The Secret is in the Slant!

I just remembered this:

When I moved to California in 1980, California had no vehicle (smog) inspection program. None...

I purchased a year-old, 1980 Ford Fairmont from a car rental agency (HERTZ) that came equipped with a 200 cubic inch inline six.

It was tuned to factory specs, had 28,000 miles on it and took a leisurely 17 seconds to run 0-60-mph.

I did a couple of things (replaced the cataytic converter with a J.C. Whitney "test pipe," disabled the egr valve, and bumped the ignition timing up a few degrees. I'm pretty sure that's al I did.

The results were dramatic.

The 0-60 time dropped from 17 seconds to 12, and the engine was a lot more responsive. That's a decrease of 30-percent in the 0-60 time.

I felt like Don Garlits.

Two years later, California enacted smog control testing, and I had to put all that stuff back to "stock," but, for awhile, there was Camelot. :blob: