Hey NCM's..

I've finally got my source for Saclam stuff and I've got an exhaust on order. I'm hoping that it'll take about 2 weeks.

I wanted something different and the only other exhausts that I considered were the Alta and Miltek. I was really concerned with the sound at cruising speeds and only really wanted some extra tone when I put some hoof in it. I've had Mugen exhausts on a couple of my previous cars and have absolutely loved them. The build quality is second to none and sound was always "right". I'm hoping that this one will be on par with the rest of their stuff. I won't say how much the exhaust goes for.. as I'll wait to see if it's "worth" it when I get it up and running. Another reason is because I really don't need to hear the .. "you could've gotten a <insert exhaust brand here> for a lot less and had a lot of money left over to buy a lot of other parts." line.. I could've also gotten a '91 Civic and turbocharged it and ran a faster 1/4 mile for a fraction of the price, but then, I'd be driving a '91 Civic .. Anyway..I digress

Saclam also makes an intake, header, and a tasteful wing.

The intake is wayyy over priced considering it's a carbon top on a stock bottom box with a better filter, velocity stack, and a inlet that feeds from below the cowl area, like every other intake, just about. I think it goes for something around $850+ ... just silly in my book.

The header is a really nice piece and I'm half considering getting it too but it's pushing the $2k mark.

I'm waiting for a price for the wing and it's probably going to get thrown on the order with the exhaust. As you can see from the pics, I think it's a pretty clean variation on the stock S wing. It's a little longer and there's an added touch of color (black in this case) on the edge to draw a little attention to it. It's a solid piece as oposed to the rounded stock wing that's got a pass through just above the brake light. I'm hoping that this will require a little less rear-wiper use..

I'll update the thread when I actually have the hot little exhaust in hands and am able to take some pics of it myself and give a driving impression. I'm not really expecting any real HP increase over any of the other exhausts out there, but it's kind of my next logical mod.


Sound Clips (recorded by Saclam)

Start through third gear

Rolling Start - part throttle

Fly By - nice burble

Exhaust Pics




Shot from the rear.
The cans hidden up behind the bumper nicely and the tips are a good size.




Wing

 

I'm surprised no one has posted to comment on these products. They look great.
I didn't quite catch on... is Saclam a part of Mugen? Or were you just talking about build quality?

Also, that wing is the best looking one I've seen yet! How do we go about getting these parts, if you don't mind sharing...

 

Can't wait to read your comments after installation What was the price on the exhaust?

 

From what I've been told, Saclam is the company that actually makes the exhausts for Mugen.. Kind of a black-label thing I guess. I'd like to get a little more clarification on that though.. and I'll know when I go to pick it up.

It turns out that the parts aren't that outrageous in pricing.. yeah, their higher than most of the stuff on the market.. it's the shipping to the states that's killing me. For this shipment, of the wing and the exhaust, it's costing me roughly a third of the price I'll pay for the stuff in shipping and import taxes . It's just silly, but I figured I had to be the guinea pig on this one for the sake of the Mini community..

Since there's no US distributor of Saclam stuff, the one-sy, two-sy shipments are not very efficient. He may be getting set up as a distributor but I"m not sure. I don't think his main clientel really care about an extra grand or two, as he caters to the people that drop off their Ferrari's and don't ask "how much?".

Anyway, the stuff supposedly shipped out the beginning of this week and will probably be here the middle of next week, so, with any luck, I should have at least the exhaust on by the following weekend with dyno results in hand. I'll be taking a gaggle of pics during the install.. Staty tuned!

 

Whelp.. it was delivered to the shop and.. althought I haven't seen it myself yet, the first word from the shop owner is "This thing is nicer than any part you have seen before".. I would take that as being a good thing... considering he works solely on Ferrari, NSX, and P-cars.. and I know there's some nice stuff out there for those toys. The wing needs to be painted, so that will go on at a later time.

I'm going in tomorrow, Tuesday, to have the thing thrown on. I'll bring the vid cam and take some video so there's some audio comparison between stock and the Saclam exhaust. I'm pretty damn excited.. it's like tomorrow's Christmas or something!

.. updates in a day or 2..

