I'm not sure how many folks here remember, but I had a nightmare situation with my stock exhaust. Long story short, it wasn't going to come apart properly, the 02 sensor was being held in place with JB weld, coat hangers and picture wire and half the cat was clogged with the other half.
Back in December, Josh posted that he had three used Spec 1 systems for sale. Given my exhaust was a big pile of poop and the Canadian dollar was in the crapper I figured it was time to bite the bullet or risk my 02 sensor shoot out of the crossover somewhere far from home. A low mile, used system would have to be the cost effective answer. It was the right choice. No, it was the best choice. Now, I can't speak for other owners who have upgraded to a Spec 1 system, but its like driving a whole new car. Maybe it was my bad cat, or my semi-accurate mixture from the smashed up 02 sensor, but it sounds and drives like a beast! I am absolutely thrilled. Beyond thrilled. It's the same feeling I had when I got the car restored and on the road six years ago, I'm LOOKING for excuses to drive it again. "Oh what's that? We need a new pen?! I'll go to Staples!"
The system arrived and might as well have been new. I think it had less than 2000 miles on it. Josh included all the nuts, bolts and hardware except for the heat shield (which he is sending out). I re-used the rubber mounting brackets from my factory exhaust (well, one of them anyway, the second one rusted itself to the factory muffler but Toby sent up a used one).
What should have been a quick job ended up taking 3 and a half months. I decided while I was in there to re-finish all the covers, scrub the block and tranny with brake clean, change some seals, swap in a Remy starter and address some frame epoxy issues around the engine cradle. I also added the Hervey style ground bus to the transmission, cleaned all my grounds, addressed a problem with low voltage at the fuel pump and ran new lead and jump lead battery cables (at some point a PO cut and spliced BLACK cables onto the red leads. WTF?!), found my washer pump was seized and swapped it out and the list goes on. It was the first time I could often walk over to my own parts inventory and pull out a part I needed. After working on 5 cars I have a lot of parts. Throw in my beautiful 7 month old daughter and time has a way of stretching on and on. I spent a lot of time tweaking the fuel mixture and chasing what was apparently a long standing issue with the three enrichment plugs on the butterfly assembly. Eventually I got it just right.
So yeah, the Spec 1 is absolutely killer. Highly recommend. I'm not sure if Josh has any used systems left, but if you were ever on the fence, do it.