PorschePhD

I have been holding on to this post for some time. Anytime we test something new it gets placed on my car and used daily before we ever stamp it as good. Sometimes things work out and other times it does not. When I tested this exhaust it was my determination not to leave it on the car because the history of some of the Fabspeed equipment has known to not be as quiet as some. We strapped the car to the dyno and ran our base lines. The 997TT is an interesting beast to dyno as all of the new cars are. They switch maps almost 8 times before the car will settle into a good base. On any turbo this can and does become an issue with cooling. So for almost all of our TT testing we remove the bumper to force air back through the intercoolers while also using fans in the engine bay and front nose.

The first set of baselines yielded 429HP and 440TQ. This is in AWD mode. All of our testing is done in house on our dyno, a Mustang 500SE AWD unit. The test was done in overboost mode. The max back pressure measured before cat after the turbine housing 6.5Lbs

The car was left strapped to the dyno and the stock exhaust stripped off and the Fabspeed unit strapped on. Install was pretty straight forward. Quality is as you would expect from FS. Nice welds, shiny as hell and if anything it is easier since the unit is now two separate cans as opposed to a single unit as before. Everything lines up much better than before. Like the factory setup it is fitted with swedge type connectors as the factory does. This leaves an infinite amount of adjustment if necessary. The cats are high flow racing cats. Similar in design to the 996TT in flow but not in appearance or material. The new systems in the 997TT are not very complainant when it comes to high flow cats these days so they must be spot on out of the box. The unit also comes in three variants of sound levels. So you now choose how loud you do or don’t want the car.

For my car I wanted quiet. Not so much that I didn’t know it was changed but something that DID NOT DRONE and still made power. We lined up the tips and hit the key. I think my exact words were “holy Sh#t! It is quiet. There is absolutely no drone in this system. Keep in mind before the test I had every intention to remove the unit after the dyno runs.

We started cracking the new dyno. Two things before the numbers ever showed up I noticed. The lag that is present that was not to be present with our cars was reduced in most cases almost eliminated. When you stab the throttle the car comes up on boost now and throttle response is much improved. I was originally a little disappointed by the new turbos but the back pressure clearly plays a roll in this. The measured max back pressure as measured in line with the base was .9lbs.

The second thing I noticed is in the stock configurations as our cars come up on boost they tend to surge or jerk near max boost and redline. I thought it was my car bust have confirmed with several other owners the car is doing this. That was eliminated. The car pulled quickly and strongly through the range as opposed to the hesitation type feel up top. This is also noticeable on the street as it was the dyno. If I had been paying attention before hang I would have timed the 2K to redline time to see how much quicker the car came through the band. Unfortunately I didn’t have this brain spike until after the exhaust was on.

Once we settled the car in to the runs again making nearly 8 to 9 pulls before an established base line settled we established a gain to 450HP and 457TQ AWD to the wheels. We picked up 21HP to all four wheels and 17 TQ to all four wheels. Keep in mind there is an additional loss factor when driving all wheel as opposed to 2 WD. The loss factor used to achieve crank HP is WHP/.80=CHP, 2WD is WHP/.85=CHP. These numbers will overlay almost consistently run after run. There were some higher numbers but what was able to be duplicated is above.

I now have about 2500 miles on the system. My initial concerns on releasing these results and stamping it as good to go was check engine lights and real world use. Initially there were some concerns with CEL and drone. As established prior in the post it does not drone and I am very pleased with the sound. It is not too loud and under throttle has a gurgle that clearly turns heads when you are on it. I recently was headed to a family wedding and was late, it was 80 miles west of KC and all highway. So while the boys slept in the back and Rox was reading her gossip magazine of celebrities I was making up for lost time. Well apparently I passed my brother in law. We beat him by 10 minutes and he said it sounded like nothing he had heard before. His quote was it sounded exotic as you blasted past me. Then he assumed I was doing a lot more than I was because he said it was loud. LOL, not where I was sitting it wasn’t and that is what he gets for driving a Honda

Still NO CELs and as tested with the PWIS system no pendings in the system. The only complaint I have is I still have not received my new quad tips!

Will I keep the system on my car. Yes! I am pleased with the quality, the sound, the fitment and the drivability difference. The HP and TQ in my eyes is a bonus.

If anyone questions please feel free to post them, or email me. If you are interested in a system please contact me off line. My goal with the post is to provide accurate and detailed information on the product.

Stummel

Does that mean a stock 997tt in the US has 429/0.8 = 536hp?
Is this on race fuel?

The ROW 997tt only has 480hp.
(Even our 997GT2 is below 536hp)

PorschePhD

I am not using race gas. That was on 93 octane. Even if you run race gas on a car without anything else will yield nothing. The numbers provided are corrected per SAE latest standard. I would post the avi files but they are nearly 100 meg for one and I have two of them. I will try to shrink them down so you can have a view of the run and the screen shots right off the dyno.

What I can confirm is that these dynos are consistent with like cars and like dynos. Aside from that the dyno is used to baseline and used again to establish a loss or gain.

Stummel

No need to post the files.

I think the gain is spot on. The base hp looks strange as I am sure that Porsche will not give you 50 horses for free :-)

But does not matter, as the gain is what you would expect from a muffler. If it does not drone and you get more punch it is best of both worlds.

PorschePhD

I still would like to pst the runs. I meant to I am just not that good with the avi stuff.

Heck no, they stuck it in my ear to buy this car. Nothing was free but the key chain

lager99

Impressive gain actually for a muffler, especially if it keeps the cabin relatively quiet.

I agree that the numbers sound high out of the box...

So what is this system worth? Look forward to hearing the files.

PorschePhD

The numbers are consistent at least like conditions, like dynos etc.

The system is around 3495.00.

AAHTT

Thanks for the great review. A few questions though, after you put the exhaust on, you said " it is quiet". Did you mean it is quiet inside the car? How would you compare the sound level inside the car while driving, to the stock exhaust? is the quiet version close to stock as far as inside sound?
The TT has a loud stock exhaust when heard from outside and I am looking to improve the cabin sound. Can you recommend the quiet version or is it really not that loud?
Thanks in advance.

PorschePhD

You are welcome.

Well compared to what I was expecting it was. The level was increased in the car and actually you can hear it better, but there is not a drone that over powers everything in the car. I like is because you hear some throat and growl. You just don't have an annoyance with it.

I would recommend the quiet version. It is similar to other exhaust I have tested in the past for twice the amount in the TT. I judge it on driving the car every day and time with my family and can we live with the noise. I wouldn't want it any louder, but that is my preference and why there are three versions. Keep in mind that muffler by-passes are available as well.

sfbanchs

would love some sound bites

PorschePhD

I will try to get them posted tonight.

PorscheDoc

I also drove Stephen's car with the exhaust for the Buffalo Run here in KC www.kcrally.com We ran the car hard, and it was never obnoxious like some of the old moderate 996TT mufflers were, especially his old 996TT . Just a nice growl under full throttle. Cruising down the interstate was very enjoyable, though I can't really say we were at normal traveling speeds This exhaust is how the car should have came from the dealer. Then if you wanted an obnoxious muffler, then you could upgrade to something more aggressive

eclou

Another request for sound clips here!

TT Surgeon

Sounds great, how is the system adjustable(noise level wise), three different mufflers? Different cats?
TIA

PorschePhD

Yes, there are three different mufflers with varying changes made internally. The cats all remain the same in the system.