diff --git a/modules/pythia8/CMakeLists.txt b/modules/pythia8/CMakeLists.txt
index 07396a43f37610f364f460abb14bdc21b2bd002a..d07add39c46831488db115b91c1a0607eb860c4a 100644
--- a/modules/pythia8/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/modules/pythia8/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@ file (MAKE_DIRECTORY ${CORSIKA_Pythia8_MODULE_DIR})
 
 add_library (C8::ext::pythia8 STATIC IMPORTED GLOBAL)
 if ("x_${USE_Pythia8_C8}" STREQUAL "x_SYSTEM")
-  
-  find_package (Pythia8 8310 EXACT REQUIRED) 
+
+  find_package (Pythia8 8310 EXACT REQUIRED)
   message (STATUS "Using system-level Pythia8 version ${Pythia8_VERSION} at ${Pythia8_PREFIX}")
   set (Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIRS ${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR})
   set_target_properties (
@@ -40,24 +40,25 @@ if ("x_${USE_Pythia8_C8}" STREQUAL "x_SYSTEM")
   configure_file (Pythia8ConfigurationDirectory.hpp.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Pythia8ConfigurationDirectory_install.hpp  @ONLY)
 
   # install and build are both the same here since it is external
-  set (Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL ${Pythia8_PREFIX}) 
-  set (Pythia8_LIBDIR ${Pythia8_LIBRARY}) 
-  set (Pythia8_LIBDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_LIBRARY}) 
-  set (Pythia8_INCDIR ${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR}) 
-  set (Pythia8_INCDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR}) 
-  
+  set (Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL ${Pythia8_PREFIX})
+  set (Pythia8_LIBDIR ${Pythia8_LIBRARY})
+  set (Pythia8_LIBDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_LIBRARY})
+  set (Pythia8_INCDIR ${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR})
+  set (Pythia8_INCDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR})
+
   message (STATUS "Pythia8 (system) at ${Pythia8_PREFIX}")
 
 else ()
 
+  set (_C8_Pythia8_Download_Dir "https://pythia.org/download/pythia83")
   set (_C8_Pythia8_VERSION "8312")
   message (STATUS "Building modules/pythia8 using pythia${_C8_Pythia8_VERSION}.tar.bz2")
   message (STATUS "This will take a bit.....")
   # this is not a full Pythia8 install, it is a bit simplified, e.g. no pythia8-config, no examples
   # and also, it is fitted into the normal CORSIKA8 install "include/corsika_modules/Pythia8, lib/corsika"
   ExternalProject_Add (pythia8
-    URL ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/pythia${_C8_Pythia8_VERSION}.tar.bz2
-    URL_MD5 7e85d7ff3f0886f8e834f51aff4bacf0
+    URL ${_C8_Pythia8_Download_Dir}/pythia${_C8_Pythia8_VERSION}.tar.bz2
+    URL_MD5 0acde09714b5383ac807edb10f161dd9
     SOURCE_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/pythia8/source"
     INSTALL_DIR "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/pythia8/install"
     CONFIGURE_COMMAND ./configure --prefix=${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/pythia8/install
@@ -79,16 +80,16 @@ else ()
   set (Pythia8_PREFIX ${INSTALL_DIR})
   set (Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR  ${Pythia8_PREFIX}/include/corsika_modules)
   set (Pythia8_LIBDIR ${Pythia8_PREFIX}/lib/corsika)
-  set (Pythia8_LIBDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL}/lib/corsika) 
+  set (Pythia8_LIBDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL}/lib/corsika)
   set (Pythia8_INCDIR ${Pythia8_PREFIX}/include/corsika_modules)
-  set (Pythia8_INCDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL}/include/corsika_modules) 
+  set (Pythia8_INCDIR_INSTALL ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL}/include/corsika_modules)
   add_dependencies (C8::ext::pythia8 pythia8)
 
   set (CORSIKA_Pythia8_LOCATION ${Pythia8_PREFIX}) # build location
   configure_file (Pythia8ConfigurationDirectory.hpp.in ${CORSIKA_Pythia8_MODULE_DIR}/Pythia8ConfigurationDirectory.hpp  @ONLY)
   set (CORSIKA_Pythia8_LOCATION ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL}) # install location
   configure_file (Pythia8ConfigurationDirectory.hpp.in ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/Pythia8ConfigurationDirectory_install.hpp  @ONLY)
-  
+
   install (DIRECTORY ${Pythia8_PREFIX}/ DESTINATION ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL})
 
   set (Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIRS ${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIR})
@@ -103,7 +104,7 @@ else ()
     TARGET C8::ext::pythia8
     APPEND PROPERTY
     INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${Pythia8_INCLUDE_DIRS}>
-                                  $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/corsika/modules/pythia8/include> 
+                                  $<INSTALL_INTERFACE:include/corsika/modules/pythia8/include>
     )
 
