Ok, for starters, this is only my opinion. So, all you hardcore’s out there don’t hunt me down and burn my lawn or kick my dog… I am a newb to the Subaru community. After searching and avoiding many impulse buys for a long time, I just purchased my first Subi a few months ago. An ’06 stock STI. But recently I have caught some serious flack from other local Subaru owners because I actually like how my car sounds with the stock pipe and cats. I can hear the turbo spool up and down. It has a natural throaty growl, which seems to come from the bowels of the beast. I feel pressure against my jeans right now, just thinking about it. My buddy has an ’05 stage two, wingless, WRB, sexy as all hell WRX. But he has the most ridiculous exhaust set-up. I do believe that he as removed all but one cat (this is a guess). So he basically has 3†straight out the back. I know he was just trying to milk a few extra hp’s, and make it sound like a rally car. But I just can’t bring myself to do this to my stock STI. It sounds like it has a mega-phone attached to it. You can hardly hear his turbo, let alone yourself think. If he was looking to have a car sound like a rally car, wouldn’t one want it to have the power of a rally car too? It seems absurd to have such a vocal exhaust, for so little benefit. This morning I made the mistake of telling him off by calling his car a ‘riced out civic’. I do believe this was harsh, sarcastic and quite un-called for. But, it sounds friggin ridiculous to me. Is this wrong? If we love our subaru’s so much, why must we feel the need to change every aspect of them? Does anyone else love their stock STI sound besides me? What are your thoughts on this? I know I’m a newb, so if you’re just going to shove newby comments down my throat, so be it. Don’t kick my dog either.
Well, I'm not a fan of loud exhausts, either. I do, however, think the Subaru engine with the UEL headers sounds absolutely phenomenal, and needs something to let the beast out. There are a number of "quiet" or "semi-loud" aftermarket exhausts. I have a Maddad Whisper axleback, and absolutely love the sound. It is quite quiet below around 3k RPM, and really opens up with the Subaru growl when you get on the throttle. In addition, the stock axleback is one of the most restrictive things in the exhaust system. Adding an aftermarket exhaust and getting a tune will net you significant HP and torque gains.
do you have a puppy? Cause I'm not brave enought to kick a dog. It is a matter of taste, untill it comes to dyno runs, then it is a matter of fact and not so much subjective as sound, but rather the impression is based on the whp... my opinion, so be it.
Becuase you are a skier :dunno: J/K Everyone's ear is a little different. no biggy Try cobb's website... they have a fairly similar to stock sound.
Just letting you guys know he is talking about my stage two rex mods including upipe/downpipe HKS high power catback ECU reflash and some stock intake goodies I undersand what he is saying about the look of my exhaust since it is huge. But personally I love the look and the HKS is one of my favorite sounding subaru exhaust =)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming your buddy has a melon shooter exhaust. Right now I have just a Stromung axleback and I think it sounds great. At idle, it's just a tiny bit louder than stock and when you get on it, it has a nice (not obnoxious) tone. There are plenty of exhaust options out there to fit everyones style. But to answer your question...there's nothing wrong with liking the way your car is now! It's your car, do what you want with it
You'll sing a much different tune this summer when you meet up with 90% of this site's user base for a group cruise and you have to struggle to keep up with all of them. What draws people to modify their Subarus? Probably the desire to make a moderately quick econobox into a much faster car. The "need for speed" if you will. If stock STi power is enough to make you happy, so be it. That's your thing, and I wont insult you for it. But when 235whp becomes nothing special to you, you'll start to look for options to add power. And the first thing you'll need to do is open up some of those cats and get an exhaust system that flows a little better than stock. It's been snowy and cold and really not conducive to fast acceleration for the last few months, but once the sun starts shining and the roads are clean and dry again,you'll start to get bored with the acceleration of a stock car...especially when a stage2 WRX is passing you with little effort and under 1000 dollars in modifications.
if you want to make a Bit more power but still keep the stock look and a relatively stock sound, the spt axle back is a great option. I own a na legacy and couldn't tell you from first hand experience. however, from what I've seen it looks great and is fairly quiet but still gives you the free flowing system that your Honda civic ricer friend has.
You can hear the turbo just fine infact that is what I love about it hearing the whistle of the turbo though my exhaust =)
don't want the look of a fart can on your car? hate the super loud rumbles? Cobb exhaust might be interesting to ya, best of both worlds. performance, nice sound, and good looks!
oh i know this guys feeling. almost every day i see another car with a far pipe, honda, toyota hyundai, daihatsu... whatever, idk what they think its gross. if you have under 200hp hide under a freeken rock, dont be loud and brag that you can beat almost half the closest HS track team in your car! enough joking aside, you can for sure pull a meaningful amount of power by putting in a new exhaust on any car. its true that many performance cars sound sweet as they are and changes after that is all point of view. i love the subi rumble of 05's and such (i believe 06's and newer have equal length headers, someone please correct me if im wrong) and getting some gains while turning up the volume a bit is in some cases very justified. but please everyone, no watermelon shooters.
