Against the wishes of my son I'm considering dumping the CMC four tip header for something better. Looked through the earlier forums. The stainless merged header with a Phat Boy looks interesting.
1600 blueprinted case
Counterweighted crank
CB cheater cam
Big valve heads (I know I know -bad move)
1:25
36 Dells
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A1 Sidewinder Exhaust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGsOhHi7g-U
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/A...Exit-p/a-1-swctr.htm
Or call A1 direct at 714-836-7201
Yup. Tiger... A1. Done.
1.5" header.
You'll thank us later.
Ted
Tiger at A-1 Performance Muffler & Exhaust is the go to guy! That 4-tip (I'm guessing is a Monza exhaust) is robbing you of power. 
Yeah, talk to Tiger. Make sure he knows what you've got in the engine. My thought would be that for that engine a set of 1-1/4" tubes would work better in the mid-range, but Tiger should know for sure.
Boothy!
Tomorrow! Inskip Porsche in Warwick, RI. 9am - 1pm Super Cars and Coffee.
Be there! gn
Nix the Phat boy and get the A1. I hated my Phat Boy!
Do it once and do it right...
Musbjim, toss the radio out at the next corner you have some impressive notes coming from the exhaust :~)
That MUSBJIM must have some serious head suction going on to hold his hat on at speed......
Either that, or "el Guapo" sprays on a light coating of "Tuf Skin" before heading out to anchor his hat.
I'm jus' sayin'.................
Ditto on the A-1!
You should also consider a Vintage Speed exhaust system.
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/V...-p/155-203-05200.htm
If you go with an A1 system be warned that Tiger is really busy and you may have to wait a while to get your exhaust.
If you go with the A1 exhaust-as Anthony mentioned-order it with an 02 bung and the band clamp rather than 3 bolt, so the muffler can be easily taken off to adjust the valves.
My take on the A-1.
I got mine early on in the speedster exodus to Tiger. Ordering by phone from Tiger personally, I received my system in just a couple weeks. I didn't like the thought of having to remove the muffler to adjust the valves so I asked if he could angle the muffler so I didn't have to. Tiger did as requested and I was able to remove the valve cover without too much effort. The new angle did bring the muffler close to the tire sidewall but there was no interference.
I don't know if changing the angle had a bearing on my fittment problems, but my exhaust sytem was not a bolt on. It took an experienced header builder in my neck of the woods a significant amount of time and effort to get it to fit. Then I had a real issue with the sound of the Magnaflow muffler. For me, it was too loud and the resonating tone from it was pure torture, especially under acceleration. I modified the tone with a small resonator muffler which helped for a while but the damn Magnaflow sat so low that I was constantly scraping at speed. I finally abandoned the Magnaflow for a Flowmaster Hushpower muffler. It was attached to the header with a 180 bend to allow the muffler to sit under the rear apron, with the exhaust exiting out the driver's rear side. On the last engine rebuild, Anthony welded in some flanges at the j pipes as the slip joints had to be welded during the initial installation. Just for validation, Dale Bates had the exact same experience I did. We ordered around the same time but he went to his local muffler shop for initial installation. He also modified his system with the Hushpower.
I know that many improvements have been made to the A-1 and most owners here haven't had these issues. The VintageSpeed system is very close to the original design and I have seriously thought of switching, but Anthony has told me that it has it's teething issues as well as he had some difficulties when installing one in Mitch's car.
My post here is not to discredit the A-1 system as it is probably one of the best available. I posted my experience so that anyone looking to purchase any system should do their homework before committing to what amounts to a significant expenditure. Make sure you ride in a car with the system you are considering. Will the sound be tolerable? Do you or your mechanic have a problem with the required removal when adjusting the valves?
My car will never be finished. I will always have something to tweak. From my perspective, the A-1 system is not the be all, end all system, but I don't know what is...yet.
I have a sidewainder and magnaflo, and yes, the muffler has to go in order to do the valves. And it is a PITA, but once you do it a couple of times, the total tax on the valve adj job is maybe 1/2 hour.
