I've had an aftermarket exhaust fitted to my FD and it is absolutely terrible. It vibrates the whole car as you accelerate and drones like crazy when on the freeway. The car used to feel like an expensive car, smooth powerful and quiet. Now it feels like a cheap shitbox.?

I was thinking about the amount of money that mazda would spend to make an exhaust. Nothing is cheap when manufacturing a car so I would guess that they'd spend $1mil designing the exhaust. The figure might be higher or lower but it wouldn't be cheap. In comparison, how much would an aftermarket company spend on designing an exhaust? I couldn't imagine it being over $10,000. So is it even possible to get a good aftermarket exhaust that is only a little bit loader and more freeflower but without that 'cheap' feel to it?

 

Do you have a downpipe, mid pipe, and what cat back exhuast did you have installed and are you sure they installed it right? I have a dp,mp with a titanium greedu cat back and I luv the way she sounds.. Nice and deep..

 

Yes, there are plenty out there.

 

It would be good if you told us WHAT exhaust you currently have.

Plenty of Racing Beat exhaust owners (myself included) would NEVER go back to the stock exhaust. Absolutely no disadvantages.

Also, why do you associate quiet with expensive?

 

Only modified exhaust fix-it tickets.

 

MikeC: You might want to look into M2 Performance's (http://www.m2performance.com/) dual tip exhaust. They're sourced from Hi-Tech (http://www.hitechmufflers.com.au/mazda.html), a company out in your neck of the woods in Australia. It's built well, sounds a little more aggressive than stock, yet is *very* quiet. I never got around to taking pics of it on my car yet, but here's one with it in the garage before it was installed:



On "moehler's" car:

 

I don't possibly see how it would take 10k for a company to "design" an exhaust system. I mean, all you have to do is get the right measurments, bend some 3" pipe, welf on some flanges, weld on a muffler with some hangers, and its done.

As far as the "non expensive" sound, I don't think these cars were made to be luxury sedans, were they? I have a downpipe, resonated midpipe, and HKS hipower cat back and it is very deep and throaty at idle and low rpms, then it just screams once boost hits. I think it sounds good, no tickets so far

 

just to backup what clayne says, you'll be very pleased with an RB catback.

absolutely NO DRONING, quiet at idle, and looks stock. once you get on it, then it'll really sing

 

This isn't exactly true. Tuning the exhaust to optimize the speed at which exhaust pulses exit can result in better performance and less backpressure.

 

what do they change to tune the exhaust system?

 

$10k is nothing in this situation. If you just weld an exhaust together you get what I've got, a piece of ****. Designing a good quality exhaust takes time and money.

I'm not expecting a luxury sedan, just something that feels like quality. The car had a $100,000 feel to it, now it has a $100 feel to it. In fact, I've driven $100 cars that feel more expensive than mine at the moment.

 

It's not a brand I don't think, it's just the one that the shop recommended. They are a very reputable shop but I think they just know race cars. In comparison to a full-on drag car it probably sounds quiet to them, but in comparison to the stock exhaust it's not that good.

 

Thanks, it looks pretty good. Unfortunately they are in New South Wales which is a days drive each way for me but I might make the trip one weekend. Do you know what the price is?

 

Well, if it's too far for you to drive, I suppose they can always ship one your way.

I paid $500 USD which is $693 AUD. Who knows, it might be cheaper for you since since I'm sure part of my price includes export and transit fees, etc. Give them a ring on a business day to find out for sure.

 

I'd need to have a ride in a car with one installed before buying it, which I know might be difficult but this time I need to know what I'm getting.

 

Check this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...910169940&rd=1 Its a cheap alternative to a pricey brand name setup.

My setup is 3" turbo back with a highflow cat. This exhaust is soooo quiet! My FC with 2.5" and dual mufflers is like 10x louder. Granted I Have the silencer in the muffler and I've never driven it w/o. I get compliments all the time about how at high rpms it sounds like a jet plane. Coolest sounding exhaust ever! The best part is, it was only $140 and came with all gaskets and hardware.

 

The stock exhaust is better quality in areas that the aftermarket exhaust don't address, heat shielding. The stock pipe on the pre-cat, cat and cat-back are all extensively heat sheilded.

That said a quality stock type exhaust like a RB dual tip, M2 dual tip, etc produce a very nice, quiet, deep sounding exhaust note that is not offensive at all.

Don't park your car in tall grass and we will have nothing to worry about.

The pre-cat and cat retain more heat than the aftermarket pipe only counterparts.

 

http://www.anodized.com/~clayne/fd3s/fd02.wmv
http://www.anodized.com/~clayne/fd3s/fd01.wmv

Ignore the lame camera antics of my roomate.

One can sort of get an idea of how long an RB dual-tip would be when on the gas. As you can tell, it doesn't broadcast LOUD much at all.

 

How would you compare the n1 duals to the RB dual? Sound wise? A few points louder? or extremely louder?

 

Extremely louder without the silencers.

Otherwise, louder.

 

Just to follow this up if anyone is still reading this thread. When I had the exhaust installed I also had it converted to non-sequential at the same time. When I got the car back it had very little power below 4500 rpm and the exhaust droned and vibrated the whole car on acceleration. They converted it back to sequential turbo and now it feels like a completely different exhaust. It doesn't drone or shake the car anymore and the car has heaps more power than it used to. It even sounds quite good but not too loud.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

 

lmao...

I'll wait for the clayne non-seq rebutle.

MikeC, glad you got it all sorted out.