Yeah sourcing the MXP looks like an OS effort and I'm over buying anything dearer than $50 OS.
The eBay guy wants $250 for the OEM exhaust with 14k kms on it if anyone else is interested. There is a mod to the OEM muffler that apparently makes a difference, louder, to them but require cutting and re welding.
QC re Oz sourced for the majority is just rebadged China stuff and QC is well below that of OS manufacturers.
Sad but when you have unskilled workers on $80k and more, a small market, low volume car and a low $A that's the reality. Nobody is going to pay $2k for an Oz manufactured axle back no matter how good the QC or sound is.
I'd still love to see what a decent exhaust builder would charge to make a bespoke AB similar to the STI and MXP with quality stainless resonators and tubing that bolts up to the OEM mid pipe. $800 -1000? Only problem is that until its built you can't really tell how loud it is going to be.
Agree about the OP and FP. Only reason I changed my FP was to get one with the Helmholtz in the hope it would stop or reduce the drone. It didn't!! Replaced the OP because it just made sense to get both the headers and OP HPC'd at the same time if I was going to pull the headers off. Just my reasoning...
Replacing and coating the OP was a $330 exercise so in the scope of things it was relatively cheap to do. Cheap, not easy, especially when trying no to scrape the new coating off.
The OEM FP has a weird resonator behind the cat, What about a bullet resonator replacing it or adding to it? Again room is probably the issue.
Harmonics is a science in itself and why the supercar manufacturers spend millions tuning their exhaust.
If you get your 86 sounding like a V10 Audi A8 let me know!
