Ragazzon Exhaust Review

Peerzy

Peerzy

Peerzy

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I've posted this on a few other forums (Fiat Forum etc...) but thought I'd pop it up here for a bit less of the 'wikkid mate' stuff and a few more real opinions. Interesting to hear your thoughts on my install, exhausts you've had etc... Before now I always assumed an exhaust was simply for the look and the sound and most were simply rubbish and chavy. Anyways enjoy;

Ragazzon Exhaust Review

Firstly, my car is a 07 plate Fiat Bravo 1.4 150 Tjet, about a year ago I had a GSR induction kit and remap done on the car, giving me 180bhp and 193 ft-lb of torque as seen here:

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Since then the only modification I'd done was to collect the barrier of the A3 at about 50mph after the winter snow, not nice - and set me back £1400 in repair work!

I decided that my final modification for my car before looking to upgrade in the next 6-12months would be an exhaust. I had never owned what I would consider a ‘performance’ or ‘sports’ exhaust before and some research pointed me towards a company called Ragazzon (http://217.22.226.219/ragazzon.it/eng/catalogue.asp) operating in Italy.

I decided I would go for one of the following two exhausts:

Oval Exhaust (Price € 320,00 VAT not included)
img_146200893635.jpg


Twin Exhaust (Price € 336,00 VAT not included)
img_244200816052.jpg



A bit of research and I found this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1uanoVJg) on Youtube showing the second exhaust (which looks very similar to the MK5 Golf GTi exhaust).
I couldn't find any videos of the Oval exhaust so decided I'd go for that one. The item was posted out and 3 days later it arrived at my place of work.








Now I'll be the first to admit my main concern about any exhaust system is to make sure it is not in any way chav-y, the oval exhaust was slightly bigger than I had hoped, but I'd wait until it was installed before making a judgement.

I called up a friend who works at a garage and we went down on a Saturday afternoon and started, first off was to remove the standard exhaust.







Now to correctly install the new exhaust would require the rear bumper to be cut, we didn't have the correct tools available (the garage was closed up and we were the only ones there), so we decided to mount it below the bumper. This caused a small problem (of our own doing!) that the tail pipe wouldn't fit on because the bumper was in the way, we finally managed to bend the bumper and cut a small hidden bit away and it mounted fine.

Cont....
 
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Firing the car up for the fire time all my fears of a chav-y exhaust sound were put to bed as it gives off a slight deep rumble at idle. Moving up through the rev range it picks up sound above 4krpm and never intrudes into the cabin too much.

The main difference I've noticed is how much sharper it has made the throttle response, in higher gears putting your foot down can really tell the difference. The guy who helped me fit it remarked it looked like one of the best made exhaust systems he'd seen and it was so strong that at one point we managed to lift the car off the jack just using the exhaust!

I love the sound it makes, giving the engine a little needed growl without ever sounding too over powering. The total installation time was about 2 hours, although if we had used the correct tools to cut away at the bumper it would have been done in 1 hour. It was a simple process, and the instructions that came in the box gave me a good enough idea as to what the process involved - obviously my mate knew exactly what to do anyway.

I've not been back onto a rolling road since having the exhaust installed but I recon it's added a good 5-8bhp that most exhaust systems usually do, the interesting thing would be how the torque graph will have changed as it's really noticeable how quickly the turbo spools up now.

In conclusion although the look and size of the exhaust may not be exactly to my liking (hey it's my fault I picked it!) the sound is perfect and the difference it has made to the drive of the car is amazing - something I didn't even consider. I'd certainly look at buying one from Ragazzon in the future.

Having had the exhaust now for nearly 2 months and done over 3000 miles I can say I’m very pleased with the exhaust. When looking at the exhaust from the car behind it doesn’t look bad at all – due to the tail pipe being quite thin. The sound is excellent and the car feels just that little bit quicker.

 
Those are some pretty sensational claims there for just a back box, it isn't even a straight through type either. For that price it's an absolute con too.
 
5-8bhp from what looks like a cat-back? I would doubt that. Is it not also going to melt your bumper?
 
I'd like to slightly alter that claim. It feels like it's added extra bhp - I've no idea if it has.

I'd imagine it's moved the torque curve down the rev range so made the power easier to access and sharpened up the turbo response.

The car feels quicker to me (before and after Gtech and 2nd gear test etc...) and I'm happy with it.
 
