| AlphaSnacks |
07-03-2011 12:22 AM |
In case anyone was curious, I have my second set of ART Pipes installed. So far so good. Tony has been nothing but gracious and responsive in sorting everything out, from shipping to reinstalling costs. He is an absolute class act.
I've put about 300 miles on this second set of ART Pipes and so far, so good. There is still the very slightest presence of a metallic tapping noise when the hiss comes around 1500RPM, but it is very faint and hardly noticeable, so I've decided to stick to this set for now, hoping it doesn't get worse with time (thus far, after 300 miles, it hasn't). The great thing is that I've made Tony aware of the slight noise, and he's willing to provide me with another replacement - but I genuinely think this time around it's so insignificant, I don't want to inconvenience him with it unless it becomes an issue.
Again, after 300+ miles, so far so good. The most important thing to know here is that the power increases are phenomenal all throughout the powerband. Low end torque is actually tremendously improved, and you can feel it in the clutch, as well as when you're puttering around at slow speeds in a higher gear. At 1500RPM, I have a much, much smoother pull in 3rd gear than I ever did before - that can only be attributed to the increase in torque. That pull is consistent all throughout, which is important - there doesn't seem to be any flat spots in power.
Highway passing, where as going 70MPH would often require a down shift into 5th, I find myself having plenty of extra grunt to briskly make a pass in 6th now. Is it as brisk as it would've been in 5th? Not quite - it's somewhere in between. Though that's the point, the powerband has expanded, it has become more usable in all gears. Get the car going 75-80MPH in 6th, and goose the throttle, you will feel a nice kick in power as you quickly crest to 100MPH.
And that's me talking about every day usable power. If the ART Pipes made such a difference in how the car behaves with day-to-day regular driving, imagine the punch in the face it gives you when you've got the throttle pegged in 1st, blasting into 2nd, then into 3rd. Yeah, I suggest turning off the traction because you'll go nowhere with the added power. The car hardly broke traction in stock form with the tires sticky from the heat. Sure, the slip light would flash, but you never felt it pull much power at all. But now, with the ART Pipes + Invidia, the wheels lose traction effortlessly and the VDC starts holding it back a lot. Flick that little nanny off, though, and you'll get brilliant acceleration that hurls you forward like the stock car never could.
Plus the sound the ART Pipes make are true MotorDyne boomy goodness. Aggressive, but not obnoxious, and when paired with a decent exhaust really sets the note off. At idle, at cruising, and at around town driving there is no drone or any head throbbing tones - which scores massive victory points for me. Everybody in my circle of friends that has test pipes all have tons of rasp, hiss, buzz, and drone. The ART Pipes have hardly any hiss on decel with the Invidia. There is no buzzing. There is no drone. There is a slight rasp at higher RPMs, but with a straight pipe, there is simply no avoiding that - and at least it isn't that amplified with the ART Pipes.
The ART Pipes may come at a price, but you're definitely getting your money's worth. You get the best power increase and feel. You have the low-end torque, you have the flexible power all through the powerband (low, mid, and high), and you've got the superb high-end punch. You've got the superb tone, without the annoying tonal drawbacks associated with test pipes such as tons of hiss, rasp, drone, and buzz. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, you have the 1-on-1 customer service provided directly by Tony, and his customer service is simply unmatched. No vendor on this forum will go through the lengths he does to make his customers happy, and that's why I will keep on supporting his products.
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