JonC

The picture i posted was the factory plug at 80K miles. I put new plugs in the other week.

JonC

Turns out the stock cat was GUTTED. So yes, it was in effect a test pipe. I have an EVS HFC in the mail. Hope that will make things a bit more bearable.

JonC

There is an O2 spacer, I just didnt notice it from the angle I was looking. I cant believe someone would do this to their car. For little to no performance gain and the ruined experience of driving slow with the top down.

zeroptzero

That's why your car smells like a lawnmower. Looks like you don't have an oil burning issue. I had the pleasure of driving 12 hours one way to the Dragon behind a dozen S2000's with test pipes, it was enough to make you sick.

Car Analogy

Called it!

Chuck S

Posts #3, #4, #5...and #8.

-- Chuck

Car Analogy

It ended up being a gutted cat, not a tp. I hypothesised the op would have already looked for a tp and ruled that out. So what looks like an oem cat, but acts like a tp? Gutted cat.

Called it : )

JonC

Car seems to pull better with an EVS HFC than with a gutted stock cat. Wonder if thats because the lack of a cat messes with the stock tune. Either way the stink is gone. Not 100% gone but much more manageable.

Car Analogy

Perhaps more of a shape thing. Odd resonance effect. A gutted cat is not the same as a test pipe. The widening, then narrowing back down probably causes turbulence and other detrimental flow effects.

twohoos

Or else the car's just so much more pleasant now that it simply *feels* faster. 0-60 goes by a lot faster when you're not being choked the whole time...