Matthew951

I don’t have SFR on my car, but I've heard a couple, and I think it sounds just right. Its definitely louder then stock, but its definitely a street able setup by all means. I believe the ones I heard were the Bullet mufflers, with 3 inch test pipes, so I cannot comment on the Borla ones. I have heard from Tim (SFR) that the Borla one sounds amazing. Once I go for exhaust, the SFR full 3inch Borla will be the exhaust on my car.

That just my opinion though...
Matt

Izzy

I've heard a lot of good things about SFR, but the exhaust sounds a little too ricey for my tastes. The twin pipe has that sporty sound that really picks up once you hit the mid-level rpms.

Techno Duck

I have the SFR catback on my car with the Borla XR-1. It is not that loud, only when you are really on it, i mean 4500-5000k plus rpms its fairly loud and will turn heads, other than that...i would say not much louder than stock.

Granted this is on a n/a, but if anything the exhaust shouldnt be much louder or quieter considering its going through the turbo and also is likely going through larger piping (like 3 inches compared to my 2.5).

Matt H

On a turbo with the SFR cat back, it is NOT loud. Hell, I drove one a few miles, got out of the car, got back in, drove it home...got out and the owner asked what I thought of his exhaust. I hadnt even noticed.

ANY 3" exhaust on a 944NA is going to be loud.
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Manning

I think Robby has one on his car, so my guess is his car told him that.

I also have one on my car, but then mine is an NA, so no extra sound damping from a turbo, and is a VERY early example of Tim's work. With the round muffler on mine is VERY loud, to the point that my wife can hear me driving down the street from several blocks away. Unfortunately my neighbors can probably hear me too.

ibkevin

Robby, that's the impression I got after racking up some search time!

jm, the bullet is basically a resonator and some like the sound when combined with the test pipe on the turbo's.

A "muffler combo" to get the right sound is far too vain for me but a hi-flo cat is a must. The Bullet, Borla XR-1, and Flowmaster all have remarks that put them well over a stock sound level. I am quite content to fly past you before you even recognized the make of the car and if that means CHP was busy looking at his laptop or "talking" with another motorist on the side of the road without me disturbing them, it's money well spent!

I heave read the Magnaflow is "stock quiet", is this the consensus?

SamGrant951

The SFR 3" has a deep tone to it - IMHO it sounds awesome which is why I went and got one made by Tim. I am still running a Bursch 2.5 testpipe however so I dont have the full 3". Its a quality product made by a great guy -Tim custom made my tip a bit shorter to fit better under my gt-racing rear bumper. I bought it from Chris White IIRC.

http://members.rennlist.com/sngrant/sfrtip.JPG

http://members.rennlist.com/sngrant/sfr3in.JPG

Matt H

NA exhaust is NOT the same as the Turbo. NA exhaust always get very loud with the 3" (it is FAR too large for an 944NA).

If you dont expect higher dB then you should not swap to any aftermarket exhaust. They are all louder than stock but none that I have heard on a Turbo are really loud. Louder than stock, yes. Unbearably loud? God no.
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jmporsche944

Interesting. Im actually looking for somehing relatively loud, but not overly loud for the street. Maybe the 4 inch lindsey racing exhaust would be better? Touch call, didnt know the turbo muffled the sound so much, but it makes sense.

Robby

EXACTLY! Not only this, but TIM himself told me it would be much louder- I appreciate his honesty- I dealt w/it for awhile, but if had it to do over, I'd make sure to weld something into the diagonal immediately... Yes, my neighbors notice & even mention it, my passengers do NOT like it, & no girl has EVER ridden in my car & thought it was "cool"- in fact, the only compliments I've gotten on the sound were from HS aged ricers... Sorry, it's just a fact...

An intersting point about the early ones- mine is an early, round Bullet too- I know Tim did some work VERY SOON after the 1st group-buy (I was part of) to make them quieter- is the Borla the result...? Tony G ran THREE XR1's on his car w/3" test pipe & SFR 3" catback- supposedly VERY QUIET! One in test pipe, one in diagonal, & one at end... I'm trying to immitate him somewhat, but don't want all Borlas- dif mufflers suppress dif frequencies so I want to use dif types to quieten better...

If you're comparing these, remember: I'm referring to the original round 3" Bullets w/2.5" Bursch w/resonator welded in... The Bullet configuration was a lot louder than the stock muffler w/no cat &/or resonator at all...! And it's not just me... Friend's have mentioned it to no end...

I'd also like to point out, that you will not get any noticeable HP gains from this if you're mostly stock otherwise- I've argued this point b/c of my own car & several others- even w/simple chips, the only way to get a noticeable gain is to replace the whole cat w/test pipe & go all the way back w/3" from there... even then, it's not much unless your stock system was having probs &/or you're doing other mods, like larger turbos, etc... Even the dif b/t 2.5" & 3" in the test pipe seems to be minimal on our cars. Not knocking the idea, but, don't expect the same gains you'd get from chips in a turbo car... I was advised to replace the cat w/test pipe years ago by John Anderson- as were two other cars I'm personally familiar with- John compared the gains from the test pipe alone to being close to what chips would do... He did sell me a resonator to use as back muffler... this was ridiculous for a street car... The other two cars had chips & I had none... NONE of us noticed ANYTHING but more noise... But, when I changed out the muffler w/3" SFR, I did notice slightly better spool-up, etc... But, from what I understand, a larger exhaust is crucial when running 15+lbs boost w/larger turbos, especially KKK's....!

