Hey guys -
So my set-up is/was all Fast Intentions. i've been running FI non-res test pipes, with a FI non-res CBE, and the carbon fiber mufflers. this set up is loud and for most people a bit too much. not me though. i've been running this set-up since around september 2011 and i've loved it from day 1. FI makes the best exhaust hands down and their customer service is second to none........but we all already knew that
butttttttttt i wanted to know what a fully straight piped Z would sound like and how much louder it could be than just 2 little CF mufflers
So in closing I do believe I now have the first and only short tails made to fit the fast intentions cbe exhaust
Build:
first thing i did was put in a call to Tony at FI. i searched for a set of tips for hours and nothing caught my eye or looked as good as the FI tips that were on my car. luckily Tony agreed to sell me a set of extra tips for this project. next i had a friend of mine, who custom builds drag racing exhausts, order me whatever pipe he needed to make this happen. sadly first shippment the place sent the wrong steel. they sent us regular steel rather than the stainless we had ordered. got new steel overnighted. he did the exhaust out of all new stainless with mandrel bends. i had him mimic the shape/bend of the rear FI sections i was removing and also same hanger locations. his work came out awesome. minimal welds and tip placement was spot on.
Sound:
when i got to my friends shop he had just finished my exhaust (and diff fluid change since it was already on the rack
). temp yesterday was only about 27 degrees so it was a very "cold start" lol upon hittin the start button my jaw dropped. this was the most violent and raw (awesome) sounding cold start ever lol it was way more than i would have ever expected. once it warmed up a bit and the revs dropped to normal idle i was kinda surprised that at idle it sounded about the same volume wise as my regular set-up. after it warmed up a bit i took it on a short test run while going back to my house. 0-2900 RPMs it sounds about the same as my old set up but when you hit 3K RPMs+ its a whole different animal. i've never heard anything like this on a Z. i will admit this may be too much for how i daily drive this and my neighbors hated me plenty already WITH mufflers
this however was the exact reason why i made these to be completely interchangable with my FI mufflers. 6 bolts and its changed. no hacking up Tony's beautiful exhaust and mufflers here. hence my purchase of a extra set of tips so i have 2 sets of rear sections now.
Performance:
4/7/14 update:
had some time behind the wheel lately with some warmer weather. sadly it's been not too warm and a bunch of rain. throw in some semi-bald rear tires and it's been hard to actually get on the throttle hard without massive wheel spin.
inital report is that i'm unsure if i'm babying it in low RPMs due to wheel spin and the just epic roar once 3k RPMs is cracked OR if i may have some TQ loss. i dont feel that i've freed up too much back pressure to create TQ loss so i think i'd have to go with i'm just being soft on the gas initially.
on the other side of this, whenever i'm WOT the sound is simply amazing and brutal but in a good way. it feels like i gained a few top end HP actually whne doing higher speed runs.
i'm working on getting on a dyno run set up soon to see whats up.