A Comment, Question, then off for an AM drive!

[911TargaNYC]

First, the comment. I'm still a newbie, know very little mechanically about cars, and don't post much on here but I've been reading the forums for nearly 10-years. And, what I love about the forums is it's comprised of drivers, people who really love to extract the value out of 911 ownership. Reading the forums this morning is what prompted me to get off the laptop on a gorgeous Sunday AM in the PacNW and take Georgia ('86 911 Targa) out for some exercise.

Second, my questions...The car is stock, don't want to invest much money into it beyond proper upkeep yet I'd like to do a few modifications that will help w/ HP/torque, throttle response, and even make the growl a bit stronger just for my ears sake.

Here are the three things I've picked up on the Boards as some reasonably-priced improvements:

1. MSDS Cone Filter for about $150.

2. Performance chip for about $350. Some have reco'd FVD, others on the board seem religious w/ SW. Opinions about FVD?

3. Cat bypass, to open it up and deepen the sound for about $300 parts and I'm assuming an hour of labor. Not sure that the brand of the cat bypass even matters.

Some have suggested the full exhaust but 2k for that set-up is beyond what I want to spend so far, plus I'd like to do mods that would relatively enable me to get it back to stock easily enough if I wanted to sell it.

What do you guys think? For the money would you do this, or add/replace it with anything else? And any thoughts of FVD vs. SW?

Okay, so now I'm off for the drive. Gorgeous Sunday, and my youngest even wants to go along for the drive today. Can't beat that!

[KCTarga3.2]

Imo don't waste your money on the cone filter. I would do a sw chip $375 cat premuffler $300 and a sport muffler (mk $650). Sounds great and really "wakes up" the car. At least that's my plan for my 84 targa - all I need is the muffler.

[teamfee3]

SW, cat bypass, and B&B two out exhaust, loud, but sounds like a built engine and it's not. Had Autoauthority chip, SW waayyy better. Found Maxspeed bypass on EBay, s/s, had O2 sensor hole and was cheap.

[911TargaNYC]

Thanks; does brand of cat bypass matter? And is a pre-muffler the same as a cat bypass? See, I said I didn't know much about cars!

[Gogar]

As far as cat-bypass goes:

There's a straight-pipe bypass, cometimes called "test pipe",

and "Pre-muffler" or "Euro pre-muffler", which usually has a sort of chamber built in. Folks say they sound different, and some will say that a pre-muffler handles exhaust gas better than a straight pipe.

There is the option of 'gutting' your existing cat, as well.

just do some searches with 'test pipe", "premuffler", and "gutted cat", there's plenty out there.