Can you put a downpipe on a N/A car?

Question

My friend said he put a down pipe on his Spec-v. Im not sure if that is even possible? If it is is there any noticeable gains? I always thought that down pipes were for turbo cars.

Answer 1

Yes downpipes are for turbo motors, However on Two piece headers the second piece (the one that connects to the first catalytic converter) is sometimes referred to as a downpipe. Just changing that doesn't sound like anything anyone would or should do. Instead of just changing the downpipe, why not just get a full set of headers.

Answer 2

The downpipe is the pipe connecting the exhaust manifold/header to the cat. On some cars there are very noticeable gains. For my car replacing the downpipe is supposed to net about 10% horsepower.