Yet another Newbie question

[97GS-T]

OK, I have a 97 GST that I use for my daily driver, it has low miles (50k) and is in good condition...I do not plan on heavily modding it. I would like to get a 1G in a few years (after school is over) to do serious modding to. I want to do a few things on my 2G, but I still want to retain good gas mileage and not beat the hell out of it. With that being said, I am looking into an decent but cheap exhaust system. I think I am going to have the pipes bent at a shop (3"). A lot of the shops that I have called said they have no Mandral bender. If I use non Mandral bent pipes (crush bent?) will it sacrifice a lot of air flow at the kinks? Also I was thinking about using a magnaflow muffler, but was curious about how a flowmaster or borla would sound. Has anyone used those? Sorry for the repetitive noobish question!

 

[99gst_racer]

If you are going to upgrade, then do it right. Either save you money to buy a mandrel bent exhaust, or keep looking for someone who has a mandrel bender. As far as the mufflers go; I've never heard any of those on a DSM before. They are all nice mufflers though. Magnaflow would probably be the best choice.

 

[KPEclipse]

Yea, you want the mandrel bender, or you want to buy a mandrel bent system. A friend of mine has all custom mandrel bent turboback with Megan Racing muffler and that sounds great, I say if you have the money, go for the HKS Carbon TI muffler

Another friend of mine has Magnaflow on his VW, and I don't like it very much, but it is also personal preference. I'm a bigger fan of the Apexi, HKS, Blitz type mufflers...I think the sound is better.

You can score any of those type, and alot of copies like Megan Racing and such up on Ebay or really on any website...

Good luck with everything,

 

[dsmpride]

How cheap are you wanting to go? Because RNR has full turbo back exhaust systems on sale for only $500. They make them in 2.5" or 3" and I have heard great things about their quality. I think there is even an add for it at the top of the page.

Just a small note...you may want to think about going with 2.5" exhaust if you are not going to be modding the car up that much. The smaller piping can help fight against boost creep. Which is a common problem with small turbos like the T25 in your car.

Good luck.

Kent