+1, Buying a ready brand name exhaust is waste of money in my opinion except the HKS wich has unique mufflers. But any other exhaust system is doable with just looking at it and going to a local exhaust shop and telling them how to weld the pipes.

 

I checked into that 3 years ago back when stillen first released their sedan catback. Showed a few local shops the photos and they said $1200 for stainless and nobody around here had a mandrel bending machine. SoCal has alot more choices on exhaust fab. So I went with the Stillen, was happy with it until testpipes. Power was insane, but it was ridiculously loud. Cut out the tiny, unpacked 14" resonators and welded in some 30" Magnaflows and its perfect now with no loss of power.

 

i agree with you that after the mid-pipe resonators the bassani is very similar to that of the stillen because of how the mufflers are arranged, but i'm going to have to say that stillen may have copied the x-pipe design from bassani or magnaflow. stillen may have used the x-pipe design before bassani, but bassani has been making x-pipes for mustangs and corvettes for decades. they are even the exhaust OE supplier for the Mustang Cobra R. bassani is new to the sub-compact scene but they have been making exhaust systems for racing teams, automobile manufacturers, etc. for numerous years already.

i agree that there's probably a better design than the stillen or bassani, but i am going to speculate that these companies designed their exhaust systems using existing parts or process technology to reduce costs. bassani is probably using the same muffler and x-pipe found in their mustang exhaust. just my opinion.