COBB History – Inconel Up-Pipe

I found this ole thing hanging around the office. It may not seem like much but it is an important part of COBB’s history.

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Sometime around 2004, Trey Cobb randomly decided to purchase a copy of SolidWorks and locked himself in his office for a week to teach himself how to use the software from scratch. Coincidently, Trey had been interested in trying to design a replacement up-pipe, as he felt that the factory design left a lot of room for improvement and at the time there were not any high-quality solutions readily available.

Aside from the improved design that removed a lot of exhaust restriction between the headers and the turbo, the material and production process was world class. You may have noticed in the pictures that there are no welds and the color/texture of the material looks different than your typical steel exhaust components. That’s because it was cast from Inconel 625, also known as “the stuff F1’s teams make exhaust manifolds with“. So with the exception of the studs, the entire item is one single cast piece from flange to flange. Needless to say, the material and production price was ultimately too high for them to be a profitable long-term choice, but a small number of lucky cars got one hell of an up-pipe while they lasted.

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At face value, it was a simple project, but at the time it greatly helped to lay the foundation for many future custom engineered pieces that feature the ideal combination of great engineering, quality manufacturing, and simple solutions that produce real results. In essence, quality has always been our goal, since day one, which is why we are so proud of our car tuning and aftermarket performance parts.  In fact, we still use the same base design for the steel up-pipes we sell today. Check them out on the website here: Subaru SS 2″ Up-Pipe.

Keep an eye out in the future for more short stories about interesting and significant events in COBB’s history.


0 responses to “COBB History – Inconel Up-Pipe”

  1. Would you be interested in an original aluminium SF intake? I have one from my long gone 2003 WRX wagon.

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