Best exhaust combination

[Edward Simmons]

Hi all
I'm in the processing of turning my mk3 spit into a fast road car and am slowly assembling all the bits I need. I managed to pick up a very cheap tubular manifold (mild steel but solid) which I'm going to repaint and fit to the car. It did also come with the long exhaust centre section. On my car at the moment is a cast iron mkIV manifold and mild steel downpipe, then a stainless steel stock set up from james paddocks (from the downpipe backwards). This has an enlarged centre section, which I guess is a silencer, where it runs between the chassis rails. The new mild steel exhaust doesnt have this, I'd be inclined to use the stainless exhaust as its nearly new and obviously wont rust, is there anything to be gained from not using this centre section performance wise?
Cheers for any advice
Edd

[esxefi]

it depends on what else is done to the engine tuning wise.

generally a straight through exhaust or tube is better for performance at the trade off of increased noise,from what you state above the best for performance is the tubular manifold and straight through system but if the induction side is standard I would maybe fit the stainless section with the silencer for reduced noise as otherwise there is no benefit

[yorkshire_spam]

The Bell system on my 1500 is just too damned loud for long motorway runs.

[Clive]

If it is a simple silencer in the centre pipe, and you can see through it (ie no baffles in the way) it will offer little if any resistance to gasflow, but may help reduce noise. A good thing (see post about noise levels, something I am suffering with)
If it has baffles, it will very very slightly reduce performance (doubtful it will make more than 0.05 second difference to 60 though)

[Edward Simmons]

ah thanks guys, I think in that case I'll go with the tubular manifold and the stainless system rearwards. I took a wheelbarrow exhaust of the car for the exact same reason you said, far to noisy, so no point going backwards in that respect.
Cheers
Edd