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It looks like a backbox only? The increase in noise probably makes it feel like you have more power.

I asked Skip Browns about exhausts for the 306 GTI/Xsara VTS and their advice was to stick with OE as there was no point changing to an aftermarket one.

Huge exhaust tips aren't needed and I wish aftermarket companies would stop making them and just make a good exhaust that looks OE!
 
Looks better though. I'm still surprised that an induction kit and remap took your Bravo to 180hp though!
 
Its the Cat that saps power really. The Cat backs make no difference at all in most cases. Although that std back box looks rather "wierd" and probably had horrid flow rates and high back pressure?
 
Berger said:
It looks like a backbox only? The increase in noise probably makes it feel like you have more power.

I asked Skip Browns about exhausts for the 306 GTI/Xsara VTS and their advice was to stick with OE as there was no point changing to an aftermarket one.

Huge exhaust tips aren't needed and I wish aftermarket companies would stop making them and just make a good exhaust that looks OE!
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not really comparable though is it ?

the 306 GTI / Xsara VTS are N/A

His TJET is turbocharged, which is always going to benefit from ease of flow of exhaust gasses

Its possible i suppose, but i dont know enough about the engine to say for definate. The only definate way to know would be to have done a dyno before and after fitting the new exhaust on the same day at the same time etc..
 
As other have said, you're not going to see much improvement from a back box, only really noise. In fact I wouldn't mind putting money on a power loss.


[TW]Fox;16940696 said:
I'd imagine its just made more noise giving you the illusion you are driving a hot hatch.
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Not one of your smartest remarks. Brand snobbery has been better disguised TBH.
 
BigglesPiP said:
As other have said, you're not going to see much improvement from a back box, only really noise. In fact I wouldn't mind putting money on a power loss.



Not one of your smartest remarks.
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You've just said the exact same thing as him, just worded it different, so why is it not one of his smartest comments?
 
BigglesPiP said:
As other have said, you're not going to see much improvement from a back box, only really noise. In fact I wouldn't mind putting money on a power loss.
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eh ?

dont talk balderdash.

Since when has a turbocharged car lost power from having a less restrictive back box ??
 
MrLOL said:
eh ?

dont talk balderdash.

Since when has a turbocharged car lost power from having a less restrictive back box ??
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Is it even less restrictive? It is the correct length? And is the turbo electronically controlled to provide x boost from a map?
 
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you want it less restrictive though ? :confused: thats why imprezas and evos have huge 3 inch drain pipes for an exhaust with a 5 inch taipipe, so its as least restrictive as possible.

Plenty of cars dont need a remap to adjust the boost to benefit from a more free flowing exhaust. Go stick a £300 stick on cat back on an impreza and watch how much HP it makes on its own.

And as for the length, the company manufacture this exhaust for the car, you would assume they've done enough testing to know if the lenght is correct or not before selling it.
 
MrLOL said:
And as for the length, the company manufacture this exhaust for the car, you would assume they've done enough testing to know if the lenght is correct or not before selling it.
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You would assume that, doesn't mean it's true, I want dyno results.

Would like to re-iterate the electronic control, the turbo has a target manifold pressure to hit, any advantages without another re-map will be in less pumping losses to drive the turbo, not more boost.
 
you could bung a cat back exhaust on the Astra VXR and gain around 20bhp just from the exhaust easily.

No remap, dyno proven.

They did it with the Astra VXR Nurburgring edition which still had to have a cat for MOT regulations etc..

I dont see why everybody is dismissing him saying he's had a power increase just because its a fiat.

Its a turbocharged car at the end of the day. If it was N/A then yeah i'd say he's dreaming about it, but its entirely reasonable its gained a few HP from fitting the catback. He's only guessing the ammount rather than stating it does exactly that ammount of HP.

This is what the Astra VXR Remus exhaust looked like

http://roadrunnermotorsport.co.uk/ebay/images/RemusAstraVXRSystemNEW.JPG

Now that still includes one of the pair of cats, as it only removed one of the two. And gains 20bhp. How hard would it be for a catback to get 5 ?
 
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I'd agree a cat back could give you 5, but this was a back box?

Surely we're splitting hairs by this stage, I've seen greater losses on groggled engines with carbon on the valves.

Edit:
On a related note, my car has 4 cats! :eek:
 
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