And PS; I think it sounds great. Not too loud when just puttin' along, and pretty nice and throaty when you mash it. I have had several folks say they like the way it sounds.
I've got an A1 Sidewindert as well. The first time I did the valves I had quite a time taking off the 3 into bolts. The bolt where the muffler was mounted was easy. I replaced the bolts with a slightly smaller diameter fastener and now it takes about 5 miins. to drop. Nice system but it is a little loud.
Mine is set up that the muffler mounts horizontal to the ground so I can adjust valves without removing it.
The two links to vwparts.aircooled above are not links to Tiger and I don't think you can actually order a genuine A1 from Aircooled it looks like they are only selling the muffler and I think the prices of $200 to $300 confirm that. A Genuine A1 Sidewinder from Tiger is going to cost you in the $700 range.
I don't believe Tiger has a website, but here is the address and phone number for his shop. Also, if you click the picture of Tiger you will get an article about him and his shop.
A-1 PERFORMANCE EXHAUST
721 S MAIN ST
Santa Ana, CA 92701
(714) 836-7201
My A1 is the same as Jims, I took it out of the box and it fit perfectly. Not a thing had to be messed with. I wanted the band clamp but Tiger talked me out of it, said I didn't need it. I wish I had stuck to my guns because it's almost impossible to get a wrench on the flange bolts. I ended up using some ARP 12 point small diameter bolts. The clamp really would have made it a lot easier to get the muffler off
Pure freakin' gold. Thank you all. Reading the responses and will do as directed. THANK YOU!!!!
I would have loved that meet Gordon. Instead I was on the river at 7am this morning because I had three boats racing Milton on the Charles. The wind was howling, 35 degrees, red raw skin -yes, I would have enjoyed being warm. Plus my voice is gone from yelling at young coxswains "Do you think stopping right there with traffic coming at you is a good plan?" ..."Do you see that you're on the wrong side of the river and college eights are come straight at you? What do you think you should do?" Great kids but I need to remind myself that teenage drivers are still teenage drivers whether they're on terra firma or water. A beer and a nap was like heaven.
Reading through all your responses. Thanks again!!!
since terry has purchased his A-1 system Tiger has improved the speedster setup.
I purchased two in the past year for customers and have received no complaints other than the customer not wanting the band clamp and later understanding why I suggested it.
the vintage speed is a nice piece but I personally did not care for their adapter from the muffler to heater box or J tube. It didn't seal the first time when I installed it and I used different hardware since i did not care for the hardware provided.
your other option is the CSP set up.
Troy, when I ordered my A1 header I ordered it from John at Aircooled.net, who then ordered it from Tiger (two years ago, so many things have changed).
I only ordered the header, because a number of posters on SAMBA complained that the A1 sidewinder header/muffler system was too loud.
I bought a larger (and much quieter) muffler and had the exhaust tubing custom made.
How's it sound, Ron?
Good one Terry!. Maybe someday he and we will know!
Troy (and Boothy)- you can order the sidewinder from Aircooled.net; Troy you maybe just didn't see it. I sometimes find things a little hard to find on their website.
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/A...-swht112-swht158.htm
or
http://vwparts.aircooled.net/A...w112-sw158-sw134.htm
Note that the smallest primary tubing the sidewinder comes with is 1 1/2". While not optimal (I think Anthony mentioned that 1 3/8" is the proper size for what you have), Pat Downs (CB Perf.) mentioned in another thread here a while ago that engines can often step up one size when using an exhaust system with longer primaries (and sidewinders have really long primaries). Lots of guys run around with "too large" exhausts on their cars and they run fine- you may (or may not) notice you're using a little more gas when toodling around town is what it boils down to. And as someone else said, if you step up to a little bigger engine at some point, you'll be ready!
Al.
How's it sound, Ron?
Smart A$$ 
Sorry it's taken me a while to post these, but here are some photos of the Vintage Speed installed on my car. It's a very 'neat' installation - no interference with the valve covers, and it tucks up higher than the sump (this is the wide CB slim-line sump). But you could argue it's better to scrape the pipes than a cast aluminum sump if you bottom out.
