I'm building a custom exhaust system at the moment. I'm not going to run a decat so I was looking at a sports cat.

The cat would coust more than the entire system put together, so I wanted to know has anyone had first-hand experience of them and were gains over the standard cat really worth money? Has anyone got figures to show the differences?

Cheers

Be interested in an answer to this too
Cheers

You can get a magnaflow sports cat from the nice ppl at Nemesis for 90 squid - it will save some weight, make more noise and produce less back pressure at high flow - how this translates to power/torque at full beans depends on 'everything else'

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I will know the answer in a week or two, since im busy with Countrycruising to get a full exhaust system with sports get shipped to holland!

Hi GreyFurby
What details do i give when i ring Nmesis, for the sport cat?
Is it an universal one or it is made for the coupe
TBH 90 quid is fantastic
Please give more details if you had one from them
Regards

Hi,

This is a universal one you'll need to weld in when you're fabricating your exhaust - you just need to specify the bore. Its a 200 cell one, but tbh I haven't yet had to get through an MOT!

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Mark

I have a decat which I think frees up a little torque at the lower-mid rpm. I guess it might make a couple of bhp difference, but that is hard to measure. So with a sports cat I would expect a bit more noise and a slight bit more torque over standard. It would be interesting to see how a sports cat does with emissions though. With my decat the CO was fine at idle & fast idle, but HC's were way way over.

You will save some weight, the cat is quite heavy. I think Jetex do generic sports cats that can be welded in as well.

I have a sports cat, but as I've not owned the car long I can't compare how the car feels with and without one. I am planning to see Flea next month for a remap and a RR so will have some figures, but as I have other mods I don't know how much help those figures will be to you.

A 200 cell cat isn't a proper sports cat, you need a 100 cell cat really.

I've been running a blueflame system with sports cat for a good few years now, there is a very slight difference in performance between de-cat and a 100 cell spotrs cat but I'd rather have a legal, more environentally friendly car

Arent you a good boy jimbo

Cheers. What about the difference between the sports cat and the stock cat?

Jimbo - hows it handle the HC test at MOT time, I heard some cars were borderline with the 100 cell cat?

ps) You can put a cat cut-out to get best of both worlds (see pic) - downside is this is *velly* noisy.

Is anybody running a sports CAT with a standard turbo, if so has it killed the turbo seals? Also does anybody know what cell is a standard cat, in comparison to the advertised 200 cell?

I have a 200cell cat on my car!
For me it about right noise wise ,i am going to have over 300hp after remap,it passes mot's and its kind of green!
I would always go with a sports cat for a road car now,the hassle,gains and noise are not worth it imo!

Does 500cell sound right for the std cat?

It's passed the mot for 3 years with no problems at all so no issues with a 100 cell cat. I drove up to blueflame for them to fit the cat into their full system, I got them to make a de-cat pipe too and make them easily exchangable between the two.

To be honest though, the cat has stayed on since.

Hi Jimbo
what size is the connector that link the standard cat to the downpipe?
Noise wise, what is the difference between a 100cell and a 200cell? i need something thrusty, roary, but not too boy racer as i leave in a quiet neighbourhood
personally, what will be your preferance/
I need to know because i am building a sport cat, by cutting off the connector i mentionned, and welding it to my new cat which i want to be 2.75".
How doable is it?
Sorry for been long, just that i dont want to get it all wrong

I fitted my BF with sport cat before I done all the engine work and I can confirm that it DID blow the std turbo seals with in 3 months. My std turbo only had 42K on it and was in great condition. Unless you’re going to try and take your coupe over 300bhp (GT turbo+) I would say stick to a cat back system.

I ran a de-cat for 3 years on my blue coupe and the standard turbo was perfectly ok. I've been running a sports cat for around the same time period on my LE and the turbo is fine.
If your turbo is already worn it will exagerate this but otherwise I don't really think it has that much impact on turbo life. Obviously running high boost on a standard turbo with no cat is going to shorten it's life.

The connector is is a flange flat type at both ends of the cat so it can be swapped for a de-cat pipe. I think the size is the usual blueflame 2.75".

Noise wise, it's quieter with the 100 cell cat than the de-cat but I can't vouch for a 200 cell cat as I've never used one.

cheers jimbo

So is a decat pipe, for that matter.....

Not really, it must weigh all of 1/2kg maximum - the flange is the heaviest part. The original 16vt cat is huge and must weigh >5kg

The sports cat is tiny, it's the size of a big tin of beans so probably quite a bit lighter than the standard cat if your in to saving the odd gram or two.