Day Two: It's On!!!

Sorry Swoope, I forgot to take a pic of that, but it's 3in.

Here are some pics. The video will be up later on today hopefully, if not tomorrow.

First thing, I KNOW the passenger side pipe is a bit off center. The picture makes it look a lot worse than it really is.

Install took about 1.5hrs. Not bad since it was my first ever RX-8 cat-back install. It went very smooth and the exhuast hangers came off very easily. The hardest part was separating the muffler from the long pipe. That clamp fought back...so I gave up and just removed it as one piece.

Install of the OBX-R exhaust was actually quite easy. The fitment was much better than I thought it would be and I was happy for that because I was NOT going to re-install the stock exhaust. I have too much pride for that.

The Bad: I'll do the bad first since it's a surprisingly short list. The muffler sits up higher hitting the heat shield. No rattle is produced so I don't really care. The grounding strap is kind of...rigged...since the muffler just has a tab welded on and I didn't have a spare nut that fit the bolt for the strap. I'll fix that later. It's kind of wrapped around and tucked into hanger right now...but it's touching metal so it's cool for now.

The exhaust hanger on the long pipe is too short by about an inch so it's not resting in the hanger. Need to get that fixed soon, Tuesday most likely. The guys at OBX must have thought the differential doubled as a hanger as the end of the hanger rests right on the side of it. It doesn't rattle except at idle when the RX-8 does it's little bumpy idle thing it likes to do.

The Good: Other than the above mentioned things it fits very well. It looks great and install was a snap. I DID have to supply my own gasket and bolts, but that was a total of $16. Add that to the $20 I'll have to spend on getting the exhaust hanger fixed and I'm still at $400 SHIPPED for a stainless steel exhaust system. Not too shabby.

Now I'll get to the good stuff, the stuff you are waiting on...the sound. This is where I decided the fate of the exhaust. Will I keep it or order the Borla? Let me put it this way, the little resonance chamber does it's job. This exhaust sounds GOOD! When I went WOT I was at a loss for words.

Even though I would have been out $400, I REALLY wanted to hate this exhaust. I wanted to post here tell you all that it was raspy, loud and just plain sounded crappy. But it doesn't! I sounds fantastic! When I crank the car up, and at idle it sounds just like my old FC did. At crusing speed and part throttle is nice and deep and has a great tone. Drop the throttle and there is a bit of rasp for less than 1/2 a second around 4000rpm but then it just howls. The little bit of a hint of rasp comes and goes so fast you have to be listening for it to hear it. I honestly think someone at OBX messed up on this exhaust, OBX NEVER sounds this good.

It actually sounds very close to how my car soundsed in the video of my car with RP supercat and stock exhaust(before the cat got raspy). But a little deeper/louder, but really not by much. I will say that I DO have a Dynomax bullet muffler welded into the supercat pipe to act as a resonator and i'm sure that helps this exhaust sound nice, but regardless I couldn't be happier.

I think I'll keep this for a bit longer; I'll wait until this exhaust gives me a reason to swap it out.

So. The verdict(as if it's not obvious).

Am I happy? Yes, and add to that surprised.
Would I recommend it? Yes, but only if you go in knowing that you may have to spend a bit more money for bolts and getting the fitment perfect. MY experience has been great, but I also knew I'd have to probably spend a bit more cash to get it "right".

So for around $400 you can get a well built, great sounding, good looking exhaust that fits very close to perfect shipped to your door. It's surprisingly good.





Now I just have to install my Racing Beat air duct...but it's quite hot outside now. I'll do that tomorrow maybe.

 

No sound clip - you fail.

 

Yar. It be commin up later matey!!

 

Avast ye lubber! Garner me the sound of de pipes or ye be walkin the plank sure enough!

 

Any difference in the butt dyno?

That muffler might be making a decent power subtraction... When they are far away (At the back of the car), they don't loose much power. When closer to the engine (hotter exhaust) they create more of a restriction... Just something to think about.

 

Which muffler are you referring to? The dynomax bullet? If so, it's a straight through design so I don't see how it would decrease power. It's the same kind of design as the stock resonator and in the same spot, just a bit longer and 3in diameter.

The butt dyno has to be recalibrated, I reset the computer after installing it. So I'll know in a few days if it's "faster".

 

Thanks for the post this is the exhaust system i have been looking at for myself
based on the price for a stainless exhaust system...

 

arrrrr great write up mate.... and thanks for the measurment....

comments, i am shocked the did not include the bolts and gasket... that is so chicken ****.... you might call them and see if that is the norm. if not they might reimburse you...

i find the fact that you have a hanger issuse odd. could have it been bent in shipping???? these things are built on jigs, and if shipping did not do it they are all like that....

as to the fit above the muffler, the borla is very very close also... hopefully fixing the hanger will solve that probem...

beers

 

If it is straight though, I guess it won't affect power output much.

 

Video!!!! :D

At one point a car drives by and it has a OBX front plate, I ask if you can see it and upon watching my mad tyte camera while driving skills it is apparant that you cannot. Oh well. Enjoy.

I will say that in person it is a bit deeper, but all in all this is a fair representaion of my exhaust.

http://www.thedailygoat.com/obx.wmv <--right click and "save as" please! Don't stream it. This is already going to make my bandwidth go to hell. I kept it at 35mb for good quality.

 

any chance of getting a drive by? or atleast some "out of car" throttle blips?

 

yes, can you do a video of reving it in the drive way or something. I would like to know how it sounds outside the car. Please

 

You guys are killing me!!!

I'll see what I can do.

 

I just gave you an excuse to show off! you should thank me

 

Pretty quiet setup with supercat/resonator/obx. I wonder what it would've been like without the resonator.

 

I bet the secret to the sound is the dent you sustained in shipping.

 

I might mimic your supercat/bullet muffler combo after I hear it in person.

 

So you actually shot flames from this exhaust? Pardon my childish awe, but that's really cool!

 

You are causing me to want to mod my RX8 now...

BTW, I would extend my congrats to you, but I already have in another thread...

 

Yea, I heard the loud pop(my FC would do the same) and the lady pulled up and said "I think I just saw fire in your exhaust pipe". I said "neat!"

Tim.

Chris...it's a good combo. There is still a tid bit of rasp but once warm, it's gone. Adding this cat-back actually deleted everybit of rasp...once it's warmed up.

This is the only car I've ever owned that has to have the exhaust warmed up to sound good. It's odd.

 

Eh - I don't know about the OBX its self. Being an engineer, it might bother me on a religious level, but the midpipe setup with the resonator (muffler) sounds SMRT. Catbacks, from what I have read, don't really yield a lot in this car. I might pair it with something else and see what that turns out to be. I can't have my car being a clone of yours. That would be silly.

 

I wasn't orgionally going to get a cat-back, was just going to get bigger tips welded on, but decided to bite the bullet and get this one so I could review for everyone.

If I was doing it again, I'd go for the Borla.

 

sounds pretty darn good... great clip!
but, u gotta get a shorter clip of ur car on the driveway w/o all that wind noise

 

Still suggest this exhaust after having it for a while?

 

Funny you should ask.. I also pulled this thread up and reread it as I was going through Ebay last night. It seems like a fair deal.