To Johnny Manson Air Cooled sound on 996.

In a reply to a post on here, you commented on the "air cooled" sound of a 993. I too wish and miss that sound, but I have found that you can achieve that sound still with the 996, 3.4L, by going with the sport cat's from the GT3 (from Porsche Motorsports), and by removing the mufflers, and just running with a a 90 deg tube right off the cats. It is louder, but the car now sounds like it looks. My car looks like the GT3.

Thanks for your advice. I wouldn't have imagined that you could get a similar sound out of a water cooled engine. I figured the liquid surrounding the cylinders would not only deaden the bang but that it would also skew the sound into something entirely different. Would you say that the sound is similar in volume and pitch?. I'm curious. On a scale from one to ten, One being the resonance of a stock exhaust setup for a 996 and ten being that of a FunnyCar, what number would you give your car? Johnny.

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I don't have the car back yet. I am getting the lighter flywheel and clucth assy installed, with new headers and reprogrammed chip, due to the lighter flywheel. I asked my mech to pull the exhaust off, and just run the motor with only the cats. It was loud but it was no louder than the 993's that he had in there that were running with just a straight thru tube off of the cats. It was loud but it did sound obviously much more aggressive. The thing that made it louder was the fact that w/o the straight tubes installed, the cats blow just right up inside of the rear quarter panel, creating sort of an echo chamber - which made it louder. My mechanic says, once the straight tubes are installed on it, directing the exhaust out thru it wont be as loud. I will probably be picking it up next week. I will let you know. If it ends up being too loud, we are going to try something else, but for now, all I can say is that it sounds as good as it looks now.

Are you talking about the sound from the engine compartment, or the sound thru the exhaust system?

The sound through the exhaust. I mean there is no muffler, only header, sport kat, and straight pipe.

In response to the use of straight pipes instead of mufflers-before I had the fabspeed plus intake installed I had a chance to listen to it without the muffler and it's way too loud and even if you put straight pipes it would only redirect the loud sound to the rear. I understand people love the sound of the aircooled engine but if you really wanted the Real sound of an air-cooled Porsche you could of bought one without going thru the hassle of doing it on the 996. Unless you like the styling and maybe a better performance car then the 993 then I can't argue with that. Also with what Viken said that you will lose a bit of low end torque with decreased back pressure it is probably true as going on the steep hills of san francisco - it's not too noticeable if your driving yourself but try having someone sit with you and go up a steep hill and you notice it right away. If where you live is basically flat then the above is a moot point. I basically keep my rpm's during shifting at 3500-4200 rpm's so my kind of driving is at midrange so the benfits of exhaust/intake are utilized. Another thing to think about as well is the loud sound maybe suitable for the track but in the city or in around town it'll either annoy or or get praised. My opinion is with the general public it's more on the annoying side. But it comes down to personal choice anyway like I installed my fabspeeds and enjoy immensely so more power to you. It's a lot of fun to modify cars especialy with Porsche's. Regards. Mike