Aftermarket exhausts - recommendations? - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Hi all. I have a '99 986, of which I am very pleased. Initial few months of ownership have seen new tyres (rears: old ones were split on the inside....didn't know until tyre shop showed me when they were fitting the new ones!!!!), and not much else. So I'm enjoying ownership, contemplating a hard-top but can't really warrant one as it's not my daily drive. But what I would like, is a more fruity exhaust note. The current exhaust is 'ok' I guess but my old car was a TVR. I know I'm not going to get anywhere near that (and if I did it would be odd, coming from a flat six). But I still miss a little noise from the exhaust. I've also had an MR2, to which I fitted (yes I know they don't improve performance) a K&N air filter - this changed the engine sound nicely, especially when you opened it up and hit 5500 rpm. So anyway - what do people recommend? I dont want it to sound like an oversized kazoo, I don't want it to sound like I'm doing sixty mph when I'm doing 20...I just want a meatier sound. Any suggestions? I'm in the South East of the UK.... Thanks

I highly recommend modification to the stock muffler; it is inexpensive and sounds very good. I have one on my Box S, along with cat bypass pipes and the sound is superb. The factory muffler does not resonate or drone like an aftermarket exhaust. Any competent welder can achieve this mod for you and the cost is minimal. http://www.pedrosgarage.com/Site_3/Make_the_Pedro_Sport_Exhaust.html

Thanks, I'll take that as a printout to my local garage and see what they can do for me

I have a B and B which I like very much. Not the most inexpensive, but very high quality stainless. Sounds good... does drone at 60 mph... ie. loud inside the car. But open throttle and accelerating sounds great. Cant say there is a noticeable performance gain, but looks great. Also, if you dont clean it often, the tips do turn gold from the heat. Best of luck!

The Pedro factory exhaust mod pictured above gives nice sound without the annoying resonance that most every single aftermarket muffler provides. Be careful what aftermarket product you bolt on as a muffler. Most are a lot louder than your female passengers will be happy with and will give some or a lot of cabin drone between 2k and 3k rpm in any gear at any speed. The drone and sound is exacerbated when you run aftermarket headers, btw. I've got a Che (Deluboz) muffler on mine and I'm going to take it off and sell it at the beginning of the year when I can find a shop to weld up those bypass pipes on my factory muffler. Finding a shop that will do tig welding isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

If you want a throatier sound without drone and no smog issues have your local muffler shop open up your stock exhaust and take out 65% of the baffles, then weld on whatever tips you want. It is not expensive and the money you save put into suspension upgrades. If you read through forum posts on any of the Boxster web sites you will see that very few people are completely satisfied with the expensive after market exhaust systems they install and many end up removing them, going back to stock and many times when you sell the car the new buyer doesn't like the sound. Personally I like the sound of my stock system and after having researched all the claims of after market systems became convinced the Germans did it right to begin with.

Save your money and drill a hole in it!!! http://986forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19770

The Fabspeed dual cannister exhaust (which comes with secondary cat bypass pipes) sounds phenomenal and does not drone at all.