When I saw the thread Title I did hope someone would have mentioned the ebay special
Search 'golf 3" turbo back" on ebay.com, not .co.uk, and you'll soon see they're all the same exhaust from different sellers. They are still 100% available, and the cheapest one is still £240 posted to the UK. You really can't go wrong at that money, it's madness.
The slip joints are a little loose as supplied. I solved this by using a mikalor clamp and an impact gun once on each joint to wind them in, then swapped back to a U-bolt clamp when the joints were tighter.
At the rear axle joint you absolutely HAVE to use a mikalor clamp as there isn't room for a U-bolt.
Mine's been in for 4 years, and I think it's brilliant.
I had one issue last year where a hanger ripped away from the system, easily sorted with the welder in 5 minutes, and one issue with the insides of the centre box falling apart, although to be fair my car gets some SERIOUS abuse, and the exhaust has to put up with a LOT of pops and bangs and hard cut rev limiter action banging the **** out of it, so I'm not surprised.
When brand new, it used to register 89-90db at 4500rpm on trackday noise tests. After 3-4 years this rose to 91-92db as the wadding depleted. Now with the centre box emptied it records 93-94db at the same 4500rpm, so really not crazy loud still.
These might give you some idea how it sounds:
If / when mine eventually dies, I'll be buying another one straight away.
