The Good, the bad and the ugly
The good.
It's all about the gains, brah. Get swole.
The car is lighter.:thumbsup:
Headers are prettyeeeeeee, dayleeeeeee.
The performance has increased throughout the rev range. The most noticeable increase in performance is at Mid-range RPM. I start to feel a difference above 2,000. even more noticeable above 2,500. After 3,000 there's an obvious increase in power (over stock) all the way to 6,000 after which it slowly drops off.
Engine feels like it's struggling much less. Even my wife said she noticed this.
Engine is far more responsive. :thumbsup: All day.
Engine note is awesome. At low RPM (under 2,000) the tone sounds very low for a 1.6, it resonates nicely at low Hz and makes the engine sound bigger than it is. Even the exhaust people said it sounds deeper than it should even though they don't know why. lolz. At mid and high RPM it has a slightly lower note (than stock) but still sounds very nicely tuned. No raspyness :thumbsup::thumbsup:
The Bad
It's not loud enough :(. It's only slightly louder than stock. I'd like it to be just a smidge louder. I don't want to be the :honda:onda that screams down the street but I'd like it to be loud enough to make me smile while I drive. The muffler is a pipe in, chamber, pipe out, not baffled. Now I've ordered in a straight through muffler too and when it arrives I'll compare the two and go with what sounds the best.
I've lost a few cm in ground clearance, where the headers join the catalytic converter the bold-on clamps stick out very slightly. This means my future plans to drop the car another 2 inches will have to be restricted to 1.5 inches.
The ugly
The exhaust (from the muffler) has gone from dual chrome to single steel :thumbdwn: I don't salute that. Once I finalise the muffler I'll make it dual chrome again.
So that's what's up.
All-in-all I salute the performance gains. It's made the car faster, I can't ignore it. I've been driving around today chopping everyone. lolololololololololol
That being said, I got a custom fabricated cat-back system with an 18 inch resonator to go with the headers and high-flow cat. So I can only say how they all worked together, I don't know how the headers would have performed alone.
It's all about the gains, brah.
If I can I'll make a video.