As for noise- Well, it depends on what you do from there... For starters, you can have another 3" muffler welded into the diagonal section- Tim can SURELY do this for a minimal price... I'd also recommend getting a resonated tip, but that's just me... Also, I've heard that coating the inside of the exhaust helps-Jet Hot or HPC coating or several other types... not too expensive either... I'll do that eventually, just to see.... Anyway, as for Tim- his work is excellent & he is honest... Can't ask for more than that- his prices aren't bad either, compared to what's out there, especially when you consider that the fitment is perfect the first time... But, I have noticed some brown marks on my SS catback as little as three months after installing... looks like rust, but isn't really getting through the metal... not sure why this is happening...? Otherwise, quality is excllent & it's been on my car for two years...

Kevin- I completely agree... I've never understood people wanting to be heard... The LAST thing I want is to be noticed for noise... Having to raise my voice to talk to a passenger or cranking up volume to hear a stereo... Not to mention, quiet, like a 540i or something, has seemingly effortless speed... as if it could go on forever... like the engine is under absolutely NO strain... put on a loud muffler & even a good 951 sounds like it's about to explode... Anyway, all one has to do is to ask Tim, if they're concerned about noise... he'll offer solutions...

Robby

jeff- the larger you go, the harder it is to keep quiet... it's a viscious cycle really... is that 4" the whole thing or just the tip??? Larger exhausts like 4", etc, never seemed to help our cars like they did for some of the Japanese turbos from the mid 90's... Haven't seen the Lindsey- might have to look at it- I'm sure it's nice too, but be careful on the noise thing... I really think anything above 3" is overkill until you're running MUCH larger turbos, higher boost, &/or larger displacement, but even then, I question how much you'll really gain above 3-3.5"... I think the best thing for street 951's is to open it up to 3" or 3.5" & run it all the way through, opening up all bottlenecks, & welding in as many mufflers &/or resonators as can possibly fit... Not only that, I mentioned above, that HPC & Jet Hot coating (there are several other similar treatments) are supposed to help muffle the sound a lot too, although their primary use is to flow more air more quickly & to dissipate more heat I think.... usually can get whole test pipes done for ~$50 I think... I'll look into this more the next time I buy new exhaust components... you can do it to headers & other parts as well- I know of one person whop did the headers & down pipe on a 951 & said it was amazing how much quieter it got, despite the increase in diameter...

Manning

Mine is 2.5" actually. Tim builds those for the NA cars. Mine may have been the first one he built for an NA actually. Being so early, fit is fair at best, and since he wasn't sure what the 3 bolt flange should look like (8v NA remember) he sent it to me without a flange at all and I had to supply one and have it welded on.

Who said I wasn't expecting higher dB? I am merely pointing out that this thing is MUCH louder than stock on my NA. And for the record I was running a Supertrapp prior to the SFR setup and it was a fair bit quieter.

Like I suggested earlier, a turbo offers additional sound damping. Mike1982 has what appears to be an SFR cat back on his 951 and it is no where near as loud as mine. BUT, I heard his car before and after and I will say it is a fair bit louder with the SFR than before.

jmporsche944

Thanks for the information Robby. Heres a link to the lindsey exhaust for your reference.
http://www.lindseyracing.com/Merchan...514STAINLESSCB

Robby

Manning- the only thing I can figure here is that maybe he's comparing the SFR exhausts (& maybe even the newer ones w/queiter mufflers than the round bullets) to stock cars that either have muffler probs, so are louder, or, even have some sort of leaks & are thereby much louder than they should be. I was AMAZED at how much queiter Ahmet's & his friend Nick's cars were than mine a few weeks ago- they had exhaust work done & were still MUCH quieter than mine... you're right that turbos help a little- I've read the original tests for these cars & they were ~2dB quieter than the NA's.. take the NA up to a 2.5" & the turbo up to a 3" & use different mufflers & consider that the cars are now ~20yrs old & you have all kinds of variables to consider I guess...

Robby

jeff- thanks for the link... that looks pretty nice, but I'm guessing it would be loud.. .i'm also wondering if it would really help at all above a 3"...? I'm not knocking it, merely asking a question as I have no idea... but, it would seem to me that you'd still be bottlenecked (if you can call it that) at 3"... would the fact that it gets larger AFTER that really help the exhaust move through it faster? where in it's run is the air the hottest? Wherever this is, would seem to benefit the most to me b/c the air would be at it's greatest expansion- if it's cooling, even slightly, as it moves toward the end, then the expansion would not help much, I would not think, but, would certainly think it would be harder to muffle... but I'm no engineer on this & could be completely wrong... either way, it looks like a nice piece & is not terribly expensive- have you looked at the Fabspeeds? I can find a link if you can't get to it by google search but they were shown on this list a few years ago- they have a video where they run a 951 w/it on the car & they have a tennis ball test where they run a ball throuhg it from one end to the other, etc... not that great, but, kind of interesting to see once. I just thought it was a little loud & raspy, but again, it's amazing what can be accomplished by adding one little resonator or extra muffler. I did exactly that Tony G advised in the diagonal section a few weeks ago- I put a 12" Borla XR1 oval (3" in / 3" out) in it- had to be tilted slightly to fit by the tranny. It really helped a lot- only cost me $125 from Summit Racing.... Welding was $30 at a local shop... Going to call Tim in the next few days to see what he's using for the rear muffler for people who want quiet cars now... He had an option right after I bought mine two years ago for $125 that he said was much quieter- it MIGHT be the Borla though... not sure...

Also wondering how the Magnaflow sounds after reading the Lindsey link- they said it was their quietest.... anyone know how they compare to Borla XR1's??? What about price???

Sorry my above posts were so long, but that's the condensed version of about all of my exhaust knowledge...