I speed a good week reading hundreds of exhaust reviews on this and other forums before making a selection on which one to buy

What really stood out to me was the fact that I have seen several people who have changed exhaust systems 2 or 3 times and one guy 4 times

Obviously finding the "right" exhaust system is not that easy a task especially since seeing a 997 Turbo on the road these days is not that common a slight so there are not many around to listen to at least in my area (most of the cars seem to sit in garages and come out on for weekend drives)

I selected the Europipe after reading dozens of satisfied customer reviews from customers who simply raved about the product despite its higher cost than other options

All I can say now is that I am glad that I did my homework and I am pleased with what I got for my money and happy with the product


The Transaction

Stef - the owner is not only a stand up guy he is a resource on everything 997 and he was very helpful. Dealing directly with the owner is really good and I really enjoyed dealing with Stef. He shipped out my exhaust the next day after I ordered it and it arrived at my door 3 days later. (Not bad).


Stef offered to answer any questions I had about installing it and I really had a lot and he was great about getting back to me and giving me expert advice which made the install an enjoyable experience.


The Product

The exhaust comes packaged in a box which is like a work of art. Inside is a box of tools, gaskets, anti-seize, studs and new nuts which could easily set you back $200 or more. It was nice to have everything you needed on hand - including stiff wires to snake the 02 sensors back up into the engine compartment.


It was amazing when I discovered that the box itself was ideally designed to serve as an installation shelf to slide the exhaust up under the car for install - nearly perfectly hitting the studs if you put the rear tires up on 6" wood blocks as set forth in the instructions


I have been involved in motor sports and car modifications for over 30 years and I worked in the car modification field for some time. I was a dealer for many vendors of "import" turbo performance products. I can tell you without reservation that this exhaust is among the very finest you can buy for your vehicle at any price. The welds, the materials, the design are all world class and my experience tells me that this unit should outlast most of the other parts on the car which is saying a lot considering it is a Porsche

I have only previously seen this quality level in some of the very high end JDM tuner parts but then again most of them use much thinner stainless which tended to crack over time is used on a street car

The Fit was perfect - all four studs lined up exactly without any twisting and the exhaust fit like a glove

Performance

My main reason for getting an exhaust was to pick up some power and also to get rid of the vacuum cleaner like silent sound of the stock system

I can tell you that this system without any additional tuning picked up significant power gains using the off the shelf Cobb Stage 2 map

Not only did the car feel "crisper" and faster by my well calibrated butt dyno but my data logs showed a significant gain in mass air flow at peak TQ on the same boost level as well as significant increase in injector on times to achieve the same a/f targets - a sure sign that we are flowing more air and making more power at the same boost level

Sound

I wanted something to make the car sound more "sporty" and performance orientated while at the same time not giving it anything too loud or obnoxious hat it would scream "boy racer" and draw unwanted attention from the Police

I think Eupopipe hit the nail right on the head

This exhaust is like Mozart

You don't want to listen to the radio - you want to open the windows and hear the sound

but when you close the windows and drive around normally there is no drone in the cabin and nothing to make a important client or date think that you are a boy racer type if you just drive around normally

Of course if you boost it WOT it is a totally different story it really starts to make amazing great sounds

Smells

The Europipe 100 race cats do a great job of cleaning the exhaust I could not smell any fumes what so ever from the exhaust which is really important to me

I did a lot of research and I think Europipe uses some of the most expensive cats you can buy and hence that is why the car does not make smells out the back which would be unacceptable to me in a Porsche

Conclusion

While you do pay more for Europipe in my opinion I was very happy to pay more - part of the price includes the $200 tool set and parts that you would probably have to go out and spend on any other system anyway - Pelican Parts was at $100 just for the two gaskets and nuts shipped and that was no studs - and I would up needing 8 studs

Stef is a stand up guy who gives top notch world class customer service. Not many other parts builders provide that level of passion and dedication to the customer. Stef's passion for Porsche shows in how he invests himself in creating a work of art like product and how he backs it up with great interaction and support

With in "industry" connections I would have gotten any one of several systems made in the USA at a trade discount and yet I paid full price for the Europipe

My conclusion after installing and driving it - it is worth every penny

Thankfully the dollar to euro exchange rate is a bit in our favor with the strong dollar at this time

 

I just feel I owe it to Stef to give credit where credit is due

BTW my tips lined up dead even like OEM perfect alignment - hard to execute on that kind of precision on such a large part

I considered the EP 2 but took Stef's advice to get the EP 1 - will stay that way until and unless I go with larger turbos and a bigger clutch

 

I've done a couple EP installs and never figured out the box shelf method! Haha


Very good point about the value of the parts and tools you get!

 

I must say that given the amazing quality of the box I almost did not want to use it as a "tool" to complete the installation but - following Stef's directions it worked like a charm - it is a heavy unit and there are a lot of EGT and coolant lines and O2 sensor wires that can get damaged if you are not careful so the box method was ideal to have everything so slow - smooth and without any damage or scratches to either the car or the exhaust

Still loving the EP1 every day - best mod ever

 

how well does V1 perform compared to a catless exhaust, and don't the cats burn out after a certain power level?

 

I am sure that a catless exhaust would be a bit louder than a 100 cell cat exhaust although the performance loss with such large 100 cell cats is probably nominal

The main issue I can speak from experience when I built a very fast import performance car for a customer in the islands was that he hated the catless exhaust and the external dump tube on the wastegate because when he would take the car out to a club he would smell like exhaust fumes

having a functional cat in your car is a good thing not only for the environment but to enjoy the car without smelling raw exhaust fumes

I was very impressed with the way these huge and high flowing cats clean out the exhaust fumes - the exhaust smells just as clean as stock

I do not have emissions testing gear on hand but my nose tells me (and Stef please correct me if I am in error on this point) that the emissions coming out of a europipe exhaust system are probably very close to the factory levels for tested pollutants

As far as the cats having a power limitation - the size of these cats tells me that they should be easily good to up to 500 hp per side or 1,000 hp total. Of course a car without any cats will make more power but I can't see any reason why you can't make some serious power on these cats

With the EP1 the exhaust tip size would become a limitation after 650 hp and you would want to upgrade to the EP2 with its 3" tips which should be good for over 1,000 hp

 

Stef - thanks for that amazing information. it certainly confirms what I am smelling with my nose.

The results are rather impressive and show that you get what you pay for when it comes to high flow cats

I think I miswrote and intended to say 650 WHP not HP

But alas - I will defer to your expert opinion an guidance - what is the recommended power range of the SP1 before you upgrade to the SP2? In other words at what level of power would the differences between the two systems start to show more significant gains?

 

Stef, I've seen some exhausts (not sure if any were EP) that had blown/burned out cats, and I'm currently running a 2.75" catless exhaust because I thought that 700WHP would eventually blow out cats on an EP stage 1. I was worried that the EP2 would be too loud for my taste