[bpray9223]

About two months ago I dove into an exhaust project I've been wanting to try since I purchased the car. After watching many sound clips of the various exhausts and modifications people have done, I decided to try my own rendition.

First, I removed the cat-back portion and cut the system just after the secondary cats down stream. In order to maintain a "somewhat" factory appearance, I chose to retain the catalytic converter shells and just gutted the catalyst. So essentially this left me with hollow shells. I then removed the resonator and used a y-collector to join to the stock muffler. I welded this up and reinstalled. Unfortunately, the sound was not much different than stock. I didn't realize how significant the factory muffler was

So after about one week driving the car like this, I decided to purchase a Magnaflow 12258 dual inlet, single outlet muffler. I went to a local exhaust fabrication shop (Road Runner Exhaust in Springfield, MA) which I strongly recommend to anyone in the area looking for service. They removed the stock rear muffler and fitted in the Magnaflow, with a little extra pipe work involved. I also supplied them with my own exhaust tips. All together it ran me about $150 out-the-door, not including cost of the muffler and tips.

In the end, I got an exhaust tone which, in my opinion, is fairly close to the BMW PE sound, while still being tolerable for everyday driving . Only a very slight drone is noticeable on the highway between 2500-2700 RPM's.

Here's a video I threw together, please excuse the poor sound quality of the GoPro, it sounds much better in person.

Feel free to ask any questions

[Blindside_137]

Sounds great! Nice idea!