Hey everyone, I'm new here.

I'm getting ready to start tuning my car for the first time, starting with a cold air intake and probably some sort of catback to go with it.

Two of my friends at work are telling me a K&N CAI is the way to go, but every ZX2 tuner site I've looked at doesn't even mention them. I've seen a few people advocating Iceman cold air intakes, some people pushing Hotshot intakes, and an intake from ZXtuner.com.

What's the deal? Which should I get, and what sort of catback should I look at to make the most of the added air?

Welcome to Automotive Forums. Rather than spend $115' for a K&N cold air intake I would go to e bay and buy an intake there for a lot less money. They have a lot of intakes for zx2s. You are on the Escort forum. There is a separate zx2 forum at the end of the sub-forums for Ford. Someone there could advise you better than me.