All:
Been a long time since I was involved with headers, but I did have something to do with Stainless Works design. And I can tell you that Billy Kirchoffer (sp) originally started the process by having SW's pattern a Jeal header (which was a copy of the original Watson design, only utilizing one piece primary pipes). He stopped communicating with SWs and I picked up the ball and ran with it about a year later. Someone mentioned Corey's headers being longer than SWs. That's rather confusing to me.
If that is true, Either Corey has changed the design of the original Jeal's, or SW's has changed the design of it's version. As mentioned, the original SWs design, with the exception of the 1/4" flange (which was changed to 3/8" after about 10 sets were completed), looked exactly the same, and performance was the same. I have them on my car and it makes@400rwhp with Corey's port work. Which begs the question: How on earth does Jeal's design make even a couple more horsepower? I could see the difference maybe varying 2rwhp due to natural variables, but 12? That's rather hard for me to believe.
Is it possible that some people are confusing the OBX 'short tube' design as being similar to SW's? Again, maybe SW's redesigned their header to be a 'short tube' design, but I rather doubt it. Finally, I'm all for Corey getting the business, he's a great guy with a lot of talent and a true ZR-1 lover. SW's, while also a great company, produce products for *all* cars. I'm simply trying to make sure everyone (myself included) has accurate information re: various header designs.
Brian A.
90 ZR-1
ZR WON
12.09@118
01 Z06
not quite stock