@Torred Living in an urban area, I'm really sensitive to noise outside the usual din of the city. It's possible an unsilenced pipe
might provide a slight increase in power, as the silencer
could reduce the flow somewhat, depending on its construction. But unless you are doing speed runs in multiple scenarios, I doubt you will see any noticeable difference. The gains I see in my own comfort levels that someone won't harass me over the noise of my exhaust, and consideration of those I run my car around makes total sense for me to run a silenced pipe, which is still loud as poop, it just doesn't cackle.
As for pipe current recommendations, I can't make any based the current offerings because those I've used have been long discontinued. But if you look at any 2 stoke exhaust tuning white paper, you will find out, generally, that the longer chambered exhausts will increase power on the mid/top end, while shorter chambers will favor the bottom/mid ends. A silencer will increase the motor's "punch", but again this will depend on the length of the silencer. With all things being equal (motor, stinger length and diameter, clutch settings), a short pipe with a long silencer will give you a lot of low/mid and a huge low punch on the low end with a short silencer. But Silencer length is another form of alchemy altogether. From what I've seen, every pipe maker is using a close to "medium" silencer to remove it from the equation. The Dominator V2 is clearly a bottom/mid end pipe, and the Samba and VRC Pro pipes look to favor the mid to high end. The latter 2 look like the closest thing to a pipe that is trying to hit all the notes, but are likely to push towards the mid/top end with maybe a little bottom end punch. I'm currently running a very long Jetpro pipe on my 5T, and I love it to death. It's a top end pipe with a mid/long length silencer, so I'm not popping any wheelies in the grass on my stock 26cc engine, but it's still fun as hell and spins the wheels with an 8k-8.5k rpm clutch engagement. I'm looking forward to what it will do to a Race modded 34cc with stock gearing.
I am considering a VRC Pro pipe or Dom 2 for the express reason of slapping an SX5 sand rail kit on in the future and I know that my Jetpro will not fit. The VRC appeals to me probably because it looks so much like my old 1/8 scale exhausts. So if you are thinking of adding a cage like this, you might want to consider that in your decision.
But really, anything other than the stock can will give you a noticeable improvement in engine performance. I'm sure once you've made the choice, you won't regret it.
Best of luck!
