About Alfas and Cats and Audi

[VLADDS@domain.elided]

While I don't disagree with has been said about cats, remember, Alfas have a 
habit for atypical problems. My 164 decided to spit a section of the center 
of the core of the cat into the downstream muffler. As a result, each time i 
went for state inspection, everything would pass except for the No's that 
were slightly off. It took almost 2 years of changing everything from oxygen 
sensor,  ignition parts, temperature sensor, fuel pressure regulator, etc...
As far as the suggested temp measurement: Wouldn't the increased friction due 
to the suspected clogging of the cat increase temperature too?
As far as Audi's. I came back 2 days ago from a trip to Europe. I had rented 
the new Audi A4 in a 1.9 TDI. I drove it around the Alpine serpentines and 
Cols for a week, in outlandish places like Cortina , St. Moritz, Lugano, etc. 

While I will excuse their suspension as being matched to the relatively slow 
TDI and believe that faster models must have something better, I think it 
feels like a bigger car than the 164 (remember, it's the NEW A4). It feels 
like it's heavy too. The traction was excellent on this 2 wheel drive car. It 
has ESP. I was able to drive 65-70 and slow down and accelerate (we're 
talking about driving a turbo on wet here, where the torque surges on wet are 
a big no-no, if you want to stay on the road), around those Alpin roads.
The tires were something I had never seen before, a Michelin with a weird 
name like "Turanza" or something. I gota check on them because i could not 
believe what I was able to do.
There's no street ilumination on the portion of Autobahn i was on, so while 
trying to keep constant 120 Mph, I had to stop to squeegee my headlights 
every 30 minutes, and finally understood the headlight washers on the 164. 
BTW, there are 2 design flaws in the new A4. One of them is the routing of 
the washer fluid through the hood steel lining, that gets colder than the 
outside temperature because of the windshield factor and freezes the fluid. 
The otherone is the electronic climate control, that just doesn't work as 
designed.
Now for the comparaison as i drove my 164 last night afther being away for 7 
days. There are a number of little elements that describe the Alfa as a 
sports car. The clutch travel is a quarter of the Audi's. Doors are lighter 
and had lots of less body roll. I even think that the transmission gates of 
the shifter are shorter and the steering wheel is smaller. The windshield and 
wipers are smaller, and since glass is heavyer, than the thin steel for a 
same surface covered, I think I'm beginning to understand the shape of 
Alfa's.
Vlad
'91 164 L (due for new rear Falken's after 2 years and close to 30 k miles)
'85 Maserati Biturbo S 

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