:werd:

mandrell bends FTW

Im guessing because of the narrower area it creates to make the bend.

:jerkit:

as for 7% loss, who really cares for a 7% loss.....

i like it, it was cheap :)

I was running a 2.5" cherrybomb glasspack. Exactly the setup you are talking about, with the turndown before the diff. Loud, but sounded good. Not REALLY LOUD, just loud. I'm going back to a more conventional exhaust, and 3" now.

I had a cherry bomb on my N/A 90 miata. It started out okay then becaming deafening...had to buy an ansa slip on for the time being. It was a 2.5'' i think.

I picked up a 3.5" moroso spiral flow for 35 shipped from summit.com a year or two ago. Exhaust was routed through the moroso then out a cutout valve. It sounded very loud in the car, even with the cutout 'turned down.' Outside of the car it sounds like any other four cylinder with an exhaust, nothing to aggressive or loud. Definitely not attracting the kind of attention you get with an open downpipe! I would have hated it w/out the valve to direct exhaust into a 2.5" dynomax thrush (20 dollars).

I can't comment on the cherry bomb, but 27 dollars for a 3" ID FTW!

The problem I had with my old setup was the drone. The actual exhaust was actually pretty awsome. That drone would make my brain vibrate, drove me CRAZY.

DIY 3" exhaust with a straight through magnaflow and a downturn...track car only.

Would not do it on a daily driver...the sound inside the car would be annoying for daily driving. Outside of vehicle is not bad at all.

Take a look at these chambered mufflers http://www.classicchambered.com/classic/faq.html , http://www.torquetechexh.com/mufflers.htm . They cost a little more, but are way more efficient and don't make as much vibration/drone as a CherryBomb. In highschool I had two of these on an 87' IROC. I put them inline behind the cat and removed the (HEAVY & INEFFICIENT) single in dual out muffler. This alone droped my ET by .11 at the strip. The sideffect was everybody thought it was actually a V-6 because of the single exhaust.... until they heard it runnin.

When i do my exhaust in the coming weeks I am thinking of running a 2.5" downpipe expanding out to a 3" high-flow cat (which I already have), a 3" dynomax bullet, followed immediately by a supertrapp disc muffler terminating just ahead of the diff. Lets see how that works out.