Never Satisfied

I remember reading a thread that was posted about the Speed And Run cat-back exhaust system that is available on eBay from time to time, and that people were concerned with the quality due to the price and availability. I decided to do a little bit of research on the product, and compare to the exhausts people buy for almost twice the cost.

First, let's review the features of the system in question...
Information available on their website:
Polished stainless steel piping (diameter depends on vehicle), mandrel bends, and a canister style muffler with silencer that can be adjusted or totally removed.

Some of the issues that were questioned:
How good of quality is it? How will it sound?

Information that was discovered to answer both of those:
The piping and muffler are made from 16-guage T-304 stainless steel.

Comparison:
Magnaflow Cat-Back Systems:
16-guage T-304 Stainless piping, mandrel bends... only real difference is that the Magnaflow system comes with a resonator, but does not have silencer for the muffler.
Greddy Systems:
16-guage T-304 Polished Stainless piping, mandrel bends... again, same differences as the Magnaflow
RIPP Headers:
16-gauge T-304 Stainless piping, mandrel bends (example used only to show the consitency of traits used)


Conclusion:
The exhaust will be fairly loud because it has no resonator, but it will not have the high pitched sound normally associated with "riced-out" Civic. The sound should be low, mellow and smooth (might be slightly raspy if 2 1/2 inch pipe is used). The thickness of steel used to make the pipe and muffler determine the sound. Magnaflow and Greddy use the same type and thickness of steel for their systems, quality should be comparable. Most aftermarket headers also use the same type and thickness of steel, so heat breakdown should not be an issue.

Hopefully that will help some guys out.

As a side note... I am planing to buy one of the Speed and Run systems and use it as the base for my custom cat-back system. I will be putting a resonator and a different style muffler to quiet things down and suit my taste for appearance. This will also, hopefully, allow for a better fit (05 ES) since I will be cutting and rewelding pieces.

comatose721

iTrader: (16)

nicely done. thanks for the write up. keep up the good work.