Summit Turbo Mufflers...Opinions?

Hey Everyone,

I'm making good progress getting the Miata back together. The engine should be going in over the next week or so! :banana:

Anyway, I'm getting to the point where I'm going to be doing the exhaust soon and I have been reading lots of opinions about exhaust. I am thinking of going with Summit Turbo mufflers for the following reasons:

1) Price ($15 each...I'm broke right now!)
2) Quality (I had them on my 94 SHO for 4 years and 3 winters without problem)
3) Sound (This I'm not sure about, how will they sound on a 5.0L V8? I don't want anything too loud as this will be my daily driver for the summer and keeping the sleeper stigma will be fun)

I had a good experience with these mufflers on my SHO. They were very quiet when I first put them on, but after driving with them for a while they got progressively louder. At WOT they sounded awsome on the SHO!

I have also been told to look at Borla XS and Magnaflow mostly. I think that Borla's are too much $$ at this point. Mangaflows are better, but still 4x what a Summit Turbo is. The sound of the car is very important to me, so any input and advice is appreciated.

Thanks.
 
I put Summit's cat-back with the Turbo mufflers on my dad's '95. They were louder than stock, with a nice burble, but a brutal drone. Once I tossed the stock H for offroad
pipes, the drone disapeared and they sound awesome. A lot of rumble at idle, and it just get's better from there.
 
95GTAODE said:
I put Summit's cat-back with the Turbo mufflers on my dad's '95. They were louder than stock, with a nice burble, but a brutal drone. Once I tossed the stock H for offroad
pipes, the drone disapeared and they sound awesome. A lot of rumble at idle, and it just get's better from there.

Interesting...I will be running a full custom exhaust with two cats and I guess an x-pipe. I guess it will be hard to tell how they will sound until they are on.
 
I have them on my capri and they sound pretty good. Nice and quiet all around the car except out the back it has a nice little rumble to it and still fairly quiet in the higher rpms, but has a nice tone to it. I have an off road h-pipe also and have no drone at all.
 
orangecapri said:
I have them on my capri and they sound pretty good. Nice and quiet all around the car except out the back it has a nice little rumble to it and still fairly quiet in the higher rpms, but has a nice tone to it. I have an off road h-pipe also and have no drone at all.

Thanks very much for sharing your experience. I want the car to have a bit of noise...after all I am going from a 4cyl to a V8 partially for that reason alone. But I also don't want the car to be so noisy that it's annoying on the drive to work with the top down...and also want to keep those at the light next to me guessing.
 
i had them on my tbird (3.8sc) and they sounded good but, i drug one of them off.

i put the other off my tbird onto my dads 4.0jeep and it also sounds good

my "muffler man" said the cheaper the muffler the louder.
 
MahFiVeOh said:
A 5.0 Miata? Man...that would be sweeet :hail2: Probably looks pretty cute too :rlaugh: Jokin

It will never look as aggressive as a Mustang that's for sure...but it's black on black on black with black tinted windows and gunmetal with polished lip wheels. It has the rear lip spoiler and I plan on putting more aggressive bumpers on it from Racing Beat. Should do the trick. :banana:
 
I think its neat and all but,


im trying to visualize it, i cant seem to put the two together audiowise :rolleyes:


kinda of like a cat meowing but a lions roar coming out of its mouth lol..

kinda hard to see it lol

but good luck!! :cheers:
 
I have the Dynomax Bullets I got from Summit, I guess you could consider that a 'turbo' muffler, straight through design. I run them on a 351w. They sounded decent at first, not TOO loud, but crisp. After a few weeks, I kept thinking a crotch rocket was following me when I let off the gas. They work into a nice 'pow pow pow pow' when you let off the throttle, and it does sound good. Better than a flowmaster or chambered muffler. I say go for it, especially in a smaller displacement ride.
 
Those $18 Dynomax Turbo mufflers you get from Advanced Auto Parts...you say the cheaper the louder.....I have to completely disagree on that one.I bought one of these mufflers and put it on my V6 in place of the rusted out Delta flow I had on there.Damn,these mufflers are ultra quiet.Quieter than stock.You can't even hear the exhaust with these "Turbo" mufflers.No way i'm putting these mufflers on my 5.0. I want to hear it growl loudly but not sound annoying or obnoxious like an exhaust with no mufflers or cherry bombs..ick!

I've been driving with it on for several months.I think i'm going to remove the muffler & tailpipe.It sounds pretty good coming out of the Y pipe. heheh

Oh,I really like the sound of that Miata with a 5.0 in it.Driving all sorts of rides around at the deealership were I used to work,stock Miatas with 5 spds are quite agile and quick with their 4 cyl's.I love those really short shifters they have.I can't wait to see how it goes with that 5.0 loaded up underneath.There has to be some extra weight issues going on there.Have you upgraded the stock suspension? if so,what modifications did you use?

Good luck
 
Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm still not sure what to do, but your input has helped. A guy across the street has a Fox Notch with aftermarket exhaust on it, and it sounds sweet. I'll have to ask him what he's running for mufflers.

I drove the Miata stock all last year and it was a blast. It was a very balanced and nimble car (2,300lbs, 50/50 weight dist.) and absolutely kicked butt in the corners! :D And yes the little snick snick shifter in those is the best 5spd I've driven...perfect feel.

The conversion will add about 250lbs to the car in a normal installation. The 5.0L V8 adds about 175lbs to the front and the T-bird 7.5" rear adds about 75lbs to the rear. In my case I have removed the A/C (40lbs) and Power Steering (30lbs) from the front of the car. So now I have only added about 105lbs to the front and 50lbs to the rear...that's with stock iron heads. Put on a set of aluminum heads and I'm almost back to 50/50 distribution.

The engine also sits right against the firewall...in fact a new countersunk bolt for the smog pump tube on the back of the driver's side head is required for clearance.

The suspension has been upgraded with custom 400lb springs in the front (stock is around 200lb) and custom rears and I'm using 8 way adjustable KYB AGX shocks. I'll also have to upgrade the sways and such in the future. The Miata chassis is very stiff though, and mine being a 95 already has many braces and such from the factory. I do plan on adding a roll bar for stiffness and safety though.

Regards,

5.0L Miata