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Sounds nice!! I miss my catless exhaust on my STi. I want one for my MINI now! : )

 

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So I take it you got the SES light. Sounds ok I would love to hear it in person. BTW are you running the JCW intake also?

 

Sounds mean!

 

Yes I still have the JCW intake. No CEL light because I'm running a Alta Accessport.

 

NeverEnuff thanks a lot for the sound clips. Do you have a resonator in your exhaust? a 2nd cat?

I'm running a jcw exhaust with an OBX catless downpipe as well with straight through piping all the way back to the muffler because it is annoyingly raspy...I'm thinking about putting the stock resonator back in and I think it should make it sound just right. Your car sounds great!

 

Not second cat but the resonator is there. I cant imagine the sound without it. Its borderline too loud for me now. I think it sounds great but I like to keep a low profile and not attract attention to the local police.

 

not only is it loud now, but its just ridiculously raspy. at WOT, its just this annoying "batting" noise that i can't stand. I want some tone to it. attention from cops? WAY too much.

I think i'm gonna go ahead and throw on the stock resonator back on very soon because I really like the way your car sounds. Do you still get a lot of popping and burbling?

 

Yea I'm not afraid of some volume...but the tone is so raspy without a cat. Granted I find the JCW exhaust raspy in general, but this just takes it to another level. It'd prob sound decent on a deeper exhaust (ie. Invidia or Borla)

My R53 was catless for a bit, and I just could not stand the raspy metallic tone running catless gives.

For all you R56 guys running catless....how is the smell? The R53 smelled ....it was VERY obvious the car was running no cat.

 

I know what you mean. So far I don't notice it smelling much different. With my WRX you could definitely smell the difference. When I pulled up you know it didn't have any cat. The WRX had 2 cats in the down pipe and another in the mid pipe.

The Exhaust Depot Catless dp might be they way to go if you want to loose the raspyness of the OBX. I might go that route later with the Invidia Exhaust. I just dont have the funds to do that now.

 

Suprisingly, with a deep exhaust, IMO it sounds worse. Maybe its because of the muffler I chose tho. At one point I decided to swap out my factory jcw exhaust for a magnaflow. I figured it would give a nice deep sound and reduce the rasp from the OBX catless downpipe.

Result? YES, it did become deeper, but a little TOO deep for me. it sounded completely tamed afterwords, in a bad way. I couldn't hear my engine noise anymore because the "deep" drone was unbearable. Accelerating, it basically just sounded like "wooooooooo".... unlike a true engine noise "rehhhhhhh"...i kno i kno, its hard to explain exhaust sounds over the internet though without sound clips haha.

Therefore, I reverted back to my stock jcw muffler keeping the obx downpipe and decided that my best bet would be the keep this combination except I am going to be installing my stock resonator back in very soon. This should keep the nice engine noise with just a BIT of rasp, but at the same time reducing the annoying rasp and most importantly, no more drone from the magnaflow

 

How bout the smell?

 

smell with magnaflow muffler and OBX catless downpipe is detectable but not intolerable. When you're sitting idle, you can definitely smell something.

with my factory jcw muffler with obx catless downpipe, I only smelled it the first week of installation of the downpipe...after that it was not detectable to my nose and smelled normal.

 

Ok for those wondering, heres an update.

I ended up installing my stock resonator from my factory jcw exhaust BACK onto my factory jcw exhaust with OBX catless downpipe....
So far, this is the best combination I have had and I think I will leave it at this..

NO drone, absolutely whatsoever NONE. This makes highway cruising a relaxing journey rather than a headache. At idle, its almost as quiet as stock. Normal driving around town, a little bit louder and raspier than completely stock and compared to before, it has that two-tone sound I like rather than the one tone sound. At WOT, this thing sounds badass and real aggressive, BUT not OVERLY aggressive like HEY LOOK AT ME! Keeping it classy.

This gives me the benefit of running catless/gaining performance while not being constantly harrassed by police

 

Just wondering dj.papazian

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...02&hg=18&fg=10

You have the one on the top with JCW factory cat-back right?

 

The JCW exhaust is pretty raspy to begin with. Going totally catless does not do it any justice. I'm sorry but that's a fart-can right there. I have a catless DP on my S, but with the stock catback it's only raspy when cold. I doesn't help that JCW's don't have a 2nd cat. I hope you find the right sound.

 

Ch28Kid: Yes sir I have the top one you posted there with that long @ss resonator in the middle

Tintman718: I agree with you that the JCW exhaust is raspy to begin with, but honestly, going catless and keeping the long resonator surprisingly didnt make THAT much difference; a little louder around town cruising and a nice growl when i step on it. When i had the resonator off however, yes, i admit, it sounded like a fart-can so i went ahead and threw the long resonator back on. Plus, not catless just for sound, but for performance as well

hope this helps