 

I'll be watching closely. Would it be possible to give a ballpark figure on the exhaust? Are we talking 1k w/ shipping? 1500? 2k?

If its between you and your source, thats cool. Maybe you can just some high res pics of the exhaust to make up for it

Thanks for the updates!

 

Hey Neema...

The pics will defiantely be high-res.. Well, I can say that the exhaust and the wing was around the $3k mark shipped/taxed/and taxed again.. I believe the exhaust alone, without shipping and bend-over-this-will-hurt import taxes, and without state sales tax.. it's a little less than $1500..

I'll verify the numbers tomorrow and see what he's got lined up to import. I know, at some point, he'll be brining in some Saclam Ferrari exhausts.. so maybe more Mini exhausts will find their way here with that shipment and hopefully the price will come down significantly.. but we'll see.

Stay tuned!

(after reading that back to myself, I do think I'll see some psycho therapy, because I must be nuts! I'm sure all the pain will go away once it's on the Scooter.. )

PS: I've already talked to Shad a bit about the stuff that (when he worked for Comptech) they developed for Mini Mania like their header, pulley, head work, and a/w intercooler. I'll get more details on this tomorrow. I'll see if he can find the flow numbers on the headwork they did for Mini Mania.. it was something crazy like 80% improvement on the exhaust flow.. Anyway, more later.

 

The Saclam is on the Coop!

Okay.. so I've got it on and it sounds great.. but the tone is changing by the mile. It started out a little louder than I was expecting but I figured it would quiet down some once it broke in. After my 100+ mile drive home, it was nice and mellow. One things that's a little different is under full throttle at anything above 3500 rpm it's got almost a jet like sound It sounds like turbulence. I'm wondering if it's just the mufflers breaking in but, even that diminished quite a bit since the first couple runs on the dyno. I almost didn't want to put this on the car.. I wanted to hang it on a wall.. or eat off it.

There's no drone at all and at cruising speed it's barely louder than stock.. which is almost nothing. The burble is much deeper and a little more menacing . By this weekend It should have at least another 120+ miles on it and be probably at the sound level that it will stay. The inner corners of the mufflers are just slightly visible from behind and are very shiney .

The tips are bigger than I was expecting and I was afraid they were going to look a bit 'rice'.. but once it was installed, they sat nicely back in the cutout and filled it up. with about a half inch gap all around... which get's me to my next comment...

The fit is as good as it can possibly get. We mearly hung the rear muffler portion on the 2 outer most hangers and it sat absolutely perfectly. It took one guy about 20 minutes to install...and that was with the just the rear on jack stands!

The finish is as nice as it gets, as you can see by the pics. The welds are excellent and take a look at that collector and those flanges.. they're CAST !.. not machined or welded. And look at that gasket!.. a cardboard filled crush washer. The tips?.. Billet!.. welded to 2 concentric stanless steel cylinders. They spared no expense with this exhaust. The attention to detail is prevalent throughout the exhaust.

Shad mentioned that he's waiting for Saclam to finish their $7000 Ferrari 360 exhaust and he'll be putting in an order for that exhaust and at least one for the early MCS' and one for the late MCS'. I believe the price will be around $1600 (ouch, I know).. but you'll have the best MCS exhaust made! If you're interested you can contact me and if you're really interested, Shad will take pre-orders for 'em.

I'll try to make it out this weekend to a breakfast meet if there is one for a showing, if anyone is interested... I guess it will be somewhere north of Dublin.. as Copper Skillet was the host last time.. possibly in the WC area? Where's Larry?.. he's a good event organizer..

I've got some video that I need to get out of the vidcam. I'm not sure how well it will come out, but I'll post al ink as soon as I get the stuff converted.

Click the Pics for larger views
(sorry for the mediocre image quality on some.. some were taken inside the shop area)

 

Looks incredible. Congrats on having the only one in the states!

Was that price of 1600 shipped and done? ...or was it without taxes, shipping, etc...?

Any updates on the spoiler?

