In the world of performance vehicles many believe that power, sound, and performance are mutually exclusive from emissions compliance and fuel economy. Our goal is to change that perception and educate car enthusiasts that modern high quality emissions equipment does not reduce performance or sound and in many cases, can improve all aspects of the engine.

I have been a passionate car enthusiast for over 40 years. Spanning from Porsche Club Racing to developing various performance parts. I have worked with OEM engine powertrain engineers and late model tuners. Through much qualitative and quantitative testing on the dyno, race track, and street I have observed recent advancements in catalytic converters and engine control units have demonstrated that catalytic converters and emissions controls are not always detrimental to performance. As can be seen here in an apples-to-apples back to back dyno test on our 992 GT3.

Above you can see dyno testing results from our GTLM exhaust package. We are comparing three different configurations against each other. A fully Stock exhaust vs HJS 200-cell catalytic converters vs no catalytic converters. As you can see, the HJS cats perform 95% as well as having no cats. In practical terms, the difference is insignificant.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation, paranoia, and outright stupidity surrounding the cat vs no cat debate. Many incorrectly think that emissions control devices drastically reduce horsepower and torque on late model engines and are detrimental to fuel economy. The aforementioned dyno results prove that deleting catalytic converters has no benefit on modern vehicles when compared to correctly sized, high quality catalytic converters. Time and time again we have been able to add significant power, enhance sports car sound and be emissions compliant with no check engine lights and thereby no gross pollution, by installing large 200-cell HJS catalytic converters in place of OEM cats.

Up to this point, I have not even mentioned the obvious environmental and legal incentives to retaining emissions equipment. Using high quality solutions such as our HJS cats keep you clean and green for the environment, and away from scrutiny from the EPA.

Regarding the EPA, I feel they should assist in providing an efficient pathway for replacement and compliance of aftermarket catalytic converter approval. For example, HJS Emissions technology Germany offers EEC homologated, and certified catalytic converters that are TUV approved and tested and developed by Emitec a tier 1 company. Heavy precious metal wash coats and proprietary engineering make emissions compliance, durability, and sports car sound goals achievable. If EPA and Fabspeed (along with other companies, citizens, celebrities, NASCAR, IMSA, INDY CAR people, etc.) educated the car enthusiast public that "performance, sports car sound, enhanced power, fuel economy, and systems are legal, EPA approved, and readily available for purchase”, then the EPA and all parties can make the world’s environment cleaner while also satisfying the automotive performance loving public.

The EPA should start investigating companies, USA and International, that DUMP emissions control defeat devices into the USA and act with impunity. These companies go around and market catalytic converters are performance killers. Many of these entities do NOT offer proven durable catalytic converters and drop ships into any areas of the USA without any regulation or oversight.

In summation, we at Fabspeed understand that the EPA has to stop and eliminate companies from selling, installing Off-Road / racing emissions delete parts on street-driven vehicles. It is going to be an ongoing cat & mouse game unless multiple avenues of education, awareness, and alternative quality emissions replacement parts are available that work and are EPA approved and available for sale and installation. Currently, many people assume that emissions systems CHOKE the engine and that big brother is ruining fuel economy and performance, and it's why cars are so quiet. It's nonsense. After blogs, articles, videos, and demonstrations showing retaining emissions controls and or replacing and restoring emissions components will greatly help maintain and improve air quality and maintain performance the last step should be a pathway to getting compliance approval. With no pathway for EPA approval or compliance, a small portion of the general public will still simply eliminate emissions systems by many pathways. 

Written 1/8/2019