It's installed! WOW, WOW, WOW! The first cold start could be felt in your chest! WOW, what a sound. On a cold start it sounds like the engine grew about 2 liters. It has a new deep rumble that sounds just incredible! Once the engine warms up it mellows out but it still has a much deeper tone, not loud but deep.
So we checked for leaks (none) and let the engine warm up while we lowered the car from the lift. Cleared out the lift and backed it out of the garage to let it burn off the oils that are on the inside of the pipes. It does smoke quite a bit at first. After the car had warmed up I shut it off to let it cool (what the instructions said to do) while we picked up tools and got cleaned up before the test drive.
Fired up the engine and just sat there for a short while grinning from ear to ear. My buddy who drives a GTI was green with envy! So, we took off to a local pizza joint so I could buy him lunch for helping me. Not a lot of help is needed but it is very helpful to have someone help hold things in place while your wrestling with bolts and nuts and pipes. BTW: The install was super easy. The only fiddly thing I had to do was put one washer shim adjustment on the passenger rear exhaust hanger to get the two tail pipes balanced on the spacing. I'm talking about 1/16 of an inch, yes I'm anal.
Off to the pizza place and the car has been totally transformed. Between the sweet sounding exhaust and the new Hotchkis sway bars it feels and sounds like a new car. What you will notice most is the way the exhaust changes tone with RPM and load. Under 2500RPM and light throttle it has a very deep almost rumble to it. The guys with V8s will be impressed with the 3.7L V6 sound. Once the throttle is increased the rumble also increases up until you get to 2500RPM and then the sound changes again to more of a sweet V6 sound ( think Aston Martin-ish). When you get up to 4000RPM the sound changes once again to a very exotic car sound (think Ferrari-ish). This sounds stays all the way to red line and believe you me, you WILL be visiting the red line often,,,,,,,,,,OMG! Like a drug, addicting!
So we get to the pizza place and have lunch. Once done with that I ask my bud if he would like to go and checkout the new gun store. Well, HE77 Yeah! So we head to the gun store which gets us on the interstate highway. Taking the entrance ramp at near the century mark and being very impressed with the new sway bars and loving the new sound we're off to the store. Slowing down to the speed limit of 70 and engaging the cruise control we were very impressed at how quite the 18" resonator exhaust system is. Actually it sounds almost stock except deeper, very nice!
We get to the gun store and are impressed at all of the stuff they have. Enough of that, time to ride. We took off in a cloud of tire smoke (VDC off) and got back on the highway. The exit ramp is rated at 45 so 90+ seemed appropriate. After coming out of the turn my buddy says we could have taken that much faster.....I just grinned. He is used to a GTI, not a bad car, just not a Z.
We get back to my house and he hops in his GTI and it sounds like a weed whacker compared to my Z.
I'm thinking that it is 52 degrees, partly clouding and a great time to go and scare the ricers. So for the next two hours that is what I did!
After coming home and pouring myself a Gentlemen Jack on the rocks I sat down to write this report (reps welcome).
For those of you yet to order your exhaust, just do it! You are just wasting the wait time which is long but can be survived (barely). For those of you on the wait list, your time is coming and you will NOT be disappointed! The system looks fantastic and sounds even better. My calibrated butt dyno can feel the difference especially once the RPMs get above 6000. The install is brain dead easy. The system was expertly packaged and arrived early, a single day early but man did that feel good!
Thanks Tony and Kevin and the
whole crew!! You guys are awesome!
Best Christmas present ever!
As promised, I'll be working on a video/audio feast for your eyes and ears very soon, maybe tomorrow if the weather will let me.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone and ROLL TIDE!!!!!