I never really intended to decat my car, I'd heard of problems with the DBW cars being more sensitive to decat and the last thing I want is the engine light coming on. I've also heard so much about Better sound, better performance, better sound and less drone oh and better sound when you've got a decat. Although the Mugen exhaust does not suffer from drone, now I've got used to it, it could do with being a little louder.

I'd seen a few posts about High Flow Cats before but most of these are exspensive JDM parts. So the opportunity came up to fit Berk Tech HFC. These CATs are a newish development and claim to work well on the DBW cars without throwing up CELs. There is a thread on product

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...ic=537330&st=0

So I jumped on the chance to get one when the opportunity came up the other day.

It looks like a well made bit of stainless and when you take a peek inside you can see why it's high flow when compared to the stock Cat. Berk also supply a really good guide to fitting complete with colour pictures, even if the instructions are for the Decat pipe there's no difference in fitting.

The installation was almost a doddle, only complicated by my poor Halfords jack and my difficulty in getting under the car. The cat went on fine and has not changed the position of the tail pipes.

The Engine was pretty much cold when I fired it up for the first time, so I quickly got the impression that at fast idle the exhaust was louder, My garage neighbour is used to the car starting up and he also noticed the change before I'd told him what I'd fitted. A first drive round the block and all seemed OK. At idle it's no different but exhaust is slightly louder and perhaps deeper, that could just be the lacebo thing happening.

This evening I took it out for a propper drive and covered about 50 miles. I wanted to make sure the Engine had a full cycle, various roads, mixed driving and a real thrashing all of which were done succesfully
Louder under load, perhaps a little louder when just driving around at constant throttle, and when you give it the beans it's great, not scary loud but does feel a bit more urgent. I'm not sure if there is any extra power or torque, I can't really tell with my poorly calibrated butt dyno, It might be more it might not, certainly no massive gains. And so far no CELs

Here are a couple of pics following the 50 mile run, so the pipes have already started to get that golden tinge that comes with a a bit of heat.

 

I think always with a decat etc you get better throttle response, but i cant see you netting much ponies.

 

It does on a supercharged car
3-4k rpm

 

You shut up you!, flaunting your Supercharged-ness!

 

Mike is a damn showoff

 

what about weight saving i know the oem one is very heavy how does the berk compare

 

Welome to the de-cat club Glad you like it.

 

is it just me being stupid but i thought he had fitted a performance cat not a de-cat?

 

I guess it's halfway. still a Cat but Berk claim it to Flow 89% of a decat with stock at 43%

 

Can you now please go and get your car MOT'ed.