So Winter Happened. Haven't Done Much To The Sneaker, But We Did Go On A Road Trip! On Our Way Home We Dropped By The Tail Of The Dragon. Ever Been?

I didn't have the Eclipse Spyder ready for the trip so we took the Girlfriend's '13 GTI. It's the car that inspired me to get the GST and they have similar performance levels...and I wouldn't have had the top down anyway. Maybe we'll go again this coming Spring. I've been itching to go white water rafting and stay in the Wigwam Motel again...so we'll see!

Ok, I Finally Got That Stubborn 3" SRS Stainless Steel Exhaust All Buttoned Up...Well Almost, I've Found That I Must Now Replace The Stock Downpipe. But! Wanna Hear How It Sounds Compared To The Stock Catback? I Knew You Would!

Out with the old, in with the new...And Improved! Getting the old one out was a chore, but the PB Blaster helped. I was really careful with the cat studs so as to not break them off.

Ahhhhhh...Success!!! After Much Trial And Tribulation I've Finally Managed To Fit The SR-S 3" Stainless Steel Catback Exhaust System. After Aceepting The Inevitable, It Was A Much Easier Task Than I Thought It Would Be.

I still haven't tightened everything up or started the car with the new exhaust yet, but just getting everything in place and test fit was such a win that I just had to share.  I was even able to salvage the downstream O2 sensor!

In The Spirit Of Seeing A Problem As An Opportunity...A Great Big Fat 3" Stainless Steel SR-S Exhaust Was Delivered To Replace The Old 2" Stock Unit With A Big Hole In It.

With no experience in the DSM world and having never bought an aftermarket exhaust, I feel like I got kinda lucky in purchasing such a nice quality item.  Not that I didn't do my homework, I did a fair bit of looking around before buying this SR-S system off Amazon.

It May Be A Small Victory, But A Victory None The Less. And It Feels So Good To Fix Something Yourself. Mission: Keyfob - Success.

The Sneaker (Eclipse Spyder) came with a keybob remote for the keyless entry when I bought it, but it didn't work. Big deal? Try driving a month without yours!

Realizing That I Haven't Even Shown The Eclipse Spyder With The Top Retracted, I Thought It Might Be High Time To Shoot A Couple Quick Pics And Show Her Topless! Not The Best Staged Photos, But You Get The Idea.

The reflection of our maple tree in the front yard looks amazing on the hood of The Sneaker (the Spyder's nick name - 'cuz it's comfortable like a well worn sneaker, and with the top down it kinda looks like a shoe...right?!), but that paint job ain't that great.  It's a ten footer...looks fine from ten feet away.

So Rain. October Was An Unusually Dry Month, But We Finally Got A Lil Drizzle And I Found That The Top On The Spyder Ain't So Much Waterproof.

Not really a surprise since the top is seriously faded.  A new top would be fantastic...but that ain't happening...at least not right away.