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Tau Ceti

Flame arrestor brand that Group K in 1997 called the only single-mesh arrestors in a Splash flow test; Personal Watercraft Illustrated named it on a 2000 race build

• a year printed above a fact on this page
• a year printed above no fact

Printed above the facts, 1997 and 2000. Printed above none, 1998 and 1999. 2 facts have no year printed above them and mark no box.

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What it made and sold

1997 · Likely

Group K's comments of 1997 on Splash's flame-arrestor flow test of July 1997 say the Tau Ceti filters, among them a Tau Ceti 3.5i, were the only single-mesh arrestor filters in the test. Splash's article itself is not held.

Sources: Group K Between the Lines 1997

2000 · Likely

Personal Watercraft Illustrated's feature on a racer's Polaris Virage TX, as built for the 2000 Long Beach to Catalina race, says a set of Tau Ceti two-inch Pro Series flame arrestors was fitted on top of its three carburettors. The magazine's back-issue list shows a test of that craft in its January 2001 issue.

Sources: PWI January 2001 Virage TX feature; PWI back-issue list 2001 and 2002

Likely

The magazine's ride report on a world championship-winning Pro Ski of 2001, which the site's page numbering places in its February 2002 issue (that issue's back-issue entry reads "Riding the World Champions' Race Craft"), says the intake was much the same as on his 2000 boat, except that he now ran Riva Cone Style flame arrestors and not Tau Ceti Pro Series flame arrestors.

Sources: PWI February 2002 Pro Ski test; PWI back-issue list 2001 and 2002

Likely

Group K's undated page on its racing kits for the Kawasaki SXi Pro 750, which lists a 2002 model, says of the carburettors it describes as needing aftermarket flame arrestors that Tau Ceti and R&D arrestors work well and are compatible with its engine kits.

Sources: Group K Kawasaki 750 racing page

Elsewhere in the archive

• History chapter: The aftermarket: exhaust pipes and engine parts
• Event: Long Beach to Catalina and Back (LB2CAT)
• Era: The makers and their machines

What the archive has not read (3)

• Splash's flame-arrestor test of July 1997 is not held; only Group K's comment on it is (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-19).
• No held document gives the arrestor maker's town, dates its founding or says who ran it (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-19). A 1996 home page of Tau Ceti Composites of San Diego, and a TAU CETI mark registered in 1999 whose application the Official Gazette of 4 May 1999 prints for a San Diego composites firm, are not joined to it, because only the name ties them (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-19).
• The archive takes the Tau Ceti arrestors named in Group K's two pages and in the two magazine features to be one maker's product, an inference from the name and the goods alone.

Documents cited on this page

• PWI January 2001 Virage TX feature (web.archive.org): Billy Womack's Polaris Virage TX (Personal Watercraft Illustrated, issue 15/01, January 2001, online page, Wayback capture of 23 February 2001), Personal Watercraft Illustrated (watercraft.com), 2001-01; enthusiast media, medium. The magazine's feature on an endurance racer's Polaris Virage TX as built for the 2000 Long Beach to Catalina race, part by part. The issue month follows the site's numbering of its feature pages, and the magazine's back-issue list names this test in January 2001. Medium for what the craft carried. The held copy is an excerpt.
• Group K Between the Lines 1997 (groupk.com): Between The Lines - January 97 to December 97 (Group K, groupk.com), Group K, 1997; enthusiast media, medium. The same shop's comments on the technical items in the PWC magazines of 1997, issue by issue, kept on its site under the heading January 97 to December 97. Read on 2026-10-05 and held as text; the page is current and no earlier capture is held, so the dating rests on the heading and the issue-by-issue layout. Medium as a trade participant's period commentary, cited only for which products it names as existing.
• PWI back-issue list 2001 and 2002 (web.archive.org): Back Issues (Personal Watercraft Illustrated Online, Wayback capture of 1 February 2003), the entries for January 2001, January and February 2002, and April 2002, Personal Watercraft Illustrated (watercraft.com); enthusiast media, medium. The magazine's own list of what each back issue carried, as its site showed it on 1 February 2003. It places a test of Billy Womack's Polaris Virage TX in the January 2001 issue, a piece titled "Riding the World Champions' Race Craft" in the February 2002 issue, and an item titled "Interview: Skat-Trak's Ken Stuart" in the April 2002 issue. The held copy is an excerpt.
• PWI February 2002 Pro Ski test (web.archive.org): Jeff Jacobs' World Championship-Winning Pro Ski (Personal Watercraft Illustrated, issue 16/02, February 2002, online page, Wayback capture of 2 August 2002), Personal Watercraft Illustrated (watercraft.com), 2002-02; enthusiast media, medium. The magazine's test of a Pro Ski racer's 2001 SuperJet, set against his 2000 boat, part by part. The February 2002 issue month follows the site's page numbering. Medium for what each boat carried. The held copy is an excerpt.
• Group K Kawasaki 750 racing page (groupk.com): Kawasaki SXI Pro 750, Racing Mods (Group K page), Group K; manufacturer primary, medium. The shop's page for its kits for the Kawasaki 750 stand-up, undated and listing a 2002 model: a preface on a 2001 relationship with Kawasaki's race team, the exhaust section that defines the shop's use of dry for a Factory Pipe pipe, and the kit lists. Medium as a seller's description of products it sells; its relationship claims are the shop's own and no Kawasaki document is held (searched the archive's mirror and research cache, 2026-10-09). The held copy omits the site menus.

Cite this page

“Tau Ceti”, BaddJet archive, https://baddjetarchive.com/key-figures/companies/tau-ceti/

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