Blue WRX,
Your straw analogy is not correct. When you bend a non-corrugated straw the ends bow out and the center collapses... (That is NOT what crush bending does to an exhaust pipe...) A corrugated straw just adds stress relief points for the straw to bend, Hardly the same thing. A real crush bend does NOT crush the sides nor the outside wall of the pipe. In all reality it stretches it out some. The inner part of the pipe is pressed (while smoothly) and stretched to make the crush bend.
You people make it sound like you bend it over a bench and bend it. Hardly the case at all. I've seen actual mandrel bent pipe that has that corrugation in the bend - That would hurt performance even worse than using crush bent pipe (think turbulence) crushed pipe interiors are smooth - No sharp transitions and no eddy's for the exhaust to get divert off of.
OK - The basic theory is this:
The disadvantage of mandrel bending is that it is relatively expensive, because of the costs involved in operating a mandrel bending heat machine. A popular alternative is to get piping with larger diameter and then have it crush bent. This way, it kind of evens out the differences in air flow ease, especially if that particular exhaust pipe configuration has a lot of bends and 90 degree bends.
Does that sum it up for you retards? Really... One pipe that was crush bent vs. one that was mandrel bent same pipe diameter. A maybe 5% difference in flow (which would equate to possibly a 1 or 2 hp loss). But with Cardoc's system - That is not a reality. Remember the principal behind his system is (2) 2.25" pipes. Crush bent yes, but hardly enough to underflow ANY aftermarket system.
PERIOD Now you almost forget about the inlet of his system and the type of muffler he uses. He uses a Cherry Bomb Vortex muffler. This muffler is designed for the most possible throughput (Almost similar to a Dynomax UltraFlo) but it has a center channel that absorbs the sound waves and evenly distributes the flow two ways without disrupting it. The dimensions on the muffler are 2.5" inlet and (2) 2.25" outlets. Do you think there is a restriction there? Not unless you put a cork in it.... Reason why this is important??? Here ya go:
A straight through muffler design would allow exhaust gases to be expedited out as efficiently as possible, although the muffling abilities would not be as efficient as that of the reverse flow design. Therefore it will be inevitable that the exhaust will sound louder than before, but as mentioned before a couple of times, an aftermarket straight through muffler uses noise suppressing material that tones down the sound to that of one that's deep and throaty and not irritating. Hence getting rid of the factory completely restrictive resonator and factory rear mufflers he is effectively making the optimum flow design for the exhaust. Those that use some type of resonator and dual mufflers are still not flowing as much as he is ... You have 3 points of disruption (compared to his 1).
Now, that school is out - I asked Cardoctor for a pic of his pipes out on the ground. He is staying away from this thread and most of the "opinionated" CEG'ers for obvious reasons...
You hate him?? Gee, it must really feel nice to be him and get constantly ridiculed by idiots that don't really have a clue. No wonder he doesn't have any opinion on CEG or it's members... Probably figures it's not worth the trouble to say, and I guess he would be the bigger man for staying clear of this.. Because some of you I think are just waiting for him to show.
Well, I've said my peace. I've had the Cardoctor system (actual system I bought) for almost 10 months and I love it. If you like the deep European sound and gargle on deceleration... This is the exhaust system for you! But if you like the sound of rasp (especially with systems with the factory Y still intact and the resonator removed) this is not the system for you. If you haven't heard it for yourself I would strongly suggest hearing it in person before putting your foot in your mouth. His sound clips don't even come close to the actual sound and also the system gurgles and rumble like no Borla or Bassani could ever do. I've heard them all - And I'm still not impressed.
Sincerly - John
P.S. I almost forgot - Cardoctor was nice enough to give me a link where I could view the early prototype system laid out. These pipes I was told were sold to Mike in NY. I think he said his name is "fuseface" or something on Ford Contour. So look over, study, turn your nose up or whatever.. But don't knock what you don't understand.
