Greetings Stangers
I used to be a regular on this site like 10 years ago and kind of fell out of it when I turned in my ’03 GT at lease end. After that, I drove a Neon SRT-4 for a few years (yeah, I know) and for the last 4-5 years it’s been nothing but plain old econo-boxes.
I’m a bit surprised I was able to remember my user name and PW to log in here at Stangnet, and it’s kind of nostalgic to see my Rush Moving Pictures avatar still intact; I can’t even remember the last time I listened to that album.
Anyway, as the title suggests, I’m back in the saddle as of this past weekend, when I picked up a 2012 GT 6-spd manual. The dealer didn’t know what gear is in the car, but with some quick calculations using speed/RPM pairings, it has to be the 3.73. I absolutely love the car overall, but…
It came with an aftermarket “exhaust”. When I test drove it I thought that was awesome, because it was loud and sounded mean, and my exuberance was blinding me from reason. Now that I’ve had a chance to drive the car at length on the highway (on my way to work this morning), I’ve discovered that cruising at around 70MPH (1900-2100ish RPM), my head feels like it’s going to explode from the drone. Seriously, it’s more than mere “annoyance”; it’s like… physical pain. I downloaded an SPL meter on my iPhone, and measured it at lunch. The drone at 70MPH is about 82dBA. Obviously I need to fix this problem so I can enjoy the car.
All I know about the currently installed system is that it’s a Pypes system (label on the exhaust tips). I briefly looked under the car at the dealership, and it looked like it was just some sort of straight-through pipe to eliminate the mufflers. I’ll look again when I get home tonight to make sure. Regardless, it has to go.
Ideally, I’d want:
- Basic axle back (not planning on doing much else to the car so I’m guessing more elaborate exhaust upgrade would be poor bang-for-buck)
- Nice snarl when gunning it, but as little highway drone as humanly possible, while not being stock
- reasonable price
I imagine this type of topic has been beaten to death here, and I did do a forum search in hopes of finding something resembling a consensus, but no luck. I guess exhaust tones are too subjective, although I would think that presence of drone (or lack thereof) could be answered definitively. The closest thing I can find to a consensus is the Roush axle back, as I’ve seen it name-dropped multiple times with glowing reviews, claims of no drone, and only a few negative comments.
Can anybody share their axle back experience, specifically as it relates to drone? I’ll gladly take any anecdotes/stories, but it’s all the more “convincing” if you can tell me that you had an annoying drone problem, but found a way to fix it, while still sounding mean when you gun it.
Cheers
Matt
I used to be a regular on this site like 10 years ago and kind of fell out of it when I turned in my ’03 GT at lease end. After that, I drove a Neon SRT-4 for a few years (yeah, I know) and for the last 4-5 years it’s been nothing but plain old econo-boxes.
I’m a bit surprised I was able to remember my user name and PW to log in here at Stangnet, and it’s kind of nostalgic to see my Rush Moving Pictures avatar still intact; I can’t even remember the last time I listened to that album.
Anyway, as the title suggests, I’m back in the saddle as of this past weekend, when I picked up a 2012 GT 6-spd manual. The dealer didn’t know what gear is in the car, but with some quick calculations using speed/RPM pairings, it has to be the 3.73. I absolutely love the car overall, but…
It came with an aftermarket “exhaust”. When I test drove it I thought that was awesome, because it was loud and sounded mean, and my exuberance was blinding me from reason. Now that I’ve had a chance to drive the car at length on the highway (on my way to work this morning), I’ve discovered that cruising at around 70MPH (1900-2100ish RPM), my head feels like it’s going to explode from the drone. Seriously, it’s more than mere “annoyance”; it’s like… physical pain. I downloaded an SPL meter on my iPhone, and measured it at lunch. The drone at 70MPH is about 82dBA. Obviously I need to fix this problem so I can enjoy the car.
All I know about the currently installed system is that it’s a Pypes system (label on the exhaust tips). I briefly looked under the car at the dealership, and it looked like it was just some sort of straight-through pipe to eliminate the mufflers. I’ll look again when I get home tonight to make sure. Regardless, it has to go.
Ideally, I’d want:
- Basic axle back (not planning on doing much else to the car so I’m guessing more elaborate exhaust upgrade would be poor bang-for-buck)
- Nice snarl when gunning it, but as little highway drone as humanly possible, while not being stock
- reasonable price
I imagine this type of topic has been beaten to death here, and I did do a forum search in hopes of finding something resembling a consensus, but no luck. I guess exhaust tones are too subjective, although I would think that presence of drone (or lack thereof) could be answered definitively. The closest thing I can find to a consensus is the Roush axle back, as I’ve seen it name-dropped multiple times with glowing reviews, claims of no drone, and only a few negative comments.
Can anybody share their axle back experience, specifically as it relates to drone? I’ll gladly take any anecdotes/stories, but it’s all the more “convincing” if you can tell me that you had an annoying drone problem, but found a way to fix it, while still sounding mean when you gun it.
Cheers
Matt