I want to upgrade the exhaust on my S. One of my concerns is how loud are all the aftermarket systems. I have some hearing loss and tinnitus and would find too loud of a system unbearable. Has anyone measured the differences in the systems compared to stock.

 

Saldy i do not own my S yet, nor will i for a few months (darn job market).

But when i test drove the MCS i found the stock exhaust note was beautiful.

I wouldnt say the other ones get too much louder though.

 

I had a B&B Tri-Flow exhaust fitted to my 02 Cooper S and am very happy with it (I also have one on my 01 M3 which I have also been
very satisfied with). They are a little more expensive than some of the others, but the quality and installation is second to none.
The sound is far from being too loud, but you can also tell a big difference over stock. Try Bavarian Autosport website if interested.

 

Great question.

I would say the Magnaflow is a little too loud for what you would like. It has the best sound, but the volume is there.

The Borla would be a good choice, as would the Quicksilver. The Borla makes 7-9 horsepower, sounds just a little throatier than the stock system, and really doesn't add a lot of volume. The Quicksilver has a great advantage of light weight, makes more power than the Borla, and really isn't significantly louder than stock - it just sounds better.

Costs would be the determining factor between these systems. The Borla is $665 and the Quicksilver is $800. I carry all of these systems, so let me know what your goals are, and we can design a system for you.

I have had experience with the Billy Boat (B&B) systems on Porsches. They look beautiful, sound great, but with Porsche, they didn't make power (and in some instances even lost some) and were heavy. They may have made some improvements over the stock MCS however, because of the convoluded stock flow set up. I'd love to know what the weight is of that system. I'll follow up on that and report what I find.

Hope that helps!

Randy Webb
randy@mini-motorsport.com
720-841-1002

 

Randy- Do you have any photos of the Quicksilver exhaust that you can post? Thanks

 

The one thing that I noticed (and loved) about the MCS is the throatiness of the exhaust. When I was deciding which car I wanted, I test drove both the MC and MCS. After driving the MC, and jumped in the MCS and started it up....VRUUUMMmm-ma-ma-ma-maaaaaaa. I loved it immediatly. The MC didn't sound anything like it. So I'm wondering if I got an after-market exhaust for my MC, would it sound like the MCS? Has anyone experienced changing the MC exhaust?

 

>>Randy- Do you have any photos of the Quicksilver exhaust that you can post? Thanks





There you go!

Meenee.Coopah,

The S has a unique sound that would be tough to duplicate wiht a Cooper because of the cool VVVRREEEEENNNNN supercharger sound.

That said, a cat-back system does sound better, and the Cooper doesn't sound ricey at all. Take a look at the Exhaust Install thread. It is an S, but the install is very similar. The rear is a little tricky because of the spare, but not any more difficult at all than the S. The Cooper uses slightly different rubber hangers (2) in the rear for the muffler, but the Channel Lock method still works with them.

Randy

 

Thanks Randy! You are a huge asset to this board! Merry Christmas! :smile:

 

Merry Christmas! Thanks!

 

Okay, please don't hurl.

If you've read a number of these posts under "Performance Modifications", you've likely already read the below post (on the experience my wife & I had with our Supersprint exhaust sysem). Noticing that this particular thread was "Exhaust - How loud?" and that a major focus of my whole write-up was about the TOO LOUD sound that we got after installing our Supersprint 'Sport' exhaust system... this seems to be quite 'on point' to this topic:

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Car: 2002 MINI Cooper S (“MCS”)
Owners: Tom & Shannon Wiggins
tom@wigginsassociates.com & anim8@earthlink.net
Location: Pasadena, California
Car info: http://home.earthlink.net/~bmwmini
Exhaust: http://www.supersprintna.com/exhaust...ini_intro.html


"We pretty much decided on a Supersprint exhaust back in April 2001, when we ordered our MCS. We have had great experiences with Supersprint-- on a previous Neuspeed-equipped Jetta and on our current BMW Z3 (4 years with the Supersprint and we still love it). Additionally, we have had a number of other exhausts on other cars (Ansa, B&B, Comptech, Stromung, and custom exhausts) and know what we DON’T like… namely, systems that are embarrassingly loud or whisper quiet and/or have poor build quality (even under warranty, it’s no fun shipping exhaust systems back to the manufacturer). This is why we selected Supersprint on prior cars and again on our MCS.

1)Sound- it's sweet <Supersprint’s MCS ‘Sport’ mufflers require the addition of a resonator…>
2)Loudness- not too loud, not too quiet <Supersprint’s ‘Sport’ is way too loud as shipped- okay w/ resonator >
3)Piping- all mandrel-bent, optimized diameter
4)Quality- plate steel flanges, not stamped; seams welded & rolled, not crimped
5)Tuners- more contracts w/ top BMW tuners than all other exhaust manufacturers combined
6)Fit- Metric OE dimensions and true bolt-on <was definitely NOT bolt-on in the case of this MCS system>
7)Experience- since 1955... older than me
:smile: