FatalElement's 2015 FR-S Project Thread

[TWMPerformance]

Looks excellent! That exhaust, wow!

Renato
Team TWM Performance

[fatalelement]

Originally Posted by TWMPerformance

Looks excellent! That exhaust, wow!

Renato
Team TWM Performance

Thanks! I was surprised with the price - it's under $600 shipped from Redline360. HKS is great quality but I am a student and a ~$1500 catback wasn't something that I was too excited about, haha. Butt dyno obviously, but my bottom end torque and downshifts certainly seem a bit stronger.

[fatalelement]

With the silencer that came in today, I would like to append my review. Easily best performance and sound for price single exit IMO. Sounds like a monster without the silencer, sounds like a reasonably restrained street monster with. Silencer gives average 7dB reduction, which is somewhere like 6-8 times quieter, but I'm out of engineering and in law school so I don't remember my logarithmic scale as well anymore. I now love this thing. Don't feel a difference with silencer. Top end still feels a bit better on WOT.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[akahenry]

Sound clips PLEASE--you promised!
I wished I read your review on the HKS Single Exit Catback a month earlier prior to my order of the Nameless Muffled Track Pipe! Quick question though, with the Silencer in the HKS Catback, how would you rate it's in cabin noise versus the Nameless Muffled Track Pipe with the stock mid pipe that you previously had? Would you say that the HKS Catback is still considerably louder--in cabin--than the Nameless Muffled Track Pipe? Also, how's the rasp from the HKS Catback?

Side question , where did you get your Engineering Degree from?

[fatalelement]

Originally Posted by akahenry

Sound clips PLEASE--you promised!
I wished I read your review on the HKS Single Exit Catback a month earlier prior to my order of the Nameless Muffled Track Pipe! Quick question though, with the Silencer in the HKS Catback, how would you rate it's in cabin noise versus the Nameless Muffled Track Pipe with the stock mid pipe that you previously had? Would you say that the HKS Catback is still considerably louder--in cabin--than the Nameless Muffled Track Pipe? Also, how's the rasp from the HKS Catback?

Side question , where did you get your Engineering Degree from?

Haha fair enough I guess I do owe clips. I'll try and remember this week. With the silencer, I'd say it's probably a bit louder but not much. The drone w/ silencer is almost 0, whereas the Nameless had some drone (but not much). Little rasp on the HKS, probably because it's such a big exhaust. The only downside of the silencer is if you let the engine bog, the frequency of the sound seems to rattle the silencer since its a loose enough fit to slide in without force. This gives it a weird rasp. This really only happens when you're seriously bogging, never during normal driving.

You'll like the Nameless though - for the price you really can't beat the sound, it's a big step up from stock.

University of Michigan was my undergrad, by the way.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[fatalelement]

Well despite misplacing my GoPro and not being able to offer much in the way of sound clips for the HKS yet (moved, need to dig it back out) I finally tired of having to choose between a slightly unfulfilling and more high-pitched noise with silencers in, and a nice throaty (at idle) but wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too loud and literally headache-inducing drone without silencers.

I ordered a Lachute Performance catback, which should ship today or tomorrow (unless Lachute is just sitting on my money, since they said they're ready to ship). I'll try and find the GoPro before then so I can offer some clips, but honestly, they have pretty good ones from inside and outside up on YouTube. Also, their prices are in CAD, so in USD the catback is sub-800. Supposedly fairly quiet (which is great since I want other exhaust mods, which would be impossible on the HKS).

I'll probably keep the HKS for the track, since it's very, very light compared to stock and the Lachute is fairly heavy. Off the track, though, as long as it's lighter than stock I don't care and even so, exhaust weight is such a non-issue on the street.

I'll post pictures and such when it comes.

[fatalelement]

Gonna put these back in the main post, but here's the pics of the Lachute Performance catback, with a review.

Lachute Performance is run by some slightly dismissive frenchmen (and women) in Quebec. Despite some really, really sparse communication, where I didn't know if they even got my money let alone shipped the exhaust (I paid them right before close on Tuesday for 2-day shipping) it showed up on Thursday morning. Go figure!




The exhaust is manufactured in-house, using mostly Magnaflow components (though these are modified by Lachute for different sound and extra deadening). They maintain it's one of the quietest out there, and I'm inclined to agree.

Install was fairly easy. No instructions included, but it has just a v-band clamp for the midpipe to axleback section and a new set of bolts and springs and donut gasket for the front pipe/midpipe connection. These are different than stock, due to the thickness of the flange on the midpipe being much larger than stock. Below are pics of the components after unpacking.





After yanking free my old HKS setup, I slapped this bad boy in pretty easy. No torque specs provided for the new FP/MP joint spring bolts, so I just kinda winged it until it seemed tight enough. I'll recheck it later. Same w/ the v-band. It took some jimmying to get this very exact joint to fit perfectly, and I didn't want to overtighten and potentially break the v-band clamp, but I got it finger tight and tightened it with a torque wrench until my grippy-gloved hand couldn't loosen it without the wrench and figured that was good enough.

