Spacin’ Out

17 Mar Spacin’ Out

We think it goes without saying that everybody’s working hard, as usual. To be a bit more specific, some progress is being made on both the Corvette and the S5 today.

For starters, we’ve been cracking away at removing the cats from the S5, in order to draw up their design and create a bolt-on catalytic converter deletion setup. Audi have always been the masters of fitting big engines in small engine bays, and the 3.0 TFSI continues that tradition. It’s not the easiest removal, nor the most quick, but we’re alsotaking our time to make sure the car is being given the best treatment possible:

In more S5 news, we’ve cut out the first prototype of our phenolic spacers. You may notice that the material for this spacer seems a bit, well, non-metallic. And that’s because it is. Phenolics in automotive applications consist of organic fiber and epoxy laminate. It’s meant to provide superior heat insulation at operating temperatures. This might not be the final design, but it’s certainly an interesting (and pungent) material to work with. And the closer you zoom into it, the more intricate and impressive it looks:

And now, back to the Corvette. Fitment on the intake continued today, as the design inches closer to its final revision. It’s looked impressive the whole time, and fitment with the hood closed is spot on, so all that has to happen now is fabricating the connection between the airbox and the MAF inlet, then connecting the bottom section to the new ducts, which are positioned in their spaces in the bottom picture: