffee maker.
The MVA in Maryland is very strict but you can slide a few things, Gretchen passes all the requirements only because they can’t hook up the OBDII to read her outdated Bosch DME, otherwise they’d haul me off to the slammer. Inspections here are required every 2 years but because of her lowered height and age they only do a tailpipe-at-idle test, newer cars get hooked up directly to their DME and revved to 2500RPM in park to monitor particulates. The inspections also cover roadworthy condition (body, components, etc) and have to be up to snuff to get their registrations renewed. No bungee cords holding trunks shut in Maryland! Like California, after Gretchen is 25 years old, Maryland doesn’t care anymore so I’ll finally be able to pull the head, have it machined for a Shrick racing cam, ditch the cats and do a free flow headers-to-tip exhaust!
Living a half hour outside Baltimore (1.5hrs N of DC, 45mins S of Philly, 2.5 hrs S of NYC) has been the perfect spot for driving - we have farmland with rolling hills and sweeping backroads, a nearby State Park with amazing twisties, I95 with light enough traffic for triple digit speeds (and with 23 years in this area I know the cops, what they drive and where they roam), local autoX’s at Cal Ripken’s stadium 5 miles East and a drag strip 10 miles northeast. I don’t think I’d want to deal with NYC/Chicago/LA traffic and I’ve been lucky not to have to experience morning or afternoon rush hours since 2007.
Long live the US highway system and our gas guzzling hobbies.
lol! Pick back up where you left off! That’s a hoot! Yeah I had that plate on it since the mid 90s. My mom and I analyzed the spelling till 1 in the morning and decided to go with the phonetic “F” rather than the Germanicly correct “V”. Maybe in a couple years when I get her back on the road I’ll switch it out. Or maybe I’ll update it to DASAUTO!
for that matter, how do you get “chrome” to migrate between all those spokes to deposit uniformly? I’m assuming, vacuum metal deposit, but still, with so many paths and obstructions???
That vapor bath method looks interesting and the concept is new to me. But how do you calculate
the exact measurements of the results? How does the material “melt”? Regularly or irregular like
paint built up in “valleys” is higher than on “ridges”?
My problem is: The layer of finishes on the acual Aston might be 1,5-2,0 Milimeters. If you finish
a model you can shrink almost everything, except the layer thickness of paint and coatings,
the rubber seals and the panel gaps to an extend. Thus it makes sense to built the movie props
in 1:3 not 1:18 as the results would not look much better than what you and I can buy in a shop.
In the end I still not know of a way to “chrome” those model wheels. And I can’t stand having no answer.