Thought I'd share this with the Copenworld forum and lose my virginity on here!! Recently Tarquin (that's my beloved, 5 yr old Copen) decided to rust his exhaust in two, so I decided it was the perfect excuse to do a little bit of tweaking... I ended up buying a de-catted downpipe (from Japaneazi - there's still one left for sale on eBay at present) and a Powerflow stainless steel exhaust. I did a before and after using Dynolicious on my iPhone...it's a well reviewed piece of kit that tracks acceleration from a standing start and can calculate 0-60 times etc, and it's reasonably accurate if set up well in the car. Before the new kit Tarquin was hitting 60mph in 11.7 seconds - pretty much what the spec sheet says he should do. After the new downpipe and exhaust, I'm now hitting 60mph in 9.7 seconds...and that's without a tyre-burning start. The turbo spool up is noticably quicker when changing gear...so from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd there's a lot less lag. The graphs on the Dynolicious app bear this out - you can see the power comes back on stream a lot sooner. In gear acceleration is not as noticably different but I'm sure it's not done any harm! The way I look at it is I've got the speed of a newer 1.3 Copen for a massive discount! The fitting of the downpipe was a pig, it took my mechanic 6 hours to do and invovled him removing the turbo so I wouldn't advise it as a DIY job unless you're a garage god, but all in all it was well worth doing in my eyes. Cost wise, I paid £150 to have the downpipe fitted, £325 for the exhaust from the downpipe back, and about £200 for the downpipe. Not the cheapest of outlays but hopefully all that stainless steel will prove to be a worthwhile investment if it gets rid of rust! I guess the only thing on my mind is it's MOT time this month so fingers crossed the car is still under the legal limit for emissions!!
Welcome to the forums, and congratulations on losing your copenworld virginity! It sounds like you've got some good kit there, and £150 for a 6-hour fitting job actually sounds like a pretty amazing deal! Do let us know how Tarquin gets on in his MOT. It's just like waiting for your child's GCSE results!
Wow, I wonder if its the total improved exhaust doing that or just the downpipe/extractors without the cat. I got a car decatted years ago and the thing became so much more responsive. It didnt feel any quicker but it was certainly was an improvement. I bet the little engine was being sufocated by the cat!!!
