Hey all,
I decided my M2 needed an upgrade in the sound department. Honestly, I really liked the way the stock exhaust sounded, but I thought it was a bit too quiet. Like some of you, I can't justify spending thousands of dollars on an aftermarket exhaust system, but I also didn't want to go catless and risk opening up the can of worms that comes with that: smoke coming out the tail pipes, failed emissions tests, bad smells, CEL's, tuning, voided warranty. Trust me, I know all about it. My 335 was catless and modded up the ass and, well...here’s a video of it lol
I really didn’t want a repeat of that, especially on a brand new M car. I want my warranty intact and I'm going for a more low key approach this time around. If you want a racecar set up then god bless, but that isn't what I’m trying to accomplish. I want some balance. OEM+ is what I’m shooting for here. This isn’t my track toy. I want it to sound somewhat composed at low cruising speeds but aggressive when I gun it.
It should also be noted that I had momentarily considered a muffler delete but ruled it out because of drone. Just something I personally didn’t want. Some of you may not mind it but I do. I also think dropping weight off the rear of the car without doing the same upfront will upset the balance; just not a good option for me.
So the question stands, how does one get a louder, better sounding exhaust without the draw backs of going catless, for a reasonable price?
Well, after a ton of research and thought, I chose to go with a 200cell sportcat from Fabspeed, and a midpipe (resonator delete) from Dinan. The sportcat was ~$1200 and the midpipe was ~$260. Shoutout to Bobby from
Fabspeed Motorsport who hooked me up with the sale and showed me some videos which ultimately helped me throughout my decision making process.
I thought you all would appreciate some home made comparison videos to help you decide if this is the route you would like to go, or if you will take a different path.
Here's the
stock exhaust:
Here's the
stock system plus the Dinan midpipe:
And finally, here's the
Fabspeed Sportcat + Dinan midpipe
Conclusion:
Sound wise? I LOVE IT! It's not overbearing but it sounds real mean like an M car should. Tons of burbles and pops added without losing the great tone of the stock exhaust. No drone. No smoke. No smell. No CEL. No tune required. Also when I’m in 2nd gear at 4000rpm and floor it to 5000 and then let go of the gas, there is a MASSIVE brrrrrrrrrrrt noise as if an A10 warthog just started doing strafing runs behind me, followed by a loud bang/backfire. It’s fucking brutal.
But rest assured, you won’t hear this unless the cars under heavy load, so around town it won’t sound obnoxious unless you’re purposely driving like an asshole.
Price? Not a bad set up for ~$1460. Yes, a $500 straight pipe would have been 1/3 of the price, but like I said before, I didn't want to deal with the side effects of going catless. I also didn’t want to spend a fortune on the MPE or something similar. I wanted an affordable, headache free solution, and I think I’ve accomplished that while coincidentally making a little horsepower in the process. This leads me to the last part of my review then...
Power? Well, my butt dyno tells me there is definitely less turbo lag and more hp/tq. But if you want some numbers, the dyno posted by Fabspeed says you gain 22whp and 33 ft-lbs of torque at 4250 RPM.*
*It should be noted that this was with their muffler delete as well, but that's more for noise, the majority of the power comes from the sportcat. The dyno’d car was untuned. The gains were just from the bolt on exhaust pieces. It was otherwise stock.
Here is another dyno. This one is from a forum member, not fabspeed themselves.
No before comparison, just two runs with a fabspeed cat and mufflerbypass.
Once again, no tune.
So again, I love this exhaust combo and couldn't be happier. The sound, price, and power increase are all wonderful and the noise the car makes is balanced between stock and what I would consider over the top aggressive. It’s very tasteful in my opinion.
Simply put, for me, this set up is a win, win, win.
Update 3/14:
short in car clip of MDM mode (low speeds with the windows down)
Update 3/29:
Finally some nice weather. Sport + with the windows down. That backfire tho...
Update 4/11:
Flyby clip
and some revs