New R36 cat-back exhaust

[Swallowtail]

Hmmm that's about $1000 per 1% power gain. Let me think about that for a moment....

[Lance B]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

The exhaust is locally produced, hand-made from 304 stainless steel with mandrel bends and is fully TIG welded. The mufflers and resonators are made using steel wool packing as opposed to fiberglass used in cheaper systems. It’s a high quality system as you can see from the photos below.

These systems will need to retail for $3,395 incl GST for production to be viable. Based on the feedback provided here (and elsewhere), we will determine whether these systems will go into production or not.

In terms of performance, testing to date has shown a gain of up to 8kw atw on a 4wd chassis dyno. That’s a great gain for a cat-back system on a normally aspirated car.

Looks great!

I gather I would have to go to Melbourne to get this installed? Or do you ship the product to Sydney and then I get it installed locally?

[Autopia]

Hmmm that's about $1000 per 1% power gain. Let me think about that for a moment....

Surely you weren't expecting a huge power increase?
The price is actually reasonable for a custom made, low production run system.

[zsolt_downunder]

GT3,

I guess the biggest issue you may find is getting people risking their warranty to have that beautiful exhaust note and an acceptable power gain from a naturally aspirated engine.

Was the power increase with additional tune or with just replacing the cat-back exhaust? Also, was there any benefits in the torque curve or any increase in torque?

Any idea what sort of dB the new cat-back exhaust gives?

[theplanner]

GT3,

I guess the biggest issue you may find is getting people risking their warranty to have that beautiful exhaust note and an acceptable power gain from a naturally aspirated engine.

Does anyone know if the warranty would really be void with such a system?

I did have a cat back exhaust put in on one of my previous new cars and never had any issues with warranty. I did not temper with the extractors or chips for warranty reasons.

[Swallowtail]

Surely you weren't expecting a huge power increase?
The price is actually reasonable for a custom made, low production run system.

It may be reasonable for a custom made low production run system, I am sure it probably is. But it's a huge amount of money to pay for minimal gain other than a better exhaust note.

I realise it's naturally aspirated as opposed to FI, which is a whole new world for me, but it puts the 40KW gain I got for $1300 on my Mazda into perspective (190KW > 230)...

<shrugs> you pays your money you takes your choices... doesn't seem like a good value buy to me.

[theplanner]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

The exhaust is locally produced, hand-made from 304 stainless steel with mandrel bends and is fully TIG welded. The mufflers and resonators are made using steel wool packing as opposed to fiberglass used in cheaper systems. It’s a high quality system as you can see from the photos below.

These systems will need to retail for $3,395 incl GST for production to be viable. Based on the feedback provided here (and elsewhere), we will determine whether these systems will go into production or not.

In terms of performance, testing to date has shown a gain of up to 8kw atw on a 4wd chassis dyno. That’s a great gain for a cat-back system on a normally aspirated car.

GT3, if I am based in Bris, do you guys have an affliliated fitter I can use? So if I purchase the exhaust, you send it to your affiliated fitter to install in my car?

Also, could you do a quad pipe at the tip instead?

[theplanner]

It may be reasonable for a custom made low production run system, I am sure it probably is. But it's a huge amount of money to pay for minimal gain other than a better exhaust note.

I realise it's naturally aspirated as opposed to FI, which is a whole new world for me, but it puts the 40KW gain I got for $1300 on my Mazda into perspective (190KW > 230)...

<shrugs> you pays your money you takes your choices... doesn't seem like a good value buy to me.

But was your exhaust a stainless one? gotta compare apples to apples here...sure my previous exhaust system was cheaper too but so was the material.

Also, a cat back system on an already relatively highly tuned naturally aspirated engine is never going to gain any significant power/torque increase.

[Swallowtail]

But was your exhaust a stainless one? gotta compare apples to apples here...sure my previous exhaust system was cheaper too but so was the material.

Wasn't exhaust at all. It was an engine management system. No way you'd get 20+% gain out of only an exhaust system even on a turbo car... (EDIT - at least not on a modern car with a half decent tuned exhaust to start with. A turbo back exhaust on the Mazdas gives about 10 to 15KW, or 5 - 8%).

I have no problems with a nice exhaust, I love the look of stainless, and I love the nice sound, but in terms of bang for buck from a performance perspective it's a very expensive way to buy KW.

LOL, I haven't even got the car yet. But I doubt very much if a $3 1/2 grand exhaust will be on the shopping list - to each their own though...

[theplanner]

Wasn't exhaust at all. It was an engine management system. No way you'd get 20+% gain out of only an exhaust system even on a turbo car... (EDIT - at least not on a modern car with a half decent tuned exhaust to start with. A turbo back exhaust on the Mazdas gives about 10 to 15KW, or 5 - 8%).

I have no problems with a nice exhaust, I love the look of stainless, and I love the nice sound, but in terms of bang for buck from a performance perspective it's a very expensive way to buy KW.

LOL, I haven't even got the car yet. But I doubt very much if a $3 1/2 grand exhaust will be on the shopping list - to each their own though...

Yes, I agree too from a bang for buck in performance perspective.

I susposed the question then is, is the sound worth the money? Because the standard exhaust is quite good quality already (at least from what I can see).

But I wonder if this exhaust would provide a slight power gain but resulting in peak torque arriving later in the rpm.

[GT3]

..was there any benefits in the torque curve or any increase in torque?

This was our test run without the centre resonator. In order to get sound to aceptable levels, we had to sacrifrice a few kw atw - but we think we got the balance right. Note: losses through the drive train (kw atw) are significantly higher for 4wds when measured on a dyno.

Systems can be delivered and installed in all major cities for those who have asked.

[Autopia]

This was our test run without the centre resonator. In order to get sound to aceptable levels, we had to sacrifrice a few kw atw - but we think we got the balance right. Note: losses through the drive train (kw atw) are significantly higher for 4wds when measured on a dyno.

Systems can be delivered and installed in all major cities for those who have asked.

Maybe I'm reading the info incorrectly but does the readout indicate a peak of 539Nm??
It's only 350Nm stock so I'm obviously misunderstanding something here. Can someone please clarify?

[Swallowtail]

Maybe I'm reading the info incorrectly but does the readout indicate a peak of 539Nm??
It's only 350Nm stock so I'm obviously misunderstanding something here. Can someone please clarify?

That's "normal"... in my experience dynos' torque readings are always miles high. Not sure why though.... maybe someone else can enlighten on that score.

[Lance B]

Maybe I'm reading the info incorrectly but does the readout indicate a peak of 539Nm??
It's only 350Nm stock so I'm obviously misunderstanding something here. Can someone please clarify?

That is an "at the wheels" torque figure on the graph, rather than "at the flywheel" figure which is what the VW quoted figure is. Suffice to say that the torque is higher by about 30-40Nm right across the range, so about a 8% increase which is not to be sneezed at.

[GT3]

It's only 350Nm stock so I'm obviously misunderstanding something here. Can someone please clarify?

Chassis dynoes can't measure torque accurately, instead they apply a calculation of kw/hp vs rpms to give an indicative figure. The only way to measure torque accurately is with an engine dyno.