re: lowered Milanos

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

The reason Luca can lower his 1.8L 75 and somebody else can't imagine 
doing so without scraping the exhaust is because Luca's doesn't have 
the catalytic converter and instead has the exhaust system that the 
car was actually designed for.  As much as I like clean air, the 
truth is that the USA-spec exhaust system on the Milano is a horrible 
hack-job that hangs down way too low and risks cracking the manifolds 
as it lacks the flex pipes of the non-cat system.  On the V6 anyway, 
the downpipes themselves hang down lower than the front mufflers. 
Look under your USA Milano and imagine how far you could safely lower 
it on the stock bars if the bottom of the downpipe was as low as it 
got before curving *up* to reach the front mufflers.  Tom Zat's "Fast 
Cats" look like a reasonable solution that would still pass smog, 
although I've heard nothing but bad things about their fit & finish 
quality.

Joe Elliott
'82 GTV6 (stinkin' it up w/ the Euro exhaust)

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