The poor girl finally gave out yesterday morning on the way in to work.

The car suddenly lost power, and on downshifting to 4th (going
110km/hr) the power declined even more. Heard a noise from below
(catalytic area) and heard a pop, followed by a cloud of smoke out the
back end. As I pulled off to the shoulder, the check engine light came
on, and just as I shut off the car so did the oil light. Noticed a
"burning smell" and got out for a look.

Engine looked fine, but the catalytic convertor was Glowing red hot,
followed by the pipe behind and even a bit of the resonator further
back the exhaust.

Got towed to a shop, and their best "guess" was that the belt had
either broken or skipped.

Since she had 410,000km on her, she was laid to rest.

Does it sound like a timing belt failure (our tensioner failed to keep
the belt on)?

Scott