My thoughts on the CSG Competition Exhaust System by MXP

[FunnyGopher]

A couple friends and I installed this catback from CounterSpace Garage a few days ago, and I love it. My car, to my surprise, had a MagnaFlow catback on it, with all other exhaust piping being OEM. I sadly can't compare the sound to a stock catback, because I've never driven my car with a stock catback. All comparisons will be made against the MagnaFlow.

Installation
Installation was pretty smooth. Mileage may vary, but the previous owner who installed the MagnaFlow did a good job, and made my job of removing it easier.

All the piping on the CSG x MXP pieces are slip joints with clamps, except for the flanged piece that mates to the OEM front pipe. This made it easy to connect everything under the car. Even the OEM donut gasket on the front pipe worked. We ended up hanging the piping between the muffler and the resonator first, then slipping the resonated pipe over it, and then slipping the muffler piping last. Tightening the clamps was painless. To make our lives under the car easier, we loosened the clamps and rotated them around the pipe so that we could access the clamp nuts from the bottom side of the pipe before moving everything under the vehicle.

The exhaust tips are massive! Very big. Being adjustable, I was able to rotate them around, and move them in and out of the exhaust holes in the bumper to make them look the way I wanted them to. They were very easy to adjust, because they used the same clamps the rest of the piping used. We did the whole job with a 12mm and 14mm socket and socket wrench.

Install probably took an hour? And that was with us joking around, moving the pipes from place to place, etc.

Sound
I honestly couldn't tell a difference in sound when I fired it up after the install. The muffler design between the CSG and MagnaFlow are pretty similar. After driving it for a while though, I could suddenly hear the difference in everything. It's so much deeper sounding, and the tones are more bass-like. It sounds... fuller? Very refined. It's very smooth. I personally enjoy the sounds it produces on deceleration, right around 3500 RPM. It doesn't crackle and pop like the other MXP exhausts, and doesn't make the car sound like it has a UEL header. It's not loud, by any means. There's no high pitched rattling of any kind. Definitely not a screamer. Because of the deeper tones, I'd say the sound is even more subtle than the MagnaFlow was, and that was easily drowned out by some other catbacks.

Conclusion
I'd highly recommend this catback. It's so clean sounding. Not over doing it, but still noticeable. It's a little pricey, but that's easily justified by the quality of the pieces and the refined sound it produces.

[sfdai0]

Im honestly surprised you didnt know you had a aftermarket exhaust on already? Wouldnt the tips give it away, let alone the sound?

[FunnyGopher]

Originally Posted by sfdai0

Im honestly surprised you didnt know you had a aftermarket exhaust on already? Wouldnt the tips give it away, let alone the sound?

Funny thing is, it had the OEM tips on it! Everyone in the local 86 club I'm in have already swapped out their catbacks, so I haven't ever really driven around in one that had an OEM one still in it. Mine was the quietest out of all of them, so I just figured mine was stock. The MagnaFlow even used the same muffler design as the OEM one, so any glimpse of the muffler design wouldn't be questioned. Now that I'm thinking back on it, it might have only been the muffler that was swapped... I'll have to go check it again. It's tucked away in my garage now. I'll have to find pictures of an OEM catback and compare pieces.

It's hard to know what's normal when you've never experienced normal.