Hey guys I have been doing some through searches on the forums about the Buddy Club Spec 3 Single Exhaust, and was curious about the general populous' opinions of it.

I found 1 sound clip of it found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9d13t6zY4E

Seems pretty loud, but that video has the berk testpipe as well, I currently am running the Apexi WS2. Let me know what you guys think about the system.

Thanks.

 

Product inquiry, moving to S2000 talk.

 

Buddy Club Spec 3:

Sound
w/o silencer: Quiet at idle, loud all other times. Sounds good WOT in VTEC.
w/ silencer: Nearly stock sound. WOT VTEC sounds bad because of some wierd air hissing noise (sounds like something is wrong with the car).

Power
w/o silencer on AP2: Pretty much no gains below VTEC. You get <1whp under VTEC in some spots, but lose just as much in others. In VTEC you gain the most right when VTEC hits. Power climbs about 200-400rpm sooner for the first 800 rpm of VTEC. Then it bounces between 1-2whp gains all the way to nearly redline (8200 rpm). About 2-300 rpm before redline the power gets really wavy and follows the stock power curve (going higher and lower than stock power).

Weight
Even though it is made of steel, it is very light. I would guess about 12-18 lbs.

Design
It is one piece. One long piece. The box is over 7 feet long. Shipping can be expensive as a result of it being oversized.

The tip of the exhaust protrudes too far back past the bumper. Someone on this board cut the tip to make it look better, but then you can't use the silencer. You can cut the piping to fix the problem, but then you'll also have to relocate the rear hangar. Any muffler shop should be able to do this for you.

The pipe diameter is roughly 2.5" or 65mm. The tip is roughly 4" in diameter.

Quality
The quality is pretty poor. The diameter of the pipe is not even, despite using mandrel bends. You can visually see the areas where the piping is distorted.

The welds don't look very clean. However, when it is installed on the car, you can't see the welds.

At the rear flange (where it connects to the cat), the piping is really messed up and the flange is all cut up like somone took a grinder to it. The pipe in the flange on the one I had was bent in such a way that it was no longer a perfect circle, and thus air must be getting trapped in that little pocket between the pipe and the flange.

Install
It comes with ~13mm nuts and bolts. Wierd. What JDM company uses 13mm? None! I think Buddy Club is made in China, despite claims of being made in Japan. I think 13mm might = 1/2 SAE. Who uses standard bolts on a JDM part?????

Anyway, don't use the 3 bolts for connecting it to the cat. Use the stock bolts. It's much easier that way.

The hangar is a real PITA to put together over the muffler. You should, however, take it apart before putting it over the muffler. The hangar thing scratches the muffler pretty easily (ofcourse, you can't see that part of the muffler when it is on the car anyway).

Opinion
The exhaust is cheap, light, and sounds good in VTEC WOT. It's "JDM", although I suspect otherwise. It's "Name Brand" (if people here actually think Buddy Club is a good name brand). Well, I guess people here think T1R is a good brand (which I think is way overpriced for what it is, but anyway...).

The exhaust is too loud for a daily driver, old person, or anyone who values their hearing. It looks funny without modification, but that's almost OK because even with modification it's cheaper than alot of exhausts available ($1000 for an S2000 exhaust? Really? That's stupid.) It doesn't make much power, but it DOES make power, which I guess is better than LOSING power.

Hope that helps.

(flame suit on!)

 

^^^

I'll agree with you on the welds. i had to reweld the system so that it wouldn't leak, and now there are no problems.

The piping I really don't see what you are taking about the piping mine looks good not "uneven"

we weighed the exhaust and it came in at 12.7 pounds.

I really don't know what you had a problem with the hangers. mine bolted up fine and I've taking the exhaust on and off 3 times already.


I think that buddy club is a good company, thats why I bought the exhaust and am going to buy the seat also. My buddy had it in his S I liked it so Im gonna buy one!

The exhaust is a good alternative to the 1g and up exhausts.

 

The hanger I'm referring to is the one that circles the muffler. It's a pain to get it bolted on over the muffler. Maybe mine wasn't a perfect circle, which was the cause of the problem.

As for the bends, check the biggest bend (near the rear axle) and run your hand along the piping before it, through it, and after it. You'll notice that it dips as if it was bent on a regular pipe bender, but just not as obvious.

I'll post a pic of the uneven bend when I get a chance. I'll post pics of my awful flange too.

 

^Props for the detailed review. I'm a little surprised by build quality comments. I've seen Spec III's for DC5s and I had a Pro Spec on my RSX and the quality was great. I agree on the tip sticking out too far, I think JDM exhausts in general have the tailpipe sticking out too much, maybe to allow for body kits. Yeah it's loud, thin wall tubing and high flow muffler, you'll go deaf or blow an aneurysm after a few weeks.

 

I have to check out my exhaust when I get back from vacation !!

I don't remember it looking that bad

 

Ok, here are the pics.

Here is one of the uneven piping examples. You can see from the pic, it gets quite a bit narrower right before it gets to the muffler. Why? I don't know. Maybe they spec'd out the muffler inlet size wrong. This isn't the only place this occurs, but it's the most obvious.



Here is the inlet-side flange that connects to the cat. Notice how the pipe inside the flange isn't flush with the flange and is actually bent out of round. The build quality is actually better shown in the 3rd pic...


Believe it or not, this is how it came out of the box. If you notice in all of the pics, the exhaust is sitting on bubble wrap. That's the bubble wrap it came in and the pics were taken in my driveway as soon as I got home from picking it up. I have no idea what the guy who made this exhaust was thinking...


Despite the above, I still think this exhaust is a good value if you want something inexpensive, lightweight, racy, and adds power (not much, but some). If you don't mind the deafening loudness, this exhaust is pretty cool.

I, however, at the age of 27 (today's my bday!) and having my current S2000 totally stock (other than this exhaust and final gear), had to decide that this exhaust was too ricey for me. You can't date girls at the age of 27 driving a car that is louder than a fighter jet. Well, atleast not the kind of girls I want to meet...

Hope this helps.

 

Happy Birthday

 

Very valuable information, and Happy Birthday