Chit Chat

B6 A4
#341

Very interesting, and frankly pretty impressive Stratosphere is stepping up to the market like that. The bends and welds look pretty good (from what you can see in the limited photos), but as we’ve discussed on here, it might be nice for the 3.0/3.2 get a shot at a 2.5" CB vs 2.25" which is still stock on those platforms (correct?).

But in addition to questioning the pipe diameter, I’d be curious what type metal was used. It almost looks like two different kinds of metal between the manifold flange to the flex bend, and then the flex bend to the bat-back. And then finally, I wonder what their pricing is on this.

#342

I agree, interesting stuff. I guess we won’t know if 2.25 or 2.5 is best on our cars until JHM confirms that… and yea I looked at the pic again, looks like there might be 2 different metals.

It’s great to see other manufacturers producing things. It makes things competitive, which is good for the consumer because it makes pricing competitive ;D That being said, I’ll be buying my downpipes from JHM when the time comes. They’ve earned my dollar… Which I guess is only about 96 cents as far as you Americans are concerned :stuck_out_tongue:

#343

I agree its good other companies are making products for the 3.0 BUT, Its definitly not the sound I’m wanting for my car, personally I’m not really impressed.

#344

lol are you kidding? Impressive?

They’ve been surfing AudiRevolution stealing JHM’s ideas. This is just a dirty little case of trying to jump out in front of JHM, who have been paying attention to the 3.0 guys and develop a full system. Stratmustfail is just trying to grab some low hanging fruit with (yet another) poorly thought exhaust product. Epic fail.

Some guys will get conned into buying these (on John’s ‘hunch’ that 2.25" are good enough lol) but the real serious guys will get a JHM tune, JHM clutch/flywheel or JHM TCU tune, JHM downpipes, JHM catback. Then they’ll stomp all over the Strat buyers in races, and the JHM guys will get called Strat haters for being so mean. It’s B6/7 2.0.

#345

just watched the Strat fullback video. 0-60mph in about 7.0 seconds. Awesome.

Sorry, I meant to say not awesome.

What’s stock? Let me guess…about 7.0 seconds?

#346

Well if they have been surfing AR they have done a piss poor job of it.

I agree with Saki, it is not impressive. Even the way he put it up on AZ

“So we whipped up some catless downpipes” wow that inspires confidence and they have done their research.

“It’s noticeably faster” well der there are no cats, and great data to back your product. I feel sorry for the sucker that falls for that line.

And then the sizing choice, all he has done is pull of the DP and seen that the opening of the cat at 1.9” and thought yeah 2.25” is bigger that should do it. That must have really strained his brain. I bet he hasn’t even held an exhaust manifold of a 3.0, I have and the opening on that is 2.5 so he has created a restriction. I think he needs to dust of the vernier callipers and do some measuring

I am all for JHM and won’t buy anywhere else, but it is good to see some other companies making stuff. Just wish they would make better products.

#347

The big thing I noticed was … umm… where’s the X/H pipe ?

#348

Lout, it was the same with teh b6/7 S4. They sold the milltek 2.25 junk and said ‘2.25 should be sufficient’ then went on about the stock exhaust manifolds being restrictive, and ‘unless you get headers 2.25 is fine’.

Sure thing guys.

Then they made the flashpoint, a milltek replica, in their own fab shop. Then they got slammed, and argued back. Then stratjohn said ‘well lets test this once and for all on our local dyno…I’ll make a 2.25, a 2.5 and a 2.75 and we’ll dyno to see what is best’

3 things immediately came to mind:

  1. like we’re going to trust your fabbing the 2.5 and 2.75 when their success would make your part look like a fail if they succeeded
  2. like we’re going to trust your dyno to compare the 3!
  3. (most important one…) UMMM…shouldn’t you have already DONE this test BEFORE deciding to sell a 2.25 system???

That just proved to the world they’re not doing their homework.

p.s. the funny thing? The farther back the restriction is in an exhaust system from manifold/headers to the tips, the worse it is for performance. Blaming the ‘restrictive’ manifolds and justifying a 2.25" catback/downpipe design on that basis shows again, they’re not doing their homework.

#349

I dont understand how people do business that way. Dont they have a conscience.

I am interested in how he responds to my post on AZ

#350

I wouldn’t even post to give that thread a chance to get bumped up.

Here is some fail to think about. Strat had to make a post about what they did. Notice how the customer didn’t even make a post about the work that was done to his car.

