The invidia catback I had on my GT-R was brilliant. Sounded great, no drone, really good worksmanship. I have no idea where it came from and it wasn't important to me.

Lol yes, I was hoping somebody would catch that

Naw man, that's 6.022 * 10^23.

Dang, I was close. Was pulling that from memory. Tried not to use the interwebs. Oh well :D

Its a foreign car, so the exhaust is supposed to be foreign!

As far as drone, cabin noise, and raspyness are concerned, that has a lot to do with which style of exhaust you get, i.e. is it resonated, whats the muffler size/structure. Straight through/catless exhausts tend to be raspier and drone more. When picking out an exhaust, first look at quality, then decide what level and type of noise you want.

On my STI I had HKS and Invidia, both were great quality, both had very different styling and sound, at the end of the day its personal preference! Just my .02 :thumbup:

Ok maybe a pimple?

On topic: As long as you do your homework and buy from a reputable company, it doesn't matter much it is made in China. There are really bad quality things coming from China but there are also very good high quality products coming from there. To answer your question asking why? it is because it is massed produced in the capital of the cheap world market.


Slightly off topic:



Everyone that says "you'd be surprised at the amount of things that are made in China", I am not surprised at all. I already know virtually everything is made in China this days. The bad thing is not whether its made in China or not. The main problem is that there are a LOT of low quality products coming off China. To give an example. Anyone can argue Macs are made in China and are amazing quality and I agree. The caveat is, they are made in China under strict regulations and processes from Apple, an American company. On the flip side, you get hundreds of iPad imitations made in China, and they are POS, because they are not held to any type of quality standard.

Although I wouldn't have gone to the most expensive exhaust system just because it was made in USA, I was willing to pay a bit more to get a system handcrafted here in the states, supporting jobs here at home and doing my homework to make sure it was a top of the line quality system and this is exactly what I got, an exhaust that screams quality, sounds amazing and from which I feel I got every penny worth.

This is my personal opinion and I don't judge whomever goes out and buys whatever comes from China and doesn't care one bit of quality, just looks for the lowest price possible.

well said.....for me its basically what gives me power is where ill go but of course i will be counting my HP/$....as far as i believe exhaust doesnt really give much output in terms of power, for me ill probably go the lightest ones >> Buddyclub Spec ii (probably made in taiwan)

As for the Invidia, i had a single exit one on my EVO X, all good nothing to complain and the quality was excellent.

On another note, i believe Ultimate Racing is from Canada? Had the Dump pipe + front pipe + high flow cat. Awesome quality and price, hoping for them to complete their R&D on the 86. Shows you dont have to charge triple the price just because you are made local.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but out side of America, 'made in US' is usually a keep clear sign ;p
Esp with cars.. pretty much any US car sold in Aust has flopped apart from the Jeep Wrangler, and even then it's usually people who are prepared to pay the money to constantly fix it.
here are a few cars that flopped.. and broke
Taurus, PT Cruiser, Chrysler anything for that matter apart from the 300c

actually, put everything apart from the 300c :p

But yes, i would buy China over US most times, as long as the China stuff has been built properly.


but back on topic. it seems most after market companies are trying to wring every last dollar out of us.
I have been investigating getting some parts made over here, and what i have been quoted so far, for low volume, hand made products compared to the slightly more mass produced products is amazing. the markup is huge on some of this stuff in comparison.

*also, i bought my exhaust from the US, but was made in Japan..
so i am kinda supporting your industry. and none of mine :(

Thanks for the pointer. Looks like they are just a few miles from my office. I will be checking them out. Funny how I get the tip from an Aussie on a local Canadian shop!

That's why you don't buy Accelerated Performance stuff lol:bonk:

they are made in taiwan. and imported by jetworld/jetstar auto sports.

they are priced competitively. this does not mean they have cheaper parts. invidia stuff is very nice, i have been using them for a while and wouldn't buy anything else. they always fit perfect, look awesome, and sound great. it's a US company, but production is overseas for cost benefit. US born and grown products are going to cost more, because it costs them 10x more to make the stuff. look at killerbmotorsport, he makes his own products for the subaru wrx/sti, and barely makes a profit on each item sold. it took 2 years for him to finally break even after making his great header for the car, said my himself.

it's great to support the US with their products, sometimes they aren't the best. most of the time, some companies go the cheap route on parts in order to keep cost down while still building the part in the US. this is where you run into issues. i'd rather buy the quality stuff they build overseas, so it doesn't fall apart on me.

Cost of labour in china $200/mth versus cost of labour in North America $2500/mth. That's why. Cost of raw materials and components in China are less than the Cost of raw materials in North America due to buying power and volume discounts that come with economies of scale.