New c4s owner, exhaust advice & more...

I'll start by saying that I was so excited to finally get a Porsche. I have searched for months and finally found one in my price range with the right miles & condition. It is a 2003 c4s coupe. I plan to use this car as my daily and track it on occasion. I have daycare drop-off responsibilities for my 16 month old and have another kid on the way in November. Needless to say, the car will have 2 child seats in it later this year. By the way, my wife is a wonderful person to tolerate my obsession and hard headedness to get a Porsche under these circumstances. Makes for good stories The not so fun part was the day I received the car via transport truck. The transport driver decided to back it off the top of the trailer at an unusually high rate of speed. He couldn't find the brake. No, I am not kidding. And yes I have a crappy cell phone video that I will try to load/link. In the process, he bottomed out the rear of the car, scraping untold amounts of plastic and metal, and violently ripped the front bumper most of the way off. I actually could not believe I was standing there watching this happen. So, I'm trying to look at this with an eye for opportunity. The front bumper and all the plastic bits underneath will be replaced back to stock. However, among the parts listed on the estimate is a right side cat, 2 new tips and an exhaust pipe. This is pretty expensive stuff. The cat alone is just over 2k. So, my thought is to find a free-er flowing exhaust that gives a hp/torque advantage over stock that is tolerable for daily driving (no drone). I'm thinking that an aftermarket exhaust is no more than the stock cat cost. That is assuming I'm looking at the right items online. I've looked at Fabspeed and BB, but not sure how the drone is. I have a buddy that went cat-less/bypass straight to the stock muffler. Sounds great, but it may be a little loud on the highway. I'll ride with him maybe this weekend and see. So, what would you do for exhaust? Replace with stock? Go aftermarket? I have my thoughts, but want to hear what you think and more importantly what exhaust will work well for the car with no drone, great sound, hp/torque gain. BTW, I'm still excited about the car. It's just killing me not to be able to drive it. Thanks in advance for your advice! The damage:

argh man... I am sorry to hear your story.. it is such a shame that nowadays, nobody know what they are doing ! I can't believe the delivery guy did this to your poor C4. At least it only seems cosmetic... About the exhaust, I am going with the FisterD stock exhaust modification, sounds louder and better. I have not done it yet, but parts are coming in the mail Only reason to go for fabspeed and other is to loose some weight with lighter components. Aside of that they don't seems to add much power and you risk the drone effect.

Welcome. Oh My! Just another reason i would never use a transport service. I have a fabspeed exhaust on my 996. I really like the sound of it, although it may be a bit loud for some drivers. I dont have a clip, but im sure you can find one on here somewhere. Honestly, since i fairly new to Porsche's I've noticed that most "bolt-ons" really dont generate much hp gain, but i may be wrong.

I feel your pain. Do a search for exhausts and cats of the Rennlist forum, you should find plenty of reading there. I can't believe the transport driver did that to your Porsche upon delivery, hope you got a pound of his flesh for that move. GL

Ouch! That's really incompetent of the driver... Welcome to the club... I see that your addiction is well ensconsed. I just did the conversion to 3.6L PSE hack mufflers and think that is it the most cost effective modification that can be made.

Crazy...nice 996, I had the FAB Seed exhaust but got too loud cursing with someone in the car.

First, welcome to Rennlist! Second, OUCH!!!! That is terrible! Third, consider upgrading to PSE, even if you don't install the wiring to go from quiet to loud. Without the wiring, if will be in loud mode all of the time. If you don't want to do that then, as others have stated, do the MK II mod to your current mufflers. Let us know how all of the repairs come out.

Welcome to Rennlist! Very nice car, sorry about the mishap with the idiot truck driver.

That should buff right out....not! I agree that this is a good opportunity for some mods. I've read good things on here about the Fister and will do that myself later this summer. Welcome to Rennlist. Kevin

+10000 for Fister at the price/sound and lack of bleeding ears... its the way to go as for HP/torque gains, my thought is unless you have maxed out your driving skills as it came from the factory... hold on to your $$ and put it on more DE's (track days) you are in for a surprise at that is CAN do right now!! and what a bummer about the truck driver deal... good news is now you know where the radiator is and can go ahead and clean them out while the front clip is off - visit the body shop daily... dont pester, but let them know you afre a nit picky bastard and want it done right

When its fixed it will look just like mine - congrats. If you are going to track the car be careful with your exhaust - in europe at least there are noise limits measured in dB at 3-4K revs. I have factory switchable PSE which is 99dB when off and 108dB when on and my local track has a limit of 105dB. So off it goes for scrutineering and then on again straight after. This is the only benefit of the switch but at the track its priceless.

Wow that just sucks......I would have completely lost it on the truck driver......but there is always a silver lining right? Post pics when ur up and running.

Oh good grief. What a way to start out. I can't offer any suggestions regarding changes to the car. I like 'em stock. I do see I believe a bit of water/liquid trail leading to the radiator area ahead of the passenger side. The impact with the ground might have broken the radiator fitting off at the bottom. Be sure you arrange to have the cooling system and the A/C system throughly checked out at a dealership. Body shops can paint new body parts and fit them, but they can't be trusted to do any mechanical work though they will try to keep as much repair money as they can. Do not let them. Insist the car's mechanicals be handled by a dealership and its service department. Sincerely, Macster.

Sucks, but look at the bright side. When you win your lawsuit, you'll be driving a Ferrari!

That is freaking rediculous. Anyone in their right mind would take extra care backing a Porsche off of a flatbed. That guy deserves a swift kick in the cashews imho! As to your exhaust inquiry. I went with FabSpeeds based on the sound I was hearing in online video clips, but was quite shocked at how loud they are IRL. Don't get me wrong they sound absolutely amazing, are quite capable of setting off car alarms en masse, and generally turn your 911 into a very scary albeit obnoxious monster going down the road, but I don't reccomend them for a daily driver. It IS possible to run the FabSpeeds without making a ton of noise as long as you don't use the gas pedal. They make your car sound like an angry 3000lb panther at idle, and a race car at WOT. Cheers and best of luck on your repairs.

Thanks for all the advice guys. eggo--do you have the full fabspeed exhaust? Is it the 200cell cat x pipe with the Fabspeed mufflers? What's your setup? I am considering getting the Fabspeed hiflow cat x pipe and keeping stock mufflers. If anyone has this exact setup, i would love to hear from you. Thanks again.