Seems strat’s idea is here we made some shit and we don’t put real thought into anything… they will send the parts to china just like there cheap ass catback that sucks balls and it will perform for shit just like the other products that they claime are good. What a joke

Im going to make a post tomarrow that really will kick this entire thing out the window

#351

I find it impressive that they’ve ventured into any of their own products that weren’t straight from millitek/hyperfail/etc (impressive probably wasn’t the best word choice though). It seems all they do is sell other peoples products blindly trying to make a quick buck however possible. (although in truth, I’ve almost never been to their site, so I don’t know what is offered other then the crap group buys and “special pricing” that I see on AZ from time to time).

In reality, I don’t think they’ll make too many sells, b/c catless is far from the first mod most enthusiasts make due to a number of factors. Typically it’s catback, tune, then dp’s (if people aren’t concerned with wheels or suspension). Going catless always seems like a big jump for guys being afraid of emissions, CEL’s, and whether the performance is really worth it, which in the 3.0 still has a LONG way to go without a good tune. Considering that Strat can’t properly provide either of the first products, not too many people are going to hop on the band wagon for the full product lineup imo.

The biggest problem the Audi market has always experienced in the performance aspect is lack of competition. I fully back JHM and don’t doubt their product will be the best in the 3.0 market just like the 4.2 market, but Strat’s errors will become blatantly obvious when JHM releases their product (just like what has happened in the B6/7 platform). I’m already questioning pipe diameter, materials used, and pre-fab calculations. In reality, the 3.0 guys don’t know the drama and history of Strat like the S4 guys (from integrity, ingenuity, or comprehension), but they’ll get their dose soon enough if the right questions aren’t asked by prospective buyers.

#352

After seeing the responses on audizine, it makes me realize how much I love you guys over here. Lol

Just make me laugh, really hard. I can’t wait until we get the downpipes done and on and completely blow them out of the water. More than we already have.

#353

I used to care more. Now I just say ‘let them be slow’. You can’t help everyone. Lout made a good post over there, so if guys choose to see the facts, they’ll smarten up. If not, and they want to buy the strat stuff when clearly it’s a whim, not a well thought out system…well I think that kind of customer just can’t be helped.

#354

Care to elaborate on this? From what I read you are saying a restriction that is farther away from the headers is worse than one that is close?

#355

yes

#356

LOL. Thank you for the detailed elaboration :stuck_out_tongue: I was just curious as to why. I always assumed it was the restrictions closer to the engine that would make more of a difference… although now that I think about it, this makes sense. because someone was saying that with the b6s4 downpipes, the difference between just the piggie pipes and full dp’s was minimal provided they had a good exhaust.

#357

to be honest, I can’t really explain it. Maybe someone smarter will pop in.

IIRC it’s because the pulses are weaker the farther they are from the motor, so the restriction has more of a negative effect farther away. But again, let’s have someone smarter clarify.

#358

well the worst restriction is one in the secondary, between the header collector and the crossover (eg a bad cat). That will destroy scavenging.

now the tough thing is defining a restriction, a straight pipe is a restriction techinically as it will generate backpressure… so basically anything past the crossover is an unecessary restriction

the pulses use the pressure differential between the atmosphere and the pulse to move forward, problem is is that the pulse is cooling down and losing pressure to the restriction of the exhaust… so the pulse effectively gets weaker

#359

Interesting… I’ll be interested to see how it translates into real world performance for us 3.0’s. Like for the S4 guys, how much do they pick up in the 1/4 mile when they go from just piggies/dps to adding 2.5" exhaust? I checked the 1/4 mile DB but theres nothing definitively comparing the two.

#360

cabracco, jaybquick and me all went piggies to 2.5 with dragstrip times before/after.

cabracco modded a bunch of stuff though so it’s hard to use his times to compare

jaybquick went piggies to 2.5" catless Fast Intentions downpipes and went

13.02 @ 105.9
to
12.97 @ 109.1

So they picked up a ton of mph, but only a little ET. The MPH is important obviously, as it reflects the power gain.

I went from piggies to JHM custom 2.5" catless downpipes and went

13.21 @ 107.3
to
12.97 @ 107.8

So I picked up only a little MPH but a ton of ET. I had launch assist on the 12.99 run, so that’s part of the ET, but the rest is the downpipes. When I went from no launch assist and piggies to lauinch assist and downpipes, my 60mph times measured by gtech and pbox were cut from 4.7 to 4.4. pretty cool.

So there are definitely pretty good gains there based on jaybquick’s MPH. My numbers weren’t as dramatic. Not sure if anyone else went?

This reminds me, I should add jaybquick’s best piggies time and his best downpipes time to the quartermile list. Only his all motor with headers and manifold time is up there.