One reason there's so little plumbing compared to the Sidewinder is that this isn't an extractor exhaust system - so you probably give up a little power. It does look sorta stock, although it hangs down lower than the standard setup on a 356. And those PCA types will spot that shiny stainless as soon as you pull into the country club parking lot.
It's a little quieter than the A1, but a little louder and lower-pitched than the Tri-Mil that Vintage Speedsters (no connection to Vintage Speed) and others install on their stock engines.
As Anthony notes, it's not a plug and play install. There is some welding and prayer involved.
One of these days I'll get around to recording a video to capture the sound.
What sort of welding, etc., was required? I was under the impression that these were bolt-in.
Nice chrome bluing on your exhaust pipes there, Mitch! You must be doing some nice Freeway Cruising with it.
What's the plug for on the ends of the muffler can? O2 sensor?
Or maybe it's a way to get at the mice that get in there during long hibernations.
Other than that, a nice, clean exhaust setup - not like my Berg extractor with a basket of snakes hanging down under the rear valence. It gives me LOTS of mid-range torque but looks like "Three Mile Island" under there.
Thanks Gordon. Yes, that's the mouse feeding port. There are actually two - the one on the other side is used to fill the water dish - but I guess you could use them for O2 sensors.
Lane, I think the fitment problems were caused by the heater boxes, not the muffler. This is a 1.5" system and I wanted to retain heating. I ordered through aircooled.net because they carry both the Vintage Speed exhaust and nice quality 1.5" heater boxes (which work great).
The heater boxes are flanged so you don't have to use those leaky donuts to connect them, but the flanges are aligned to mate with a Bugpack exhaust. If you want to use them with anything else, you need to cut the flanges off the heater boxes, align them with whatever exhaust you're using, and reweld them back in that position. They also include adapter flanges to make everything go together, but Anthony had problems with those and home-brewed his own fix.
When the smoke and epithets cleared, it looked like this:
Note that Aircooled tries to save you and themselves some grief with this warning:
These are NOT a bolt-on fit for Vintage Speed Exhausts and some A-1 Exhausts. To make these work with non-BUGPACK exhaust, you may have to cut and re-weld the flanges to match your aftermarket exhaust flange orientation. Do not order these for a non-Bugpack exhaust system application unless you are prepared to do this work. These boxes are NON-RETURNABLE once shipped.
I suspect some lawyer was involved with them putting the words NON-RETURNABLE in boldface, so you want to make sure you know what you're getting into before you give them your Visa card number.
My experience with Vintage Speed was slightly different. the exhaust for my 2013 VS fit out of the box.
I ordered straight from Vintage speed, coordinated what I had with the owner... With pictures and basic drawings with dimensions I took from the car. After a 3 week wait, I unpacked, installed and it fit with out any modifications. ( I did retain the VS heater boxes that Kirk nstalled in the car... No problem to date... It's been nearly 18months and 6k miles on the Vintage exhaust.)
Its a nice system. I just installed a second on my '62 356T6. That one did require some mods... But it works and fits great. Vintage Speed owner was happy to help with my special order request. Some of the local PCA guys put their nose up to me installing this on the coupe... But I drive my cars arround town and having a blast doing so.... While they hawl theirs arround in trailers to cars and coffee and club events. ;-) living the dream!!!
cheers
The thing is there are only a few a$$hats. Most car-guys have some element of outlaw or hotrod in them. Except the weenie trailer-queen Pcar purist types. They are their own brand of awful....
Naaaahhhhhh.....Nobody WE know would ever trailer a 550.....
Just in case:
A-1 is the only way to go. I always call Tiger for my headers and then build something one off from the header back, because I usally want to tune the exhaust note a little more aggressive. But for off the shelf or even some one off systems, Tiger is the only way to go.....
That's the way I went. I bought just the header and had the rest of the exhaust system built, but I went the other way.....as in a quieter way. 
A-1 is the only way to go. I always call Tiger for my headers and then build something one off from the header back, because I usally want to tune the exhaust note a little more aggressive. But for off the shelf or even some one off systems, Tiger is the only way to go.....
just curious kevin - how do you tune it? Add a small resonator?
