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My 2 cents on drone: I was concerned before my system arrived about drone because of the “drone thread” on this forum. I was planning all the plugs and insulation tricks etc. However, after my SOUL race headers, SOUL OAP’s, and SOUL Valved Exhaust install and a few hundred miles, I am pleasantly surprised to share minimal if any drone.
Define drone for me: “Low, deep audible echo sound that hurts your ears or makes you feel like you are in a tunnel. It penetrates all
through the cabin.”
My experience is the SOUL system is tuned for a higher pitch. Absolutely love the F1 like sound. Trying to drive speed limit, in high gear, I can hardly produce drone when trying to. Zero deep-echo-tunnel-resonance on my set up. I attached videos external, internal, Windows up, and at start up. A cold morning start when car revs high for 30 seconds is the closest I have come to any drone. And that’s with valves fully open.
Maybe those who don’t do the full exhaust are creating more pressure points and it’s boomy in the cabin. Crazy to think a catless system solves the drone issue. At normal speeds, I can drive under the radar w/o raising an eyebrow. The optional valves for me are solely for my neighbors on those rare early morning start ups. Otherwise, fully open for me all the time.
My SOUL set up has the right amount of deep base and high pitch that puts my GT4 in Exotic mode. Loving it. The 21whp gains aren’t bad either. (More gains in real world conditions)
Final dyno pull with Softronic ECU tune is about to be documented and posted on my thread.
Glad that you love your exhaust!
But no drone at all huh, you could help all of us by producing an in car audio/video with valves open rolling on the throttle slowly in 3rd or 4th gear from 1500rpm to 3000 RPM so we can hear it. By slowly I mean taking about 30 seconds to cover that RPM. What do you think, possible?
I think that the big problem would still be the ability for an in car video to pick up and record the drone.
I read this entire thread. I also owned a 981 Spyder for 3 years and drove a '21 Spyder last week. What's the knock on the 718's factory exhaust setup? How is it inferior to that of the 981 Spyder? Why will I hate it compared to the 981?
Are you saying that you drove the 718 Spyder and didn't notice any difference in the sound of the 981?
Are you saying that you drove the 718 Spyder and didn't notice any difference in the sound of the 981?
Well, to be fair, the last time I drove the 981 was several months ago so it wasn't even close to a side by side. I thought the 718 sounded pretty good on cold start and on accel. But hey, I'm far from the exhaust-a-phile that many of you are. I'm just unclear what the hype is all about 718 v 981. The auto-stop-start is the one glaring item that really irritated me.
Well, to be fair, the last time I drove the 981 was several months ago so it wasn't even close to a side by side. I thought the 718 sounded pretty good on cold start and on accel. But hey, I'm far from the exhaust-a-phile that many of you are. I'm just unclear what the hype is all about 718 v 981. The auto-stop-start is the one glaring item that really irritated me.
Gotcha! In a nut shell, I think that it is how the OAP's mute the sound of the exhaust and how the rear section doesn't mix both banks together at the end, this tends to sound a little flat when compared to the 981. TBH I don't think that the OEM system sounds bad, just different.
Auto stop/start is something that at least can be controlled which is a good thing because most of us agree that it does sound terrible when it kicks in!
My car is stock exhaust and I spent some time really driving the car hard this weekend with the exhaust off for the first time. I have to say, the engine sounds fantastic from inside the car with the exhaust off. It sounds very mechanical, but much smoother than it does with all the brap brap. Sometimes I want the brap brap, but I was surprised and how clean and racy the motor sounded when you can really hear it directly.
My car is stock exhaust and I spent some time really driving the car hard this weekend with the exhaust off for the first time. I have to say, the engine sounds fantastic from inside the car with the exhaust off. It sounds very mechanical, but much smoother than it does with all the brap brap. Sometimes I want the brap brap, but I was surprised and how clean and racy the motor sounded when you can really hear it directly.
Agree. Love my loud JCR race pipe, but every now and then I miss that quiet exhaust for those noises. This is usually only for a brief moment, and then I lay into the throttle, and I enjoy the JCR noises much much more. Cold start is something else with this car.
But no drone at all huh, you could help all of us by producing an in car audio/video with valves open rolling on the throttle slowly in 3rd or 4th gear from 1500rpm to 3000 RPM so we can hear it. By slowly I mean taking about 30 seconds to cover that RPM. What do you think, possible?
I think that the big problem would still be the ability for an in car video to pick up and record the drone.
I sure can. Will try and do this soon. I will try and have another set of ears on hand too.
I read this entire thread. I also owned a 981 Spyder for 3 years and drove a '21 Spyder last week. What's the knock on the 718's factory exhaust setup? How is it inferior to that of the 981 Spyder? Why will I hate it compared to the 981?
From the videos I've heard/seen, I think the 981 definitely sounds better in stock form over the 718. However, aftermarket exhaust sounds better to me on the 718 versus aftermarket 981. I'm not a big fan of pops and crackles though. I should caveat my opinion with the fact that I've only briefly driven the 981 GT4 and have never driven the 718 GT4; I did own the base models in both generations though. I'm hoping to do European Delivery on my 718 GT4 in October.
My car is stock exhaust and I spent some time really driving the car hard this weekend with the exhaust off for the first time. I have to say, the engine sounds fantastic from inside the car with the exhaust off. It sounds very mechanical, but much smoother than it does with all the brap brap. Sometimes I want the brap brap, but I was surprised and how clean and racy the motor sounded when you can really hear it directly.
I agree, driving with PSE off and in a gear that that has the engine at 3,000 RPM or more really brings out the mechanical sound.
I read this entire thread. I also owned a 981 Spyder for 3 years and drove a '21 Spyder last week. What's the knock on the 718's factory exhaust setup? How is it inferior to that of the 981 Spyder? Why will I hate it compared to the 981?
You won't hate it. It won't sound like the 981, but it sounds great just the same. But the exhaust manufacturers (hint: who want to sell exhausts) have done a great job of working up the owner group into thinking the stock exhaust sucks. Car sounds great bone stock.
You won't hate it. It won't sound like the 981, but it sounds great just the same. But the exhaust manufacturers (hint: who want to sell exhausts) have done a great job of working up the owner group into thinking the stock exhaust sucks. Car sounds great bone stock.
Crazy talk! The stock exhaust 'sounds great' if you havent tried or heard something better. Its not the aftermarket, its Porsche and EU restrictions that are causing people to look beyond the stock set up - that and the auto-journalists that correctly diagnosed that the 718 GT4 sounds like an anemic vacuum cleaner. A notoriously conservative friend of mine commented on the stock exhaust as 'a nice compromise'... that was all it took for me to swap it out with Kline. Second best mod I did, the first being an adjustable rear toe link, which interestingly you dont think is a required addition to this car. Something tells me you are a 'purist'! Im happy you like your bone stock GT4 and you might be in the majority of people who dont want to fuss around with their cars, but thats not the same as the car sounds great or the car handles really well when in fact there are simple mods that can vastly improve both and bring the car closer to what it should be. Maybe you can start a thread called "Who else loves their bone stock GT4!" and ply your observations there...
My car is stock exhaust and I spent some time really driving the car hard this weekend with the exhaust off for the first time. I have to say, the engine sounds fantastic from inside the car with the exhaust off. It sounds very mechanical, but much smoother than it does with all the brap brap. Sometimes I want the brap brap, but I was surprised and how clean and racy the motor sounded when you can really hear it directly.
Hear it directly thru the sound symposer you mean?