I agree 100%...for how loud his car is, I feel it should have 150 more hp than it really does. To me it just seems like he is simply padding his bra. And thats just mean
yes this guy does have a gross exhaust refrenced http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HKS-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories more over numbers speak louder then words 120 millimeters = 4.72440945 inch = sick nasty melon shooter.
let me build you an exhaust.. aint all shiny, but when on it it rumbles, when cruising its not bad at all.. but thats my opinion that a few people on here agree with seeing as they had me build them an exhaust
i think its all personal opinion and where you plan on going with the car. I personally love the rumble of the subie. If you are looking for exhaust and would like it to be somewhat quiet i would agree that cobb would prolly be the way to go
Amen, brother. Especially if he's a guy. I may be upgrading my exhaust this summer, and I'll definitely be looking for something on the quiet side. Although, there's also the option of adding a 2-foot lift kit and throwing one of those sewer pipes on as my catback. NO problems with flow, plenty of power, and a place to store water for long trips. :biggrin:
I have that exhaust on my car and it doesn't look all that huge from teh back. When it is dirty, which is usually is, it is hardly noticable. When it is all polished up, it looks tasteful enough back there. The HKS tucks under quite a bit, it doesn't protrude from the back bumper.
I love my HKS and though it is Bigger then I would like I got a super good deal on it and it does the job I want it to do. The thing that started all of this is I sent him a link to a guy on here selling a sti Genome axle back and told him if I ever did it over again that would be the exhaust I would go for. I sent him a video with a sti with the exhaust and he told me how much it sounded like a civic and how he didn't understand why you would put a exhaust on a car for little to no power gains. Now all of this aside, We are good friends and I know he is giving me a hard time but we just thought that it would be cool to see what you guys think about the whole deal. Considering he has had his subaru for 4 months now and thinks that me and the others here are in our own little world and doesn't understand why anyone would like the sound of a exhaust on a subaru. Here is a picture:
yes sir! my last car was a '09 Lancer GTS (the Baby mitsu)...so yes, my STi can defiantly give me some arousal. Understandable??
Wohhhh easy there buddy. Gettin a little personal. Exhaust has been a never-ending thing for me also. Coming from a civic I didn't want the weed wacker sounds like all the other stupid civics. I also wanted an exhaust setup that would allow me to run stg2 while being somewhat quiet. My current setup: Catless up-pipe, Shorty Catless divorced wastegate catless down -> stock 3rd cat -> sti catback exhaust. Trust me, you can hear that turbo spool up, just ask anyone who's been in my car. I can roll up my windows and no one knows i'm in my car. This is fine and all, but now I'm starting to move onto the next level. I plan on piecing together some sort of stealthback system (full 3inch to the axel back, then a 2.5" axelback. Exacts unknown as of right now). Like Bullwinkle I don't want the drown, but I would like a bit of the sound when I get on it. Mad dad from all the exhaust that I've heard is one of the best options, though it is pricey. http://www.daddysscp.com/ Cobb is another wonderful choice to free up that exhaust. I heard idget's '06+ (sorry dude, don't know your exact year) STI with My same shorty dp, no 3rd cat to cobb catback and it sounded great, though for some it could be a little too loud where a high flow 3rd cat could bring that sound down, or just have tstrboy weld in a resonator. While talking about tstrboy, I've heard some of his setups also. What's great about that is he can add as many or as few options to your exhaust as you want. Too Loud? Add another resonator. Too Quiet? Take it out. I'd talk to him about it more if you choose that route because I don't know all the exacts. If I was you dude, This spring / summer come down to firestone and listen to peoples setup. That's what I did. Some of them are just too loud for me (Just about any HKS setup is too loud for me, IMO) and some are just right. It's all about preferences man. -Ryan
if the "boy racer" look is bugging you, you should have gotten a legacy gt, class and function all in one non fa5tntehfuri0us package.
Because without a correct tune exhaust is just that. One thing to know is it's all in the tune. Getting a good tune will provide *VERY* large power gains with very little mods. I just posted my setup. Last oct that setup yielded 209whp and 227wtq @19lbs boost. Exhaust, then tune, then fun.
thanks ryan. this post has helped me a lot. lots of good info with you guys; rather than all the cackling nonsense i find on nasioc.
loud != more power My car is nice and quiet and still makes good numbers for a stock turbo stage II setup.
totally understandable. it is a matter of preference. my loyale is probably one of the quietest modified subarus around, and it still drives me nuts to drive it every day. just one of the many reasons I bought the XT6, and that it still has stock exhaust on it. you can open it up a bit, and get a bit more of the rumble without it getting obnoxious. but if you like it the way it is, don't change it. if you want more power, there are other ways to get it. the exhaust is a bottleneck, and as you start forcing more air in...it'll need to get out.
Theres nothing wrong with driving your car stock, so don't feel bad about it..I'm glad there are people like you who enjoy driving their cars stock so that when the price of them drops to a point where I could afford an STi I will be able to buy a clean unmolested car.
I, too, had my own exhaust made because I got really sick of the fart can look, and I didn't want to be as loud as some of the other people on here. Mine's quite audible, but does not drone at all. I've got a full 3" catless setup, VERY free-flowing as my tuner will attest, and it is still very reasonable at idle/low throttle. 3" catless downpipe, 18" magnaflow resonator, and a 3" straight-thru Vibrant muffler. When I still had the stock cat in, it was VERY quiet, IMO.