Install was really fast. Very happy. Not a light exhaust, though, it's only a bit lighter than stock. Ignoring everyone's unrealistic boner for weight reduction, if you don't track, losing 10 vs 30 lbs on your exhaust is meaningless. You are not driving at peak performance, unless you're a dipshit on the street. Calm yourself.

Some weld/detail pics. I don't really care about weld quality if it looks OK. I know beautiful welds when I see the robotic ones, but this seems right about fine. Looks as clean as the HKS ones, but HKS coated over theirs so who knows.



A cool little 3d/cutout logo:



I might keep my HKS for track days, since it weighs almost nothing and is a straight-through muffler. On that topic, my exhaust tip for my HKS fell off when I lost a bolt and it started rattling a bit so I took the whole thing off for the trip home. Guess what happens when you have no exhaust tip?? Bumper melt. You'll see it in the below final pics. Glad I never have to deal with that again.

Here's a shot down the exhaust channel. Fitment is very tight, in a good way. Everything fits precisely together and the exhaust tips are centered and nothing contacts the frame anywhere.





A shot from the back. Note bumper melt, courtesy of HKS haha:








Final Thoughts

So, all in all, I'm fairly happy. I never wanted an exhaust as loud as the HKS, and I realized even with the silencer I was putting up with an inferior, silenced sound profile instead of suffering a drone-laden, horrifyingly loud, headache-inducing exhaust that really no one I know enjoyed (even car enthusiasts).

To HKS' credit, they told me on the phone that it's a race-only exhaust (not well-advertised, I'd say) and they put zero thought or testing into cabin noise because it's not something they care about for race applications. Fair enough. It's very free-flowing. But I want headers and OP/FP eventually, and I couldn't deal with it as-is so there's no way I could function if it were louder.

Lachute Performance offers a custom-built exhaust with modified Magnaflow components that is very quiet (on idle it's barely noticeable), but comes alive with a deep tone when you step on it. Lachute emailed me the following links (in-cabin and exterior) which I feel are very representative of the real sound:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS4ySez4AJo"]LACHUTE PERFORMANCE - BRZ/FR-S/GT86 Catback - - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7c0GgNBVY0"]Lachute Performance (INBOARD) BRZ/FR-S/GT86 Catback - YouTube[/ame] (cabin)

The shipping was fast, despite poor communication, so I'm very happy. Well-packaged, with all the necessary hardware. Novices may appreciate some instructions, and torque specs are unclear since none of the hardware that attaches the exhaust is stock, which worries me .01%. I'll ding .25 stars in my head for that, I guess.

The sound is very restrained until you step on it, and at that point it's a much more boxer-rumble WRX-type noise than a vacuum-cleaner honda noise which I much appreciate.

Tips are basically the same as stock, but these fit perfectly (which is surprising since they aren't adjustable and the system has almost zero tolerance for shifting so it's amazing to me that it's literally almost perfectly equidistant on both sides (I measured). No crappy-looking "tube-within-a-tube" on the tips like some cars, where the tips are just barely past the interior pipe. These open up well before the tip, so it's hard to see the slightly smaller piping unless you look from a level viewpoint.

I paid under $800 for this system, which is worth noting since their site says about $1000 CAD, which us Americans might not realize at first. 2-day shipping was $200 CAD, but I'm impatient so I went with it. All in all, under $1000 USD for a very pleasing exhaust.

They have dyno results in other threads, this does give some HP, so it's definitely still a good deal. If you want some free flow and are planning to do headers and OP/FP (especially catless) and want a starting point that isn't stock but isn't a hellscreaming nightmare, give this a shot. You can have it on your doorstep in under 48 hours for under $1000.

[olsonpg]

Originally Posted by fatalelement

Lachute Performance is run by some slightly dismissive frenchmen (and women) in Quebec. Despite some really, really sparse communication, where I didn't know if they even got my money let alone shipped the exhaust

Thats the french for ya!

Awesome pics and write up thank you so much.

You say they offer customized exhaust - Are you saying that in general terms as they customized magnaflow parts or are we allowed to offer custom suggestions - - like TI tips lol

Thanks again

[fatalelement]

Originally Posted by olsonpg

Thats the french for ya!

Awesome pics and write up thank you so much.

You say they offer customized exhaust - Are you saying that in general terms as they customized magnaflow parts or are we allowed to offer custom suggestions - - like TI tips lol

Thanks again

I knew that was probably vague phrasing - I mean they don't have some mass-manufactured exhaust, they're handmade and according to lachute at least the mufflers are modified in-house so it's at least a fairly unique system. Also, the revision history suggests they are conscious of their reviews and feedback so that's always good in my eyes.

[fatalelement]

Winjets! And as posted in another thread, my car was used in a music video my friend directed and shot for a few artists in the LA river, so I got to drift and do donuts all day

[Aztec]

Originally Posted by fatalelement

Winjets! And as posted in another thread, my car was used in a music video my friend directed and shot for a few artists in the LA river, so I got to drift and do donuts all day

Links when music video is done