SPS

With SEMA only weeks away, we were starting to feel pressured to get as much done as possible. But not all parts had arrived during stage 3 – so we did what we could.

Roof Mounted Antenna.

Fortunately, we have Saturn guru Todd Scarberry on our side. And since Todd has no fear, he simply cut out a section of the cross support to make room for the antenna base. We do not recommend that you try this at home. However, if you are willing to locate the antenna base about 5 inches forward of the rear windshield, then you can drill your hole for the antenna base and be free of any interference from the cross support.

Next, we installed the Thermal Research and Development cat-back exhaust system (SPS part number TRD804.) Like all of Thermal’s products, this system is made from polished stainless steel – so it looks great. And it provides a very deep exhaust note with absolutely no hint of the 4-cylinder weed-wacker buzz. Installation was very simple – John installed it in his backyard on jackstands with hand tools in about 1 hour.

With the stock exhaust, we noticed that the ION seemed to run out of breath around 4500 rpm. It seemed to pull strongly from 3000-4500, but above 4500, it just went flat. With the Thermal exhaust, the engine can now breath freely. And we notice a constant pull all the way to red line. Plus the round tip looks much better!

We also installed our Momo Sphere Airmetal shift knob. At first, we were not sure how to locate the top of the shift boot if we removed the stock knob – since the stock knob uses integral ‘fingers’ to retain the plastic ring at the top of the shift boot. But upon further inspection, we realized the boot is attached to the plastic ring via a simple nylon zip tie. So we cut off the tie and removed the ring from the boot. Then we fed a new tie through the top of the boot, screwed a small metal hose clamp to the shifter rod, slipped the boot back into place, and tightened up the zip tie. After a bit of adjustment, it looks factory installed!

And of course, thanks to Momo’s variety of rubber shift rod adapters that are included with every knob – and the 2 lengths of set screws that are included with every knob - we easily installed the knob onto the stock shifter lever. Once installed, it feels very solid – with no rocking or vibration. And it is much beefier than the stock rubber knob – which gives the handle an upscale European feel.

Lastly – and you are welcome to laugh at us for this one – we installed our Momo floormats. Yeah, we know, floormats do not make the car any faster. But future plans include installing a Momo steering wheel and Momo seats. So it only makes sense to adhere to one consistent theme. Plus, the Momo mats are really nice. They come with an aluminum ‘Momo’ logo on each of the front mats. And they use a foam underside that prevents slippage without adding the weight or damaging the carpet that results from the rubber spikes of some mats.

There is more to come. Be sure to check out the stage 4 report!