ive looked around and i was wondering if there is such a thing, i found alta at 729, milltek at 899 and borla at 759 and 803. is there any one that i missing that is cheeper? just dont have the cash to spill out on one of those. can you use a generic cat back if theres such a thing? ideas?

 

I'm an R53 guy but from what I seen it may just be easier to have a muffler shop custom make you one. Just run straight pipes out to two mufflers which have the tips built in. Shouldn't cost more than $150 to install and fab and then the cost of mufflers and pipes.

 

you can always go down to your local muffler shop and have them weld up a 3" pipe from the cat back and throw on a Magnaflo or something.
You are basically sacrificing cost for things like tone and asthetics.
My Alta exhaust is the first pre-fab system I ever bought. I have always had a custom system built for my vehicles.
I think if I could start over I would have a custom system built for less than half the price of the ALTA. Dont get me wrong, the ALTA system is top notch and lives up to all it's claims, I just don't think it's worth the extra exspense.

 

how much do the 3" stainless pipe cost? Do muffler shops have them in stock?

 

Yes, they usually do. And it should not be too much.
If you wanted to have some fun and spend a little more money look into either Burns Stainless or Reid Washbon, both companies make top notch stuff and you could probably custom make and exhaust pretty well with these guys.

 

www.burnsstainless.com

www.reidwashbon.com

 

Stainless is going up per foot. I'd get a move on.

 

my main reason for this is to get some extra sound, so would throwing on a magnaflow welded to some 3'' piping to the catback, woudl that give some more sound???

 

yes it would. there are several threads in these forums on guys that have used Magnaflow with good results. I personally have used Magnaflow on several applications and have loved it every time.

 

North American Motorsports sells the Alta system for $659 and occasionally they offer a $20 off coupon code in the vendor announcements area on NAM.

http://www.namotorsports.net/detail..../ALAMP-EXT-130

Both NAMotorsports and Alta have been solid on the customer support side as well.

Your best under $500 bet will be a simple custom system done by a Muffler shop.

I once had a 2.5" dual pipe Cat-Back system done by a shop in Costa Mesa, CA for a total cost of $160. I'm sure it would cost $400 for the same thing now. I'm just mentioning it so I can share the name of the place:

The Muff Shop. Their slogan on their business card was, "We Dive 'till 5"

Sadly they are no longer around.

 

Unbolt it..it's free

 

look at this place http://www.stainlessworks.net/cart/index.php they have tubing for about 14 bucks a foot for three inch

 

Thanks for shouting us out, we appreciate that! We currently do have a $25.00 coupon off $250.00 or more. Just enter the coupon code 'TurkeyDay' at check out to receive the discount.

We appreciate your business!

 

*Edit* I thought this was for an R53, i'm NOT sure if any of this information applies to the R56

Ireland Engineering has an exhaust that sounds decent for around $300 IIRC. You get what you pay for though, expect minor fitment issues and questionable build quality (The tips are sometimes crooked and some of the cuts are jagged, like someone cut it with a jigsaw).

I'd suggest you save your money and buy something mainstream (Ultrik, Alta, Miltek, Invidia, RMW/Magnaflow, etc). Between my two MINI's i've had no less than 5 exhausts ($4,500 or so) including the stock one, believe me, it's more cost effective to find something you like and keep it than flip flop between exhausts .

I've owned the One-Ball (Not for me, sounds like rattling a can with BB's in it), Stock, Invidia, Ultrik Twin Sequential, and RMW Exhausts. My favorite are the Ultrik and RMW. I've had 3 different headers, the OBX (Not very good, but for $150 what do you expect), Madness, and RMW. Performance wise RMW is by far the biggest difference, but for $1200, you'd expect that . The Madness with Ultrik sounded great. It's a single can design so it's a little deeper than some of the others.

Anyway, good luck

 

 

I'll warn you now, i've heard a straight through magnaflow with a center resonator and a single muffler, it's BEYOND loud. Sounds like a turboprop at full power. I personally don't like the sound, it sounds too ricey for me, but some like it .

3" piping is completely unnecessary and just makes the car sound like a tractor. If you want to add a little more sound, save up and get a good exhaust with a header. My invidia w/OBX served me well in the year I owned it, the only reason I sold it was because it became a restriction once I got further down the mod path.

 

That doesn't apply to R56S...