Soul Performance

If you haven’t heard of us – hey there! We’re Soul Performance Products and we’re here to offer exhaust solutions at a fair price and back them with a Lifetime Warranty including track use. Customer service is important to us and we make it our mission to answer any questions you have so you feel comfortable with your exhaust selection and get you your components as quickly as possible. We believe in perfect fitment, keeping products in stock whenever possible for fast shipment, and helping the community in any way we can. Which brings us to this development post – we want to work with the Carrera community to build exhaust components that meet your expectations.

Here is what has been on our agenda for the 997 Carrera platform:

• Affordable replacement headers
• Bolt on tips
• Valved exhaust system with delta from OEM+ to CUP car inspired at the press of a button, default valve operation being “quiet” mode.
• Sportier side mufflers
• Catalytic converter replacement sections

Midwest Performance Cars sent us their Carrera S for development - they had to have SOUL!



Meet our Muffler

Following the extreme effectiveness of the mufflers used in our 987 / 981 exhausts to combat drone, we’ve applied the same design to a bespoke muffler for 997 Carrera. With valves closed during cruising there is no drone even with the factory cats removed. Damn good stuff.



We looked at what is currently out on the market and wanted to offer the ability to go from “Cruising Sunday to Track Day” at the press of a button. The design of our exhaust channels exhaust gases through our mufflers for a sophisticated and sporty sound that is unmistakably Porsche with valves closed, and this is the default operation setting. With valves open, you’re getting a CUP inspired straight pipe sound. We designed this system with the default orientation of the valves is in the closed setting when first starting - so when you fire up your car in the garage in the morning you won’t wake up the family.


Here you see us building our prototype valved exhaust. We build our fixtures out of thick gauge aluminum which is expensive – but aluminum acts as a great heatsink during welding to ensure we get perfect fitment.



Below you see casting templates that we use to verify fitment during the “kitting” process before welding the system together. We chose pink casting material as our supplier supports breast cancer awareness with this color option.



We’ve tested our system with factory catalytic converters and HJS HD 200 cell equipped replacement catalytic converter sections. We believe this is a great sound with the factory cats in place. Altering the cats can move the valves open loudness into race car territory with excessive volume and a hint of “angry trumpet” (imagine complete muffler bypass pipes) so we believe this to be a solution for the stock converter folk. We plan on offering a simpler non valved muffler solution as well which is more suitable for those looking for a bit more volume from their existing factory setup, or those who plan on wanting to upgrade / remove the catalytic converters for a freer flowing option without getting too aggressive.

Here we are testing the volume of our Headers, Valved Exhaust, and Sport Catalytic Converters - quite loud with valves open!

You Tube

You Tube

Catalytic Converters

You may already know of HJS catalytic converters – but if you don’t - they’re the best available. We’re using the HF design for our 997 offerings. They are known for their effectiveness at catalyzing given the amount of flow they offer. This is how we add more sound and power without triggering check engine lights - or worse - having catalyst material blowing out of the rear of the car under abuse! You probably know about the HD design which is seen more commonly in performance applications - here’s a few facts about the HD design:

• The HD design uses premium triple foil winding for maximum integrity
• The brazing stripe (indent around the outside of the catalytic converter) is an extra feature in the interest of durability – it prevents the core from moving or experiencing any damage from sustained high horsepower abuse
• They are directional for increased efficiency and effectiveness

For the 997 Carrera application the HF variant is perfectly suitable given that their downstream location is not subject to extreme exhaust gas pulses, they are perfectly capable of handling the power level, and the cost is significantly less which lets us offer you a quality product at greater value. Newer vehicles are also more sensitive when it comes to emissions necessitating the improved efficiency of the HD design. For these reasons we are using them as our replacement catalytic converter solution. We started testing with a non-x pipe split bank design as you see installed on the vehicle above.



Here’s what they sound like with the stock mufflers:

You Tube

We’ve done side by side sound comparisons with our design and an X-pipe in the design and found that adding an x-pipe lowers volume slightly and cuts down on deeper frequencies. Separating the banks adds more volume and more character - a deeper and fuller exhaust note. A hint of rasp presents itself but it’s not excessive.A catless setup has not been tested at this time. We’re evaluating the best way to cut down on rasp and excessive volume from eliminating catalytic converters through resonators or Helmholtz resonators.

Headers

Our Competition Headers are a straightforward install – perfect fit! The large diameter piping and smooth flow path will optimize exhaust flow coming out of the engine. The 997 Carrera does not have catalytic converters in the headers so this a mod that we consider icing on the cake.





Tips

Our initial exhaust tip offering for the 997 Carrera will be dual wall carbon fiber / stainless steel tips. We have our eye on polished chrome and custom built single wall tips as well.




As of now our development car is being picked up on Sunday and we look forward to another round of product optimization on a second car shortly. Your feedback and comments would be most appreciated to steer us in the direction that brings the products you want to the market. Thank you for reading!

-Mike S

Fined

Sweet. There needs to be more competition in this arena. Will be interested if there are options for 997.2 (especially for GTS).

Jeremy Hazeltine

rwdds

I was there today to experienced the first Soul Performance Valved Exhaust system in action. The YT clips above are a good approximation of the sound dynamics, (I was a passenger in the black cab) but don't really convey how impressive this sounded, first person.

The engineers designed it so that at startup, the valves are closed. This initial cold start rev was very much close to stock/OEM sounding to my ears. Normal revs with the valves closed was louder than stock, but not raspy. I did not get a sense of any unusual engine exhaust notes. This is precisely what I have been hoping for as I have next door neighbors (with a newborn) that I don't want to hate me. So far, the demo was very positive

Next, I was very surprised that they have designed the valved switching system directly wired to the onboard garage opener switch (the system comes with the standard remote fob as well). That in itself is worth the price of admission, as I don't want to hunt and peck at a separate fob while driving! Very cool.

When the valve is switched open, OMG! There was a noticable "smoothing" of the engine note during idle, with a subtle frequency shift into a lower band, that I liked. This seemed to be not so huge a change, as some valved systems employ. Inside the shop, which is gigantic, the sound was extremely loud when the throttle was blipped for revs.

We took the cab outside the facility for a check ride (I am a passenger in the 997 in couple of the video recorded passes) and I expected the cockpit sounds to be louder and harsh. They were not. With the valves closed it was very pleasant, maybe a little louder than stock, but very clean. With acceleration, the engine note got louder as it opened up, but again, it did not seem too far from an OEM muffler setup. When the valves opened at idle, it was a deeper note, but not dramatic change, which I have heard from other valved systems. I noticed no raspiness or drone at all.

At the first hint of throttle, the exhaust sound was completely different. Deep, low-band, beautiful notes. Wow! When we got on it for a few seconds, it was like being in cup sprinter. Really knocked my socks off. We took a few runs, opened it up a little and I could not wipe the smile from my face. I really like the "mild to wild" sound difference, the cockpit switching capability, excellent fit & finish and it's made by an American company. It just sounded better (to me) than the Porsche Sport Exhaust and I guarantee it will cost much less. Final pricing, I don't know.

I'm all in. The guys at Soul are going to fabricate their 2nd set of valved pipes for my C2S. The plan is to complete the installation in a couple of weeks. I intend to use a high-quality ZOOM stereo recorder to try to create a decent before/after clip for fellow Rennlisters. Stay tuned.

Mike5070

Is there any development on the 997.2? The 997.1 sounds nice but prefer the higher tone of the Soul 991 exhaust, also love the blip when shifting (PDK).

Soul Performance

Thank you for the interest everyone! We aim to strike a balance of price and quality - the value will be there for sure.

Bob, thank you for coming through and experiencing our offerings in person! We're looking forward to getting you all set with some SOUL ASAP!

997.2 Carrera is most certainly on our agenda. Our Bolt On Tips do fit the 997.2 as well. We have to start from scratch with the other exhaust components but we will be applying what we learn / offering what you like once we complete 997.1 development!

sober_owl

maybe it just me but ive always wanted a round single tip for the 997 ala gt2 style..

but exhaust looks very nice..

Soul Performance

Thank you! That would be a challenge to have it be a bolt on solution as the exhaust outlets terminate dead center, so it really only leaves us with the option of a straight on or slightly cocked exhaust tip angle - and there would be a lot of gap in the bumper outlets. To do a slanted GT2 style the pipes would have to take an extreme turn towards the end which would push the exhaust tip mounting point outside of the factory window.

Michaelc

Soul Performance

Glad to hear it! We're building some of the individual pieces at the moment to gear up for production. We'll be posting more soon!

GT3_ISH

Any plans on doing a bolt in X-pipe with or without cats?

Soul Performance

We're leaning more towards split bank replacement converter sections opposed to an x-pipe for the reason below as noted in our first post:

We’ve done side by side sound comparisons with our design and an X-pipe in the design and found that adding an x-pipe lowers volume slightly and cuts down on deeper frequencies. Separating the banks adds more volume and more character - a deeper and fuller exhaust note. A hint of rasp presents itself but it’s not excessive.

GT3_ISH

I find it super interesting that you're going the crossover route vs the Fabspeed guys swearing by the X-pipe design in terms of power and sound. Is it strictly from the sound perspective as you stated or have you dyno tested both designs?

interesting stuff!

Soul Performance

Several ears present during the side by side comparison decided that no matter what the power gains are - crossover pipes offer a more pleasing exhaust note. We'll have dyno results of our sport catalytic converters in short time from a third party. We saw Fabspeed's power claims but no dyno chart on site to verify the numbers so it will be hard to do a side by side comparison. It's often noted that our dyno numbers run lower than others but we do our dyno testing through thirty party dynos to show realistic, repeatable gains with no inflated numbers just real results - something we firmly believe in.

geeky

I would be interested in set of headers. Can you please pm me production timeline/public release and cost?