Thought I would do a little reporting:

Yesterday, my daughter and I installed a Supersprint exhaust system on her ti.

The fit was right on.

First, jack up the from the rear. Right under the differential is a safe place. The place jack stands under the car for safety. Start by loosening the two spring bolts which holds the exhaust to the catalytic converter. The bolt heads are 13mm and the nut is 12mm. (It is a good idea to get two new nuts before you start. These are the copper locking nuts and are designed for a one-time use only. These are the same as the ones which holds the exhaust manifolds on all older cars). After loosening and removing the bolts, pull the exhaust system away from the cat. Now, bend the small tab on the center support straight, then, after sparying some WD40 on the two rear muffler hangers, pry the left one off first. The exhaust is now hanging by the right hanger and the center hanger. Pull the exhaust rearward and bend it downward. This will make it easier to pry the right hanger off the exhaust. The exhaust is now completely removed from the car. Either sell it through the local newsletter and/or the Roundel, or store it for future use. It should fetch in the neighborhood of $150 if it hasn't been used too long.

Now to install the new exhaust. Lift the front of the exhaust and push it on the cat, as this is done, make sure the center hanger is lined up and pushed through the center muffler hanger. If your muffler hangers are marginal - now is the time to put on new ones! (When you get the nuts at your dealer - get the hangers as well!). Tilt the exhasut downwards on the left side and insert the hanger in the right, most rearward hanger. Push up the left side and push in the left hanger. This is the hardest one to do and you might need the use of a large screw driver or pry bar. With all the hangers in the right position, re-install the two spring bots (with new nuts) and tighten as far as they will go. Before the car is lowered, bend the little tab downward on the center hanger. You are all done! Start the engine - heavenly sounds - rev it - extasy!

The Supersprint exhaust comes in two varations. One is a single, square tip - about 3 x 3 inches - looks very KOOL! This set up will fit without any modifications to the rear skirts/valence panel. This is the one we installed on Tina's active. There is also a two tip - round - system. This requires some modifications to the rear skirt/valence panel. I installed this on my M-technik rear skirt and had to do quite a bit of cutting. Doing it carefully, will make it look OK. I removed the skirt and did the modifications on the work bench - much easier.

As for the differences in the two systems - purely cosmetic! They sound the same and since I had the square tip system on my car before putting it on Tina's, I also know they improve the hp the same amount. The car definitly, according to my butt-dyno, seems to accelerate quicker than before. Tina seems to think the same thing.

For my next story: We also installed the European lights on her car. A little more to this than installing the exhaust.

First, get a couple of terry cloth towels and cover the front end of the car - hood open. Remove the center cover panel - the one in front of the radiator. There are five screws on each headlight that has to be removed. First remove the connectors/bulbs from the rear of the fixture. Then, look down on each side, towards the front, there are two screws, 8mm, one on each side, remove these. Then on top there are three screws. Before removing these, note the position of the receptor. It is a good idea to measure how far out the receptor is from the metal brace. Write this down, since you want to put in the new set-up exactly the same way. With the fixture removed, remove the center receptor - it is not needed. Save all the parts, maybe some day you want to revert back and put these lights on your next car. Remove the blinker housings from the fixture. Install the new fixtures in the same manner the old ones were removed. Again, take car so that the receptors for the top screws are out from the brace the exact same lenght as before. It is easier to use a magnetic socket when installing the two bottom screws. Do not tighten the bottom screws until the top ones are secured. Now, cut the connctor from the electrical tape wrapped wires that went to the bulbs. With a razor blade cut the tape to separate the wires - strip the ends. On the socket for the new fixtures, supplied in the kit - strip those ends too. The socket has four wires, a brown, white, yellow and gray. Take the two brown wires from the old bulb wires connect them to the brown wire in the socket. Connectors are supplied in the kit. On the old wires are a yellow/blue - connect this to the yellow wire in the socket and the other, white/blue - connect this to the white wire in the socket. If you want the small purple bulb at the bottom of the hi-beam to light up when the low-beam is on, connect the gray wire to the "plus" wire on the blinker wire with a scotch lock - supplied. Put the covers on the back of your new European Light set-up, screw on the connector, re-install the blinker light and you are done! Now do the other side in the exact same manner! Viola - you can now light up your life! Guaranteed it will be worth the expense and time when you see how well these lights light up the road when driving at night!

Richard, please feel free to use this or not - I won't be offended if you choose not to use it!

Aus Freude Am Fahren.........