Is there a real reason to use anything fancier than a short cast header in anything but a boutique “every last kilowatt counts” car?
My own playthroughs seem to point in that direction, but I wanted to know if I was on to something.
Tubular stuff may add hp, but also gives somewhat better airflow, looks cooler (especially race tubular, hehe) and they can take more airflow
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The question is whether it’s cost-effective to add them or not. I’ve gotten pretty good results out of the basic short cast.
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The short answer is no, you really don’t have any reason to use anything more fancy than a short cast header unless you want to, of course.
It’s not really cost-effective in anyway to use anything else.
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There’s one reason that this guy may need tubulars: When creating high performance engines, short cast exhaust can come to a point where it will limit it.
Yes, but read the OP:
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So, no real reason unless your engine does 550 hp.
I figured as much, thanks 
It would be nice if headers made for a more beneficial sound/noise figure. As it is in the game, more sound is just negative across the board. It would be cool if, as you worked your way down the “better” headers, you got either a certain ratio of sound penalty ignored, or if it adjusted whether sound was negative, neutral or even beneficial.
Higher loudness benefits sportiness and hurts comfort, as in real life.
It would be nice if there was some sort of modifier, so that for instance a loud crossplane V8 with +3 exhaust got more sportiness boost than an equally loud turbo-4 with +0. But then you’d be getting into subjective stuff, which I think the devs want to avoid.
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Not sure whether you’d consider it ‘high performance’, but modern engines with low bore to stroke ratio may need tubular headers to not be choked, especially if they are using an aggressive VVL cam.
Loudness is for all those blind kids in the neighborhood. I’m not trying to be a douche, it’s for public safety!
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This is basically exactly what I’m asking for with the headers. If your exhaust sounds atrocious but loud, no one is going to be impressed by it. If it’s loud and sounds like angels singing sweet nothings to you though, that’s going to be a different story.