So I've been driving my car with just an ETS Intake on for the longest time and decided I wanted a little more power. I picked up a Cobb AP and installed the Stage 1 map (calibrated for my intake of course). I definitely felt a kick over just the intake without the reflash, but as most people were saying on the forums the Stage 1 map from Cobb runs like **** on the Evo X. Every time I slowly gassed it up to about 3500 rpm and then let go of the gas my car would have a big violent thump/jerk that really hurt my soul. It just felt like the motor mounts were slowly breaking and I couldn't do that to my car. So I uninstalled it and went back to stock ECU. I know some people said it was fine to run Stage 2 without an aftermarket downpipe or HFC/test pipe but I just did not feel comfortable going against what Cobb was recommending.

So I decided to pick up the ETS High Flow Cat so that I could run stage 2 on my Accessport. I also did the stock muffler mod (cutting the 4 inch pipe out) since I'm going for the quiet stock setup. I just have to say I now have a smile every time I drive my car. I mean, I enjoyed the Evo stock or with just the intake, but this thing seriously pulls now! The stage 2 runs SOOO much smoother than stage 1, no more jerking. I ran logs and got very little knock sum (a couple of 1s, same as when I ran stage 1). The sound is similar to a stock STI. Deep, throaty and not too loud. You can't even tell the difference cruising at 70-80mph. You can tell mostly in low gears and low rpms and also when it idles.

Just wanted to share my happy story with fellow EVO Mers.

 

Awesome!