My car had equal length shorties on it when I bought it. I switched to long tubes and picked up alot of bottom end usable power and a deeper sound. Everyone has their own opinion but I like my long tubes much better.
Long tubes have a slight gain in torque over shortie or equal length shorties headers on a stockish car... the problem is wheather or not it's worth the extra work and when I say extra work I mean some models from various makers seem to be a PITA to install.. some don't clear the steering shaft, some don't line up as well some aren't emissions legal or require o2 extentions due to locating o2's further away. Requires a short style mid pipe, also some brands hang down extra low creating a clearance problem for some people.
Shorties are a bolt in ordeal.. mate up to your stock h or stock lenght x/h pipe and with the shortie style you have all the access to plugs you could need. The equal lengths are a bit harder to get to the plugs.. of course some people have issues with some of the ports not lining up which is why the solid single flange style is popular and problem free like the bbk ones
Just some points to concider when picking and choosing your headers