nossy

I gave my downpipe away for free to the guy who bought my car...

If that's the case, these companies have some very interesting ideas on what it means for something to "work"

The conspiracy theorist in me makes me suspect that Nameless was in cahoots with English racing to attempt some lame cover up of this overboosting issue. From what very quick investigation I've done it would appear that English does actually know how to tune cars properly, so the only way a tuning monstrosity like this makes sense is if they were purposely doing all they could to prevent overboosting, at the expense of everything else. Makes me wonder who the customer is here?

This is exactly where I've been throughout this whole mess since my living/financial situation changed and I decided to sell my LGT after I had placed the order for the DP and paid for it. Now I'm stuck with a brand new $600+ hunk of metal that I doubt I could even unload for half that.

Seriously, what the hell is going on here.

Though I agree that seeing the complete logs would be ideal, I'm not sure how else we would interpret the above quote from Nameless apart from the boost being uncontrolled. As fahr_side mentioned, running a leaky stock BPV is not a solution, it's a bandaid. What this test did APPEAR to show us is that there are very negligible differences between the old design of the downpipe and the new design, which was a sticking point and frustrating situation for many of us who participated in the group buy and felt that we did not get what we paid for. It seems that the design change does not significantly impact performance (and could help, though I'd be hesitant to latch onto those specifics too much). There does however remain the issue of whether or not this uncontrolled boost goes against the claims by Nameless of the downpipe offering a "more consistent boost curve and no boost creep." I feel those claims were likely over confident on Nameless' part and needed more in-depth testing of all setups before being put out there, but I don't think there was malicious intent behind them. I also think anyone would have trouble making a legal case against them on these grounds given all of the variables involved.

To your knowledge, was the shop (Procom) in contact with Nameless during the tuning process?

So the answer is reverting back to the stock BPV, leaking boost and making the turbo work harder and less efficiently? That's as ridiculous as the "solution" of running a more restrictive exhaust. Nothing but bandaids.

Incorrect, which can be verified by reading through the thread here. They did not acknowledge the difference at first (despite answering OTHER questions that were posted) and when pushed on the issue said it was a slight cosmetic difference and then further stated that they have seen good results with the design.

I can only speak for myself here, but the primary issue I have is the redesign of the group buy piece. Which, by the way, wasn't even brought up by Nameless in the first place, it was noticed by someone examining pictures of the two side by side. This is unacceptable to me. It was a cost-cutting measure and should have been mentioned by Nameless before anyone had sent in non-refundable deposits. While we were aware that each piece was hand-made and subject to slight variations, this was an intentional change in the design of the unit in an effort to make it easier/cheaper for the manufacturer and nothing else. We PAID FOR the original design and didn't receive it, but being desperate for a well-made and well-performing downpipe, I (and I assume others) trusted Nameless when they stated they had seen good results with the redesign (shall I link the post again?).

Seconded. I'm not interested in sob stories about "hate mail" I'm interested in results. At the very least Nameless should be posting here directly instead of us hearing secondhand through people contacting them. I guarantee there is phone service wherever these guys are off racing and it takes all of 30 seconds to logon to the site and post "hey guys, we know you're frustrated, we're hoping to be able to test this around October blah blah blah" - this game of telephone makes the situation look worse on Nameless' side. Once again I'm going to ask, where are the "good results" that Nameless claimed they received with this design? While additional testing that is being planned in this thread is certainly welcome/needed, why don't we have information from the testing already done? Original Post

This. I wonder where these results are? This whole ordeal has been incredibly frustrating.

Does it count as a find if we're selling it?

Ugh, just when I decide to sell mine...

This sums up my point beautifully. I haven't bothered to post in the thread on the other site because they've already drank the Kool-Aid and are beyond reasoning.

If they are seeing that much at redline, the charts I've seen are not indicating this. If you wouldn't mind linking the specific post... I completely agree that not everyone wants to "wind the engine out" which I specifically addressed. If you aren't going WOT and cranking through the RPM range the ESC is off, it's doing nothing, there's no power going to it at all and therefore is completely useless during 99% of daily driving. The specific situation where the ESC is enabled is when you are at WOT and going for maximum acceleration - in which case there is absolutely no reason NOT to wind out the engine and shift near redline, as doing otherwise would slow you down. Once again, it looks awesome on paper and feels great in limited cases on the street, but it's impractical and a waste of money for 99% of daily driving situations. If someone was serious about racing on the track (drag, road or rally) they wouldn't even consider this unit.

Can this product work in theory? Yes. Have the BRZ/FRS guys had "positive" results with the kit? Yes, but see below. Is the technology there to make this a good option compared to the available alternatives? Not yet and not if you consider all of the factors I've yet to see a dyno chart directly and truly comparing the ESC to a non-ESC car. This means taking a fully tuned BRZ without the ESC and plotting it against the SAME car, on the SAME day with the SAME tuner with the ESC tuned. I've read through pages and pages of the thread over on ft86 and nobody is calling them out on the fact that they are comparing dynos from different cars, with different mods at different locations, tuned vs. untuned - it's a mess and it's convincing the uneducated masses that this is a good bang for your buck modification. The dyno runs between stock and ESC are being started at different RPM as well, I realize this is because of the limits of the battery pack, but this also is going to cause skewed results when comparing the two plots. Lets also mention the fact that in a car that revs to 7500+ and has the gearing of the BRZ you're going to be spending most (all?) of your time outside of the area where the ESC makes the most gains. It will speed up your 1st gear for you a bit... Big gains in the low end/midrange on a street driven car are noticed on a daily basis in situations below 100% throttle. My LGT's torque is great for speeding up around someone on the freeway, I can give it partial throttle, build partial boost and accelerate without going WOT like an idiot - the ESC is useless in this case. This technology has its place, and someday we will likely see it in abundance (for example once Elon Musk decides to hookup his batteries to one), but anyone looking to do this on a 2.5i, BRZ/FRS or *insert average car here* is much better off with one of a multitude of other options. Yes you can say "Look at my dyno! I made power!" but it's just not a practical solution overall.

No. I honestly can't believe people are still taking these things seriously.

I've seen the thread, just more than I can probably swing right now. Car is currently at Infamous getting the motor rebuilt which is setting me back 6k, so my curiosity is more aimed at opening up my options for used parts.

Thanks gentleman. I assumed that was the case but didn't see anything explicitly stated in any of my searching here/NASIOC.

Do we know if the '15 WRX "downpipe" fits?

Mike, just shot you an email regarding my blown motor - none of the shops closer to me seem to have any interest in working on cars.