 

Thanks Neema,

I believe Shad's hoping to have it between $15-1600 before CA tax, including import shipping and taxes. He's still trying to locate a different shipping/customs company so the price won't be as crazy as it was for me. His shop is still being completed (internally) so he's been working out of the warehouse space which is which currently has several NSX's in it from customers with many cars and lots of $$ to drop on mods. I wish I could just drop off my car and say.. "keep it under $50k"..

Anyway, I've got his shop contact information, I just left it in the car. I'll run down later and grab it and post the info for anyone that's interested.

I've got the wing in it's box sitting in my back seat. It comes gel-coated and almost ready to paint. It will need just a little finish work before painitng and I need to swing by the paint shop near my house this afternoon to have it sprayed. The inset lip of the spoiler, seen in the pictures as the black lip, is molded into the wing itself. It's not an add-on piece. It looks like a seperate piece that snapped in, or stuck on, but they actually just painted the inset portion, which I'll do the same. I'll take some pics of it this afternoon in raw form before the painter has his way with it.

 

nice pics, thanks for sharing. It really looks like a nice fit and finish. The cans look nice tucked up under the body and the tips fit the rear valence very well..

hope to see you motoring around some time so I can hear the sound!

 

Okay.. here's the "offical" contact info for Shad..

Website: (just a splash page now)
http://www.drivingambition.us

Shad
916-861-0032

 

saclam stuff is the one of the best in the market.. i envy u ... the quality of the build and finish of that exhaust is immaculate..

get one of their headers if u can afford it!

 

Dyno plot right after throwing the exhaust on. I'm heading back in a couple weeks to see how much more power will come of it after the ECU "learns" that it's there..

 

im probaly the most jellos man in England atm! ive been trying to sorce someone who can im port that exhaust system and also their manifold to england for ages now!

looking veryvery nice!

 

Hey S6 Boy...

I consider myself very lucky.. as I wrote-off trying to get it until my friend called me up out of the blue just to chat and I told him I recently picked up a Mini.. It was a complete fluke. I guess it was meant to be..

I'm normally not a huge fan of BRG.. but I love your car.. very clean.. nice stripes.. and all the white ties in nicely with teh BRG.. I like the hood-candy in your gallery..

 

Okay.. my first attempt at a video.. this is a very short clip right after the exhaust was installed.. I think I'll take another this afternoon...

Saclam Exhaust WMV

 

Here are the current clips of the Saclam exhaust. They sound deeper than I think they really are.. maybe my sub is just turned up a little much. It seems louder when you're at exhaust level.. Anyway, it gives you a good idea of the tone.

Exhaust Vid from today...

Saclam Exhaust WMV - 8-22-06

Exhaust MP3 from today...

Saclam Exhaust MP3 - 8-22-06

 

I love that wing! ive been wondering if any companies had a "duckbill" style rear wing that looked as if it could be OEM....and it seems Saclam has it!

I kinda skimmed through the posts and mainly looked at pictures, so please forgive me if this was already posted.

Whats the price for the freakin wing!?! and...how can i get one!?

 

I think I paid about $500 for it unpainted. It's got a fantastic gel-coat on it and needs almost no prep before painting. It's on the pricey side for a non-carbon wing but I really liked the design and it didn't really cost me anymore since I had the exhaust coming over anyway. I'll post some pics as soon as it's out of paint..

If you're interested in any Saclam stuff, give Shad a call at 916-861-0032. I know he's got, or is about to place, another Saclam order, so he should have some good info for ya...

 

Wing (finally) installed. It was a little bit of a pain to remove the stock wing.. but overall I think it took me a little over an hour. It's a great alternative to the stock wing, very subtle. It's flatter and less wing-y.. if that makes sense. It sticks off the back a little further and the painted inset gives it a little more visual appeal IMO.

Click for larger images.

 

You make me jealous with that wing.

looks awesome!!!! i might ask the g/f to get me that wing for my B-day.
ok im done posting i must go back and look at the wing some more.

 

I've got to find a new place to take pics.. All those shots were in the shade with a bunch of background noise (trees, houses, etc).

I had my car parked next to an MCS with a stock wing yesterday and I wish I had my camera handy.. it was a good side shot that shows the profile differences. If I have time this afternoon I'll go looking for a clear area to take some better pics in better light.

You might give Shad a call and see if he's got any on order..