Tipo running great at last!

Well I've finally sorted the sluggish performance on my Silver 1.4 i.e. after lots of systematic investigation - it was the old (original) cat!

It never ran right compared to my blue one - it basically wouldn't pull in 3rd or 4th and juddered / hesitated a bit and just wasn't responsive. I went through the usual list - Redex the fuel, new plugs and Fiat leads, new Fiat dizzy cap / rotor arm, cleaned / replaced crankcase breather hose, checke d vacuum pipes etc around ECU, etc etc. finally had a compression test / block test done to confirm no major faults with the engine - all ok. Then I put the car in with my garage for a cambelt change and diagnostic investigation. Car seemed better with the new belt (my imagination?) but they couldn't get the ECU to talk to the diagnostic machine - they reckoned it had been replaced or reconditioned. They did say that the cat smelt 'bad', and I reckoned that as it was the original it was due for replacement and could be breaking down or blocked - it couldn't hurt anyway. So one eBay cat later and it seems transformed, I've changed the oil and am finally enjoying razzing her around like a proper Fiat!