New Purchase

[Cavey]

Just become the proud owner of a 2000 S1 Elise - collected on Saturday. What a cracking little car! By far the lightest, nimblest car I've owned and just a delight to drive.

The weather was kind enough to give me a demonstration of how the roof leaks at the top corner of the window when stationary, which was nice.

The car has the usual Hurricane induction kit and a sports eshaust, as well as a de-cat pipe. I've read mixed opinions on de-cat pipes. Is there a definitive view on them? Presumably a standard cat is quite pricey if I wanted to swop back.

[Gad-Westy]

Congrats. A wise purchase. My S1 has just started leaking from the same place. My hood needs a refurb but once back, I'm going to adjust the windows properly and hopefully get the thing waterproof again. I'm sure somebody used to sell a sealing kit to do the job.

I see no reason, other than legal or morale ones, to put the cat back on. Mine is de-catted and I get a smoother engine and more mpg. On the downside or upside depending on how you view it, it does make the car a fair bit louder.

Standard cat is £77 from these people. You'll need one for your MOT regardless.

www.cats4less.co.uk

Sportscats are also available but I can't quite see the point myself as they're pretty pricey.

Edited by Gad-Westy on Tuesday 9th September 11:50

[Cavey]

Cheers Graham.

I had read that a standard Cat creates an amount of back-pressue that the engines like, hence the query.

[Beachbum]

My understanding of the K-Series powered Elises is that removing the Cat reduced the amount of BHP available due to the drop in back pressure generated by the Cat

[kambites]

Beachbum said:

My understanding of the K-Series powered Elises is that removing the Cat reduced the amount of BHP available due to the drop in back pressure generated by the Cat

I believe that's only true of the VVC engined cars.

[Gad-Westy]

kambites said:

Beachbum said:

My understanding of the K-Series powered Elises is that removing the Cat reduced the amount of BHP available due to the drop in back pressure generated by the Cat

I believe that's only true of the VVC engined cars.

To be honest, I'd question this. I actually don't beleive that any car works better with back pressure otherwise why spend so much time gas-flowing/porting heads and fitting throttle bodies/big exhausts and generally trying to make the engine breath better?

I know there was some research done by the MGF guys on this and this is where the 'VVC's need back pressure' argument comes from but I've never seen any further tests that back this up which makes me think the original test was flawed.

FWIW though,in a totally unscientific manner, I haven't noticed either an increase or a decrease in power after a de-cat. All I've noticed is smoother running and better MPG. On the downside, it smells a bit at the back, the way cars used to smell and its obviously a bit louder. I haven't heard anybody else complain about a reduction in power either.

Edited by Gad-Westy on Friday 12th September 11:37