Third cat is unmonitored by the OBD system. Pre/post O2 sensors are before and after the primary cats on the header downpipe. Those remain in place.

 

My apologies, I missed that it was a GT specific question. Hopefully the case for the GT is the same as previous gens

 

In California, a car purchased new in CA is not subject to a bi-annual smog inspection until year 5, meaning a 2020-2021 GT will not need to be inspected until 2025-2026.

Assuming you bought the car out of state, or are a second owner, or keep your car that long, by the letter of the law your car will fail a visual inspection since the cat has been illegally removed.

But forget the letter of the law. The car in most cases will not have a technician savvy enough to remove the rear pan just to look and see if OEM part numbers exist on the GRP part (which they of course don't). In the meantime, assuming the tech passes you on the visual inspection, and you have no codes popping up within your OBD system, you'll pass smog.

So, in other words - install pipe at your own risk and know passing the smog check will be a calculated gamble but largely in your favor.

 

The GTs don't have any additional O2 sensors, so the 3rd cat is unmonitored. And to zonker's point, the visual inspection is the only thing you might fail, assuming the shop you go to knows that there's supposed to be 3 cats to begin with. But since the undertray and diffuser are in the way to visually inspect, and smog shops can't uninstall panels, they will just assume the cats are there if the #s are fine.

If you're really that concerned/worried, you can always re-install the 3rd cat prior to smog check, and then remove it afterwards.

 

Thanks all, I think this is a go.

 

Enjoy!

 

It will be fine. Smog results on my car (TN tests every year, a real PITA) are unchanged between "before" and "after." There may be some minor scrubbing the third cat provides, but it doesn't resolve on the tests . The observable physical difference seems to be in noise output.

By the way, third cat delete would logically seem to offer a minor weight advantage but that cat is so light, any weight savings are irrelevant, especially on a street car.

 

The 3rd Cat is an assurance item, It's not to meet current emissions on a new car, but rather to help assure that the 8 or is it 10 year mandatory emissions warranty is still in compliance. All Series 1 cars use 2.5" din exhaust parts, all Series 2 use 3", I know you GT guys think your cars are special but is the same drivetrain as the 400, 410 .. same ECU even, with a different throttle plate tune.

 

I know you GT guys think your cars are special but is the same drivetrain as the 400, 410 ..

I have a GT and have always expected it’s the same power as a 400/410. Figured the extra power was all in the marketing

 

I (is this getting boring?) lived with a GT for a couple of weeks before I decided to keep my 400. Acceleration differences between stock cars (400 vs GT) are small but feel real to me. I think the GT tune is a little snappier than the 400's stock tune but as I have said here frequently, if you flash the 400, it will feel stronger than a stock GT. Or it did in the samples I tried.....my car and a loaner. But honestly, they're so close in power from the outset as to not matter.

There has been speculation by some that the torque output to the (manual) transmission is limited in first and possibly second gear to spare the machinery. If that's true, it's likely just as true for the GT and limits how much harder the GT will launch versus the 400 in standard tune. Could be a thing for the Emira too.

So far I know of nobody who has been able to verify this "limit" since even dyno runs won't necessarily resolve it so the real question is, "has anybody run a dyno curve on a stock GT and a stock 400 under the same or similar conditions? I suspect variations in output may resolve down to production variations as much as factory tune differences. Pure speculation here.

I repeat myself, but the GT I drove felt a touch stronger than I remember my 400 to be before it was flashed. I don't think any standard 400 or GT (driven by equally competent/incompetent jockeys) will equal the performance of my Evora as it is now but my car is a bit of a ringer at this point.

 

re the Emira < 400 < GT power out puts - It's quite normal for manufacturers to leave room on the table for higher outputs on later models by just using a simple tune. It's annoyingly obvious with large displacement and turbo cars.

 

Last word from Windle at GoS was that the V6 Emira will be 416 Hp.

 

Hhehehe

 

Welp, I just saw this article and it reminded of this thread. As long as you don't have a tune you should be fine.

Edit: For those too wary to click the link "California Will Start Testing for ECU Tunes During Smog Checks Starting Next Week"

 

Beat me to it…

I read this article yesterday and when I saw this thread it was the first thing that popped into my head.

I couldn’t believe it, I seriously thought it was somehow a joke article. California just seriously sucks man… if it wasn’t for the film industry, nice landscape and weather, that whole state would be one giant Detroit. Somehow they’ve managed to take one the nicest places to live in the US and run it into the ground. This is why we can’t have nice things 😑

 

Good point. I think any area with lots of people will run into things like traffic, smog, etc and they all seem to catch up to the enthusiast market. Here in NJ it's not as bad even though we have lots of people, but I think it's more that the inspection stations are overburdened and most people use Public Transit to get into the city.

That being said, I'm really considering the 3rd cat delete even though I like the way the car sounds stock. I've already had my loud phase so there's no need to be too loud, it just doesn't sound very impressive to me.

 

Lotus seems to be uncharacteristically conservative in presenting their estimates of performance for this car. Porsche, whatever else their foibles, is usually conservative in their published specs. I suspect Lotus is using the same strategy to avoid disappointment and to leave room for production variations.

I expect the performance stats are the least we can expect. In the end, that's the right way to go about it and seems to be a feature of the Evija as well since specs for it are published as minimus. Examples: "will do over 200 MPH" as opposed to "Top speed 205". Same for zero to sixty times: "Under 3 seconds," not "2.3 seconds to 60."

This leaves wiggle room and highlights the minimum an owner can expect. This is probably the most accurate and honest way to express real world results. Congrats to them for having the good sense not to chase phony numbers with a car that is designed to be a complete driver's package rather than to excel at one or two metrics.

And that's what I think.

 

Lotus seems to be uncharacteristically conservative in presenting their estimates of performance for this car. Porsche, whatever else their foibles, is usually conservative in their published specs. I suspect Lotus is using the same strategy to avoid disappointment and to leave room for production variations.

I expect the performance stats are the least we can expect. In the end, that's the right way to go about it and seems to be a feature of the Evija as well since specs for it are published as minimus. Examples: "will do over 200 MPH" as opposed to "Top speed 205". Same for zero to sixty times: "Under 3 seconds," not "2.3 seconds to 60."

This leaves wiggle room and highlights the minimum an owner can expect. This is probably the most accurate and honest way to express real world results. Congrats to them for having the good sense not to chase phony numbers with a car that is designed to be a complete driver's package rather than to excel at one or two metrics.

And that's what I think.

Or it could be said they did it to raise the number of posts on LT haha

 

I have a question..if non US evora don't have a third cat then what does lotus use in lieu of third cat . On the parts schematic I noticed a pipe like grp pipe . Why not use oem part. Or am I missing something

 

OEM pass through pipe connects as a sleeved pipe vs the OEM cat (and GRP pipe) which uses a v-band.

If you wanted to use OEM parts you'd also need a new down pipe (2), and clamp (5).

 

Gotcha . Did you mean 3 and 5?

 

Ah yes I meant 5 instead of 15 (updated post). You'd need a new downpipe (2) that doesn't have a v-band on the end (or I guess you could cut it off the US version depending if the lengths all matched) and then 3.

 

Ah got it now thanks for the clarifying. Yes it didn't show the second variation of down pipe 2 that's where I was missing. So I suppose the grp pipe is the way to go besides the coat and installation. It must be a reason why lotus has 2 diff down pipes for third cat vs no third cat. Flow characteristics perhaps