I am running the stage III kit in my 04 Cooper S and right now the exhaust is way too loud. I prefer rolling up to someone quietly and then SPANKING them off the line... Then they never know what hit them...
Anyway, throw some ideas this way if you have any... (Exhaust, headers and cat ideas would be good).

Thanks

 

I think my JCW cat-back exhaust is about as quiet as they get.

 

the milltek, which i hope to get soon, is pretty mellow

 

Wow...the MINI in your sig is definitely on my Top 10. Nicely done!

 

This is the dilemma that I am wrestling with - JCW cat-back or Milltek.... Can anyone definitively contrast JCW cat-bak to the Milltek cat-back?

 

The Devil system is the quietest I have ever heard . I had it on my car for a DAY LOL. It is wel made , nice looking, nice tone but too damn quiet. No question quieter than the Miltec and JCW and ours for that matter .

Randy
M7 Tuning

 

Borla street is the quietest I've had on an MCS other than stock. Right now I have a Milltek.

 

JCW is quiter than stock. That I know for a fact. Here are some numbers from MINI2. 3K and 6K

JCW: 83/91 - Quieter than stock
One-ball: 84/91
Borla Street: 89/95
Milltek: 89/101
Stebro: 91/101

 

The JCW is quiter than the Milltek. I removed my Milltek off my MCS this week and plan to put in on my JCW I recently got. I'm not sure how restrictive the JCW exhaust is compared to the stock MCS. The reason I say is because when swapped back to stock on my MCS. It was like a night and day difference. The stock exhaust seemed to kill a lot of power even with a 15% pulley on.

I don't care much for loud exhausts and I like the Milltek. It's not overly loud plus it has a deep tone. Especially the burble(backfire) built into the 05-06 models.

 

I think the JCW is quieter than stock, and presumably less restrictive - it pipes the two rear boxes in parallel instead of series (sorry for the non-techy jargon!)

 

By numbers, 1-ball is only slightly louder than the JCW and it is significantly less restrictive.

I'm happy with my 1-ball, I like quiet and free flow... I just thermal insulated my CAI too, the whole car is now very close to stock quiet.

Btw, has anyone ever made a 1-ball out of a JCW exaust? I wonder what it's restrictiveness and sound numbers would be...

-- VBG

 

Any pics of your thermally insulated CAI?

 

If you factor in "sporty" without being objectionable to most the Milltek is very nice..... the Borla street which I have had is nice as well and quieter than the Milltek

Chow - what bandwidth were those readings taken at....isw this 1k, c weight, a weight?

 

BIG discussion we've been having about this over here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=71139

(especially past page 2)

 

Hi Curve,

Yes, as Shank has pointed out, there is lots of information and there are lots of pics in the https://www.northamericanmotoring.com...ad.php?t=71139
thread... I think my pics start near the middle of page 4. There are other very nice ways of doing it too, mine was just the simplest and most effective for me given the materials I had on hand at the time.

My main goals at the time that I did this were (1) significantly drop the temperature inside the CAI and (2) provide a top for the CAI. This did that, PLUS, for this discussion, it significantly reduced the SC whyne we all talk about when we put on an intake.

It's an interesting thread, it will get you thinking about the intake decisions we all have been making in general.

Btw, here are the current exhaust back pressure figures from Mini2, just to have them in the same place as the sound decible ratings from earlier in this thread:

MINI2 > Technical, Maintenance & Modifications > Engine & Drivetrain Tuning > GTT Exhaust Back Pressure - Measuring& Results
Last edited by roland2003 : May 16th, 2006 at 09:31 AM.
SCORPION .........+3.5psi
STOCK................+2.5psi (' 03 car)
GT TUNING 'RE-ROUTE PIPE' (combined with 'stock' system [edit, aka 1-ball]) ..........+1.75psi ('03 car)
JCW ...................+3.75psi
Miltek..................+1.25psi

JCW: 83/91 - Quieter than stock
One-ball: 84/91
Borla Street: 89/95
Milltek: 89/101
Stebro: 91/101


Best,

-- VBG

 

I installed a Milltek on my 06 MCSa over the weekend. A wee bit more "aggressive" on my stop and go commute to work but i take the freeway home and its quieter at 75 than the stock system

 

I think the Milltek is how the car is supposed to sound......has just enough edge to sound "sporty" but doesn't drone or drive you out of the car....when you go WOT it wakes up and you grin

 

That is a GREAT looking MINI! Looks great in red!!

 

If you don't mind my curiousity - why did you remove the Milltek if you liked it so much? Have you had the opportunity to compare the JCW to the Milltek yet?

 

BiZzLeS,
Is this Josh's old car...?

 

I removed it off my previous MINI to install on my JCW. I finished up about two hours ago installing the Milltek on the JCW. It does give better, imo, sound at idle like my previous MINI. I haven't tested it out fully as I need to get a few more washers to go between the body and exhaust hangers. It helps in keeping the Milltek tips from getting to close and melting the rear valence. I used the same amount of washers as last time but down my street and back was enough to make it expand enough to touch the valence.

I did find out one benefit the JCW has over the stock exhaust. It only weighs 3lbs more than the Milltek. I'm not sure of the weight of the stock exhaust but it's a little heavier than the JCW or Milltek.

 

THE milltek is nicer and prettier. If that's how the JCW looks on the blue car, it looks heavy. The mini does not need such huge canister on the muffler, hence milltek did a way with them, and installed something morse sensible that is out of view.

 

No doubt the stealth exhaust is the 1-ball, you lose 20 lbs and its a bargain - triple win!! Add a header and you get the HP/TQ offered at a much higher price. Even with the header - its quiet w/ no drone at anytime.

Total stealth as I mentioned earlier - stock tips too boot so at no time does that unsuspecting honda at the light know!!

 

Just to add some personal impressions to this info.
I've heard all of these except the Stebro on a dyno(including the stock system), several times.
What isn't being mentioned, but may be of import, is how they sound at WOT.
All of these quiet systems don't sound very good over ~5K RPM. The best description I can give is that they lose individual exhaust pulses and start to sound like a giant leaking air hose. Maybe think old Buick be pushed hard This would be indicative of a restrictive system IMO.
You really don't hear this in the car though especially when driving not just on a dyno.
It actually bothered my ears more than the louder systems like; Magnaflow, Invidia, Borla Race and one custom system.

I realize this is a subjective impression but thought I'd toss it in for conversation.

 

anyone know how quiet the alta system is compared to stock?