NAC..'00 VW Passat 4Motion...$7200 in repairs!!!

[John Larson]

Hi, Tyson.  I am surprised at your attack on my credentials and knowledge, 
as my background is pretty well known on this and other lists.  I am a 
factory trained Audi and Porsche tech, and have been for 32 years.  Before 
that, I was an enthusiastic amateur for another 14 years.  After nearly 2 
years of dealer experience and training, I worked at a Porsche specialty 
shop in Los Angeles that had a huge number of exotic Porsches in its 
clientele, mostly 4 cam cars like Spyders and 904s.  We did a significant 
amount of preparation and maintenance work on what are now called "track 
cars".  I held a smog license for a number of years, have had a number of 
classes from Bosch, and I've operated my own shop since 1977.  I spend 
approximately 30% of my time at work dealing with emissions related work on 
German cars for the smog check station next door.  I know, and am on first 
name level professional terms, with some of the best known Porsche and Audi 
"tuners" (a word I don't like) in the country.  I have a customer list that 
stretches from San Diego to Portland to Atlanta (if you don't count London, 
UK).  I've helped assemble a concours car that won it's class at the Porsche 
Parade, and have built a group B SCCA 914/6.  Oh, and I've worn glasses 
since I was 14 and injured an eye while working on a tractor with my 
neighbor.  To sum it up, I've lived and worked in the practical automotive 
world for most of my life, have been around since the very beginning of the 
smog laws, and have seen the environment of LA go from an air quality 
cesspool of a million people to a relatively clean air environment with 7 or 
8 times the number of inhabitants.  And your professional automotive 
qualifications are .............................................?  John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tyson Varosyan" <tigran at tigran.com>
To: "'John Larson'" <j.d.larson at verizon.net>; "Quattro at Audifans. Com 
(E-mail)" <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 11:35 PM
Subject: RE: NAC..'00 VW Passat 4Motion...$7200 in repairs!!!


> John,
>
> My neck is nice and white, but thanks for asking! I do have 3 high
> performance cars of my own, that hardly have an untouched bolt on them and
> am a member of a number of car tuner/racing/enthusiast clubs. Prior to 
> last
> fall (when I got crazy busy with running my own business), I had at least 
> 4
> cars in my driveway every weekend belonging to other people in my clubs 
> that
> were there to use my help with this and that on their car. Bottom line, 
> you
> sound like the type of guy that wears glasses and pushes papers all day in
> some cubical - can you even point out the catalytic converter in your own
> car?
>
> Before making arrogant statements about other people, perhaps you should 
> do
> some research and read independent studies on the subject matter so that 
> you
> yourself do not come across as parrot-like moron repeating something that
> you read on a placed ad in a newspaper about how great cats are. Or you
> could get some hands-on experience - that works too.
>
> Tyson Varosyan
> Technical Manager, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
> tyson at up-times.com
> www.up-times.com
> 206-715-TECH (8324)
>
> UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Larson [mailto:j.d.larson at verizon.net]
> Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 2:38 PM
> To: tigran at tigran.com; quattro at audifans.com
> Subject: Re: NAC..'00 VW Passat 4Motion...$7200 in repairs!!!
>
>
> Tyson wrote...............  "Catalytic converters are a bunch of crap
> anyway! They do not work! Do what many people I know do on all their cars.
> Take a hole saw with a long
> extension, take out your cat, and drill the thing out. Or get a "Test 
> pipe"
> if there is one made for your car. Ether way, nuke the thing."
> 
> ............snip..............
> ....
>
> Interesting, and intensely expressed,  opinion.  Unsupportable, but
> interesting.  Lotta people, the kind we call "rednecks", agree with you, 
> I'm
> sure.  BTW, Platinum has always been an important part of catalytic
> converters ..................
>
> John
>
>
>