     message (STATUS "Pythia8 build at: ${Pythia8_PREFIX}, final install to: ${Pythia8_PREFIX_INSTALL}")
diff --git a/modules/pythia8/pythia8312.tar.bz2 b/modules/pythia8/pythia8312.tar.bz2
deleted file mode 100644
index 0cc9bc012ac8f803e8120f875dacdf3597893772..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Binary files a/modules/pythia8/pythia8312.tar.bz2 and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/modules/pythia8/strip-pythia8-package.py b/modules/pythia8/strip-pythia8-package.py
deleted file mode 100755
index 2ddd8435a2a9379ea7b168be6f6d40d41c976719..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/modules/pythia8/strip-pythia8-package.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,98 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python3
-
-import os
-import sys
-import shutil
-
-if (not os.path.exists('bin/pythia8-config') or
-    not os.path.exists('include/Pythia8/Pythia.h') or
-    not os.path.exists('src/Event.cc')) :
-    print ("You can only run this script from within an unpacked PYTHIA tar filedirectory. This was not detected!")
-    sys.exit(1)
-
-# find version
-version = 'undefined'
-pythia_header = open('include/Pythia8/Pythia.h')
-for line in pythia_header:
-    line_list = line.strip().split(' ')
-    if (len(line_list) == 3 and
-        line_list[0] == '#define' and
-        line_list[1] == 'PYTHIA_VERSION_INTEGER') :
-        version = line_list[2]
-        break
-pythia_header.close()
-
-if (version == 'undefined'):
-    print ("Could not find Pythia version info")
-    sys.exit(2)
-
-print ("Pythia version: {}".format(version))
-
-if (os.path.exists('c8_package')) :
-    print ('Temporary directory \"c8_package\" already exists. Cleanup first.')
-    sys.exit(3)
-
-tmpdir = 'c8_package/pythia{}'.format(version)
-print ('create \"{}\"'.format(tmpdir))
-os.makedirs(tmpdir)
-
-copy_files_s = "AUTHORS  bin  CODINGSTYLE  configure  COPYING  GUIDELINES  include  Makefile  Makefile.inc  README  share  src"
-copy_files = copy_files_s.split()
-
-for filename in os.listdir('./') :
-    file = os.path.join('./', filename)
-    fileNew = os.path.join(tmpdir, filename)
-    if (filename in copy_files) :
-        isdir = ''
-        if (os.path.isdir(file)): isdir = ' [dir]'
-        print ('Keep \"{}\"{}'.format(file, isdir))
-        if (os.path.isfile(file)):
-            shutil.copy(file, tmpdir)
-        else:
-            shutil.copytree(file, fileNew)
-
-print ('Remove \"include/Pythia8Plugins\"')
-plugindir = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'include/Pythia8Plugins')
-if (os.path.exists(plugindir)):
-    shutil.rmtree(plugindir)
-    
-# remove anything  in share/Pythia but xmldoc that contains parameter definitions \"<parm\"
-sharedir = os.path.join(tmpdir, 'share/Pythia8')
-if (not os.path.isdir(sharedir)) :
-    print ('Why there is no \"share/Pythia8\" directory?')
-else :
-    print ('Only keep \"xmldoc\" inside \"share/Phythia8\"')
-
-    for filename in os.listdir(sharedir) :
-        file = os.path.join(sharedir, filename)
-        if (os.path.isdir(file)) :
-            if (not 'xmldoc' in file) :
-                print ('Remove \"{}\"'.format(file))
-                shutil.rmtree(file)
-            else :
-                cleanupXMLDOC = False
-                if (cleanupXMLDOC) :
-                    for filename_xml in os.listdir(file) :
-                        xml = os.path.join(file, filename_xml)
-                        xml_data = open(xml)
-                        keep = False
-                        for xml_line in xml_data:
-                            if ('<parm ' in xml_line) :
-                                keep = True
-                                break
-                        xml_data.close()
-                        if (not keep):
-                            print ('Removing {}'.format(xml))
-                            os.unlink(xml)
-
-# ... 'examples' subdirectory must exist ...
-os.mkdir(os.path.join(tmpdir, 'examples'))
-
-print ('Create tar file \"pythia{version}-stripped.tar.bz2\"'.format(version=version))
-os.system('cd c8_package && tar cjf pythia{version}-stripped.tar.bz2 pythia{version} && mv pythia{version}-stripped.tar.bz2 ..'.format(version=version))
-os.system('md5sum pythia{version}-stripped.tar.bz2'.format(version=version))
-
-# cleanup
-shutil.rmtree('c8_package')
-
-