I went with the Berk HFC. No side effects of the test pipe - smoke/smell, stain your bumper, CEL problems, ticket if you piss off a cop - but almost as good of a gain.

 

I don't have any of the side effects that you have listed.

1. The smell isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
2. Of all the cars in Houston that run a test pipe, I have yet to see any with a "stained" bumper.
3. The CEL that some cars may get, is easily taken care of.
4. Depending on what state you live in, having a test pipe isn't illegal.

 

You will need the o2 sensor mod if you do this. The Berk I believe comes with it built in. If you don't know what I'm talking about, do some searches.

Car will not smoke. You cannot leave the o2 hole open it will be an exhaust leak and sound really annoying.

I have a Megan resonanted TP that I got from Ebay for less than $100 shipped 3 years ago and its held up just fine and makes the stock exhaust deeper and eliminates that annoying cruising drone the stock cat has.

 

I have Berk 63mm right now with built-in CEL fix and it works pretty well. No CEL since installation (1 year ago).

I read that 06+(DBW) are more sensitive to this, but not for OP's car.

Willing to sell it after my new Invidia TP comes in next week

 

did your times improve any?

if so by how much?

 

ap1 with ap2 stock exhaust with a tp....sounds good u can smell the fumes more but i like it, response is better and midrange pullllssssss !

 

i had a megan TP on my AP1 stock exhaust, lets just say I rather have a white bumper...

 

so im hereing it smokes and dose not smoke with test pipe which one is it? i just got a berts test pipe hopefully ill put it in tomorrow.

 

my car smoked and the tp stained my bumper as well. Dude man whose never heard of a stained bumper is rockin a berlina black... I bet his bumper is stained but he can't tell

 

If the bumper is getting stained then you aren't cleaning your car very often. I had a catless exhaust on my wrx for about 3 years and never had a stain. The clear coat looked a little more hazy in that spot but no stain that didn't immediately come off when I washed the car. I'm sure a quick buff would take the stain away too.