im sure im not the only one who thinks that exhaust systems for our cars are pretty expensive... so when i was looking for exhausts for my wrx, i was pretty much looking for 2 features: 1) not too expensive and 2) i really wanted one with an oval muffler cuz i thought it would be kinda unique. i ended up finding a muffler that i really liked but none of the cat-backs had one like it. also most of the known brand cat-backs were over $500 and i didn't want to pay that much for something that did not look the way i wanted it to. so my decision was simple: buy the muffler and get a custom cat-back made. BIG MISTAKE!!! i got the exhaust made with 2.5 inch pipe (cuz that was the biggest diameter pipe that they could bend) which was crush bent. (did i already say BIG MISTAKE?) when i drove it out of the shop, it looked awesome and sounded even better. in fact it sounded so good that i started to feel like i had gained power. how wrong i was... like a month ago i bought a UTEC and had it installed and dyno'd at knowledge performance. i first had them do a stock run. now stock wrx's should put out close to 168 whp. mine only put out 145 whp!!!!! thats over 20 whp loss!!! after the UTEC was installed and lightly tuned, they managed to put out about 180 whp and 190 lb-ft. but when i drove it around it started to knock. the mechanic said that it was probably due to my piece of crap exhaust that had some real bad kinks in it which restricted the flow even more than the stock exhaust. after taking it in a couple of times to fix the knock problem, i feel like i've lost some power. now i have bought a blitz catback (which i really should've done in the first place) and im going to have my current exhaust replaced. im also thinking of buying a sledge hammer and beating the crap out of my custom exhaust and sending it to exhaust hell. so ive ended up spending close to 200 bucks for a crappy exhaust which im going to end up throwing away. so if any of you, for any reason, want to have a custom exhaust made, DON"T!!!!!!!!!! anyone who is knowledgeable about the working of a car might have already known this fact but i want to warn any newbies before they make the same mistake i made
Well, custom exhausts are nice, but they're more expensive to create. However if done correctly, you can get insane benefits from them. I would ebay your old exhaust, you can probally get something and from now on, the only word you should see with bent and exhaust is mandrel. If anything, the exhaust I will be checking out is also made by Blitz, the Nur Spec Touring exhaust. http://www.imprezawrxsti.com/postnuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=7711&start=15 For images.
the one i ordered is the blitz nur-spec R... out of all the known brand cat backs, it seemed to have the straightest pipe (GReddy has 2 nasty 90 degree bends) here's a shoot out i found about wrx exhausts... if helpful to anyone http://www.turbomagazine.com/tech/0212tur_exhaust/
Yep, I didnt like the nur spec R b/c its notorious for being way way too loud -- no I dont need to be heard from a mile away. I like the spec touring primarilly b/c it retains nearly a stock sound level while under normal throttle, but when you hammer it on, it becomes rather angry
Yeah, Cobb finally released the accessport for the STi, I was thinking of looking into. I cancelled my exhaust plans after I stumbled upon some new results from the touring spec. Probally gonna see about getting ahold of a Godspeed DP.
i got my blitz nur-spec R exhaust put in yesterday... im really happy with it... its loud but it has a nice deep rumble