RE: Cat Convertors

["Shorey, Brian P." <ShoreyB@genrad.com>]

> >Catalytic converters found their way into Alfa Romeo cars with the
> >introduction of the 1975 Alfetta's. This was mandated by law that the
> >cars would have to be equipped with them. 
> >The first batch of cars to come over were woefully undersized on the
> >catalytics and the cars were suffering from downstream breathing
> >problems. Also the cams were different either in lift or retarded a
> lot
> >so that it could pass smog. (I forgot which is which). The 1976 batch
> of
> >cars address this problem by having a larger catalytic converter,
> >different cams and a reprofiled injection pump. As the series went on
> >minor improvements were made to the Spica system to improve the
> overall
> >performance with the car so that in 1979 the car was really nice to
> >drive. 
> 
> i think this is true for california cars, but not for the other 49
> states.  we didn't get cats until at least 1978, although the 75's did
> get the air pump, mild cams, restricted headers, etc.  just as the
> designers intended.
> 
> bs