Has anyone tried this new Borla Switchfire?

[mks]

That must sound great in a flyby!

I'll say this about that, there's a few sections of US 24, I-25, and others roads whose barriers help amplify and reverberate the exhaust--particularly when the curves are tight--, that some days, I drive those sections just for that sound.

As for flybys, I have, on occasion, gotten a few thumbs up when high in the RPM range...and, given some of the personalities in COS, I'm sure a few middle fingers as well

Sponsored

 

[Ninjak]

I ended up buying a Corsa resonated double H pipe for my setup. Happy I did. With the Kooks headers and my 3' performance connectors, the resonated pipes bring the sound back under control, and I have been complimented on how well it sounds.

 

[mks]

With the Kooks headers and my 3' performance connectors, the resonated pipes bring the sound back under control...

I had to do the same thing when I did headers on a GT--worst decision I made for that mustang. Way too much effort and money correcting the abysmally deafening sound the headers produced. Ever since, I focus on quality of sound rather than sheer volume. Glad it worked out for you...I can't say I achieved what I was after by simply going balls out with the exhaust. Sound was intolerable and performance was negligible.

 

[Ninjak]

I had to do the same thing when I did headers on a GT--worst decision I made for that mustang. Way too much effort and money correcting the abysmally deafening sound the headers produced. Ever since, I focus on quality of sound rather than sheer volume. Glad it worked out for you...I can't say I achieved what I was after by simply going balls out with the exhaust. Sound was intolerable and performance was negligible.

There is a very good video on YouTube that speaks about good exhaust setups. What many do not realize or understand is that many things goes into the sound quality and how the sound is done. The size, diameter, thickness, and even the quality of the steel go into how the exhaust will sound.

Another piece of this puzzle is resonators. When you remove your CATS, you are removing a part of the system that the manufacturer used to give the tone of the exhaust. The other piece of that puzzle is the resonator. Remember, this part gives the tone; the mufflers give volume. When you remove the resonator from your system, along with the CATS, the frequency given from the diameter and thickness goes into your muffler, there issue here is that both the bad and good frequencies are bleneded together, and depending on what you have, this can cause your tones to come out harsh, drone into the vehicle, have the rash metallic sound, there is a lot to it.

This is most common when headers are done because, in most cases, the CATS are also removed, and an X-pipe or other setup is put in place that is not designed to accommodate the system without them. The stock mufflers, again, are designed for volume, not tone. Some of the higher-end systems can do both, but most do not go for that option.

This is why I went with the resonated system from Corsa, because I had already removed a part of the system when the Steeda Xpipe was used, and now that the CATS were being removed, I knew that the XPipe would drone and rasp inside, and it would not give a quality tone. I may have left a few things out, but that is the gist of it. If you want good sound, you need to look further than just going big. As has been said, loud does not equal fast, and having a very loud setup that does not sound good is just annoying.

 

[mks]

If you want good sound, you need to look further than just going big.

In a way, this is the salient point and just about sums up my experience. Forgiving Polonius his silly ironies, this kind of brevity is indeed the soul of wit. Nonetheless, I will just add that, over the years, "looking further" has been my problem. I'm not as knowledgeable in the technical aspects of exhaust setups. Historically, my process has been pitifully heuristic. Too often I've tried to frankenstein systems, piecing them together to assemble what often turned out to be ridiculously blaring and rudely discordant.

Maybe because my tastes have changed or become refined over the years, I don't "look further" but look in a more scaled way what I may do to a stock system to get what I want. This also has to do with the quality (aesthetic and otherwise) of OEM exhausts on cars I've owned (e.g., M2/4, RS3, Supra, Mustang GT & DH), which IMHO, have been very good from the factory. So, I actually do less to achieve more; hence swapping out resonated sections with x/h pipes or, in this case, the hybrid Switchfire.

So, I guess I've just betrayed and exemplified Polonius all at once by blathering on when I could have just said I now achieve more by doing less. I guess I used to think there were more things in cars and coffee than were dreamt of in my philosophy...just to keep borrowing from, or, rather, maligning poor Shakespeare's genius. Now, I "go big" by minimizing effort and expense and tweak rather than twerk to get that sonorous rear-end sound.

Sponsored