I just bought a Racing Beat cat-back for a P5 and wanted to share my experience with it. A little background on the exhaust: Its a three piece (resonator, S-pipe and muffler/tip) system made of 304 stainless steel using 60mm (2.375 inch) tubing, and runs from the second cat, back. I got mine from Sean at Auto R&D (408-947-0505) for $420 plus shipping.
Everything was well packaged and undamaged at delivery, and my first thought was: this is a serious exhaust system. Theres nothing flimsy about any of the parts. The hardwares heavy duty and built to last - flanges, piping, all of it. I was especially pleased with the appearance of the polished muffler/tip rear section. This looks much better in person than what Id seen in photographs.
And for those proctological types:
Installation took me about an hour. I probably have an advantage here in that Ive had my rear section off so many times it takes me about as long as a pit crew to change this out. I bolted the S-pipe to the resonator before I put it on the car because this seemed the easiest way to handle and mount the parts. There werent any instructions included, so I made a quick call to Sean for some direction with tightening the nuts and bolts. His advice: Run the nuts up finger tight and then take them another half-turn everything will tighten-up the first time it gets hot. I was good to go.
The weather sucks here today intermittent rain but I managed to get everything wrapped-up and was ready for my trail run. Ive got a 5-mile route that has a good range of driving conditions varying from 15 MPH residential, to 75 MPH+ interstate. The idle was nice a deep throb directly behind the car, but close to stock on the inside. (Its the sort of idle thatll make people look around at a stoplight to see whos driving the car with something obviously significant under the hood.)
On the road and interstate it sounded just a notch above stock the slightest bit of tone cruising at 75 MPH, but nothing annoying or intrusive. By this time I was most of the way through my course and starting to think the exhaust was too far in the quiet direction. Wrong. The last leg of the route has some stop and go driving, and here is where the grinning began.
Stand on the throttle, let the RPM build, and soon youre rewarded with an authoritative growl (sweet music to a wulfs ear) that lets everyone know youre driving something with more than just good looks. The tones as sincere as the hardware it comes form. (Id offer a sound clip, but dont have the means to record it.)
And there you have it my first impression of the Racing Beat system. Sorry to be so long winded. And as long as Im apologizing: if youre thinking of getting a Racing Beat exhaust for a P5