I've noticed different designs in the X-pipe for the 4.3L V8 Vantage and I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with this or can explain what (if any) difference it makes, especially with regard to sound. I know that Fabspeed makes a completely different design for the 4.7Lcars by deleting the cats, but that's not what I'm talking about. One design is what VelocityAP and Fabspeed both currently seem to do, which we can call "Design 1":

Here's Fabspeed:





Here's VelocityAP:



Both pretty much the same design. The cross sectionis welded on, and the piping is bent inward to force the crossflow. But there are some pictures still floating around of a fabspeed x-pipe (maybe an older design?), which we'll call "Design 2":





Obviously the pipes in Design 2 are seamless so it looks nicer, but it also looks like the cross section is very slightly closer to the manifolds. I have heard that making the cross section on an x-pipe closer to the manifolds give the car a higher pitch (which explains why Fabspeeds Xpipe design for the 4.7 L cars sounds a lot higher pitched than others). Also, I don't know anything about airflow, but Design 2 just looks to me like it would flow better because it just looks smoother, but I have no idea if that is true. I don't know if Fabspeed even makes the X-pipe like this any more, on their website it looks like Design 1 now, but I'm not sure if that's because it's better or because it's cheaper to manufacture.

But I'm mainly wonderrng about the difference in sound. It seems to me like the different design might have a slight effect on sound. I've seen clips of sound on youtube and they don't always show the x-pipe itself, but the ones that do seem to all be Design 1. If anyone has a v8 vantage with an x-pipe that looks like Design 2, it would be great to hear what it sounds like. I'd also like to hear if anyone has a thought about what the difference (if any) the different design makes. I sent a PM to Fabspeed but haven't heard back yet. Maybe they don't even make it anymore, but perhaps an experienced welder could make a custom one.

I realize this is probably splitting hairs if there is any difference at all, but curious about people’s thoughts.