What was better than the dohc muffler I suggested? Direct bolt in. The 2G r/t muffler (as you said) is the same amount of work the OP would have to do for srt piping.

 

Go with a flowmaster 2 chamber, single in dual out. The thing with N/A motors you need back pressure, a straight through has none, you hurt performance by putting these on, like I posted in another thread, I had a straight through resonator on my old sxt switched it out for the flowy and gain power due to back pressure. Yes the mandrel bend system is far better then the one that comes on the car, but I know a place where you can get a full 2.5 inch mandrel bend system minus muffler for $120 for regular steel, or stainless for $190, and its single or dual exit. Just keep to a muffler, do not go just resonators like the SRT exhaust trust me, you'll feel a difference with a muffler over a reasonator, or put a resonator on with your muffler to deepin the tone, such as a dyno maxx bullet.

 

my point was that if he was willing to do the work to put an srt exhaust on it he might as well install the 2nd gen r/t exhaust cause it takes the same amount of work and won't sound like crap like the srt 4 exhaust does... and the first gen dohc muffler is ugly as sin and sounds like crap (although quiet) i know cause thats what my cars has and i can't wait to get something that looks and sounds better...

 

1st gen neons are 2 1/4 mandrel bent from the factory

 

yeah i learned my lesson on this one. didnt expect it to be so LOUD!!!

 

yea all the neons 1st and 2nd gen's factory exhaust is 2 1/4, bump it up to 2.5 and get far better flow and more power, heck even the SRT-4 neons came with a stupied 2 1/4 exhaust

 

2.5" mandrel bent with magnaflow muffler...dual exit with 3" tips

 

sounds good

 

yeah i'm a firm believer in going bigger i would love a nice 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust for my car but i'm going to be sticking with the stock 2 1/4 pipe for now.... its deff good for basic bolt ons... i just can't believe the size exhaust that most cars come with factory... far far to small... hell my first gen altima at the rear of the car was only 1 7/8 pipe... talk about restrictive and thats with a 2.4L.... 1st and 2nd gen neons actually come with decent sized pipe from the factory

 

I bolded the part I take issue with. Upgrading to 2.5" piping will not add significant HP to the NEON.

Unless you have numbers to back this statement, I would reserve comments like this in the future.