- Miltek EVO 2 exhaust manifold (Ebay £150)
- Milltek Sports cat (Ebay £150)
- Milltek resonated (quieter) catback (new on sale £206.00, yes not a typo)
- Manifold wrapped by JamSport before installation (£200)
- 60mm gasket used from a Mondeo - Mk3 I think (ebay £7)

Result:
Exactly what I hoped it would be and more.
- This is unintrusive at around-town speeds, no drone on motorways and sounds lovely when you give it some.

Fitting:
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Exhaust manifold was an absolute pig to get the old one out and even worse getting the new one in. No tutorials on Youtube for fitting this exhaust (manifold) either.

Recommended fitting:
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Catback system can be fitted yourself with simple tools really easily.
(We cut the old one exhaust off with an angle grinder as we couldn't work out how to get the original one piece out without what we assumed would be disconnecting the subframe. Again we wasted time trying to get it out in one bit, gave up and chopped it.)

Manifold - Not recommended for home install unless you are comfortable pulling the engine about on two car jacks and swinging on it and have a friend to help. Tried to get the manifold in from the top. Regardless of the instructions on the Pumaspeed website for the EVO 2 manifold , we spent a half a day trying to get it in from the top as they suggest. The air con pipe blocked it in every which way possible.
We ended up removing it from the engine mount (left side) removing the coolant overflow tank (leave it piped in just move it out the way) lowered it as far as possible (check front left that the engine doesn't descend through the rubber boot. Get it as CLOSE as you can however so it IS touching to give best chance.
Then pull it as far forward as possible so the engine is touching the front of the car.
Whilst two of you do that a third person can install from the bottom. (put it in backwards then rotate in the tunnel to get it in and the right way around, bolt up the exhaust from the engine bay above)
However putting it in from underneath mean the two centre bolts were really difficult to get to and torque to the correct specs after install.

To get the engine back in do the lower mount was done first, to line it up then reattach the engine mount on the left side, then reinstall the reservoir.

In hindsight for the manifold I'd just get a garage to do it for you. It was an absolute pain to do and took far longer than I care to explain (with someone who is a decent mechanic)
You also have to cut back the steel protection around the tunnel where the exhaust first goes under the car. From below I used cutting pliers to make slits all around (about 2 inches apart) then wiggled each tab until it weakened and each finally snapped off.

Other things:
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MPG before was around 30 regardless of how I drove it. Now its about 28.5 so likely running rich (which a stage 1 remap would likely resolve)
Biggest unexpected benefit was that the laggy throttle response was resolved considerably and made it a completely more fun experience to drive as virtually no lag from putting your foot down and something happening. This alone and the new noise it makes made it absolutely worth it and a different car to drive.
Sound is YT compressed and taken on a smart phone but at least a vague comparison to what to expect can hopefully be gleaned from this.

Only other mod I have is an OMP front strut brace. This made a much bigger difference even on stock suspension than I ever thought it would. Absolutely recommended and EASY to install as its adjustable. I tried a different brand (two in fact from them) which they swore blind is bolt on. Mine is the only ST in the world it doesn't fit apparently.... after trying two of them I bought the anthracite OMP adjustable one and fitted it (being a noob) in about 15mins.

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