Rode hard is what she wants. You know it's going WAY to far if there is a rope hanging out the tail pipe.

 

Can't wait unti Doc gets his upgrades together by this weekend. Doc, you better go to your garage and dig out that old high school football helmet. I just have this crazy feeling that you will be speeding that beast around the hills

 

But how do you put her away?

 

I am going down after work today to pick it up. I feel like it will be Christmas in a few hours. I will post tomorrow about the car. I hope there are not last minute complications to ruin my day.

 

Clean and virgin looking.

I got it back and THE DOWN PIPES DID NOT FIT! apparently my 07 is a late build and has the same down tubes as the 08 which Fabspeed says they will not fit. I have been in touch with them and we are trying to see if there is any solution other than sending the parts back.

The sound is not much different at all. That is disappointing. David at Fabspeed said that with out the down pipes that is to be expected. After reading Wedgeducks post of exotic car sounds I was not please to hear mine. It may have some additional character of sound under hard acceleration but it is not much. I was also told that the total power output is not all that is advertised because of the missing down tubes. I hope I can get my issues worked out.

 

Dr. Disaster, you mean to tell me a very small automobile manufacturer did an undocumented parts change during the same model year build? OMG, never heard of THAT happening before

Best bet, get the proper pipes, don't 'rig up' the wrong ones.


Please refer to #4 below:

As the owner of an Italian vehicle, you have undoubtedly found that, from time to time, the thing defies all known laws of Physics. Distinguished researchers from all over the world have spent entire lives trying to understand such phenomena. Recently, the Six Laws of Italian Sports Cars were discovered, thus reducing most owners' dependency on sorcerers and prayer, to keep such cars running.

Careless application of these laws to any individual auto may fix the problems of the moment, but cause hives or allergies in said owners.


1) THE LAW OF PLEASING DESIGN WHERE IT REALLY DOESN'T MATTER

"The inside of cam covers or other relatively innocuous areas, shall be laced with buttresses, cross-bracing and all manner of esoteric stiffness-with-lightness design, while something like connecting rods shall self-destruct at redline plus 1.0 rpm due to a basic lack of strength."

An example of this Law is the stunningly beautiful Lamborghini or Ferrari V-12's of the late '60's. They were famous for wearing out all four camshafts in 10,000 miles or less. The cam's metal appeared to be recycled coat hangers, which coincidentally are still in short supply in Italy.



2) THE LAW OF NON-FUNCTIONAL APPARATUS

"All Italian Sports Cars, regardless of age, shall have at least one system or component which does not work, and cannot be repaired. Such a part shall never be mentioned in the Official Shop Manual, although there may be an out-of-focus picture shown."

It goes without saying that such parts should never under any circumstances be removed, lest the natural balance of the car be upset.



3)THE LAW OF ELECTRICAL CHAOS

"All Italian Sports Cars shall be wired at the Factory by a cross-eyed, color-blind worker, using whatever supplies are within reach. All wires shall change color-code at least once between energy source and component.
all grounds shall be partially insulated."

This tends to guarantee that the owner of such vehicles will eventually be intimately familiar with its electrical system, since he will need to trace out each wire, then rewrite his Official Schematic, which will differ from all others in at least one area.



4)THE LAW OF PERSONAL ABUSE

"The more an Italian auto breaks down, the more endearing it becomes to its increasingly irrational owner."

For example, you purchase an Italian Sports car, for all the money you ever hoped to earn, and receive a ticket for air pollution on the way home from the dealer due to the vast clouds of smoke that follow you. Several return trips to said dealer, accompanied by your rapidly dwindling cash reserves, cures the smoking. But now, the engine sounds like a food processor full of ball-bearings. After replacing every component in the car, including the radio speakers, the noise vanishes and is replaced by an odor reminiscent of a major fire in a goat-hair mattress factory. You still keep trying, God help you.



5)THE LAW OF UNAVAILABLE PARTS

"All parts of an Italian sports car shall be made of a material that is available in inverse proportion to its operating half-life."

Thus, the speedometer hold-down screws are made of grade 8 cold rolled steel, while the valves are of fabricated Unobtanium, made only at midnight by an old man with a pointy hat covered with moons and stars. Such parts will be backordered during the design phase of the car, and will remain so forever. Bribes, pleading and threats will be ignored.



6)THE LAW OF CRYPTIC INSTRUCTIONS

"Any official publications dealing with repair, maintenance or operations of an Italian sports car, shall be written such that every fourth word is incomprehensible to the average American. In the event that a random sentence is understandable, its information shall be wrong."

This is also known as flat-tire English, where a sentence flows along nicely, then-Kaboom!

 

Sorry to hear about all these complications Doc. I don't understand why Fabspeed hasn't built down pipes for those GTC models yet. They have their own fabrication facility. I hope you get to enjoy their ECU upgrades. Let us know.

 

Another interesting observation while I was removing and installing those downpipes is that the factory downpipes are dinged up for fitment. And the second section of the tube was smaller. But all these changes with new downpipes can actually improved the sound? now I am starting to think there might be a small hole in my mufflers somewhere. Going to have to run to the shop and check. I haven't driven my baby around because she is still under the knife. Now I really want to get her on the road to test if she has a noticeable gain in power. 30 to 40 HP is not much, but you should be able to feel a difference.

 

Steven I have seen your "Laws" in another post and they are no less true here. I agree I will have the right pipe or leave it as it is.

Make no mistake the car is much quicker. The tech at the dealer said he thought it ran just like the SS. I will be back in a week after a motorcycle tour to the Outer banks of NC.

Later dudes.