looks nice != fits nice and works nice. Mine looked gorgeous too but was welded incorrectly in quite a few places. Instead of sending me a new one, I had to take mine off, send it back, wait, wait, and wait some more, all while the car was on stands in the garage.

I think the reason I got for my problems from RMW was "yeah, the fabricator is getting old.'' Consider yourself lucky he was able to assemble yours correctly.

 

Maybe Jan is using a different fabricator. Compared to the image that onasled posted, the post cat O2 sensor bolts to a J-shaped extension out from the cat. There is plenty of clearance between the cat, O2 sensors and the heat shields.

 

do you have a street header (aka 'shorty') or the longtube race header? The one I had was the race version

 

The header that is installed on my R53 has a catalytic converter; however, the length of the collector tubes relative to the OEM header are about 6 inches (maybe more; I didn't measure the difference) longer. Whether that is the 'shorty' or the race header, I don't know.

 

if it has the cat, it's a shorty. my cat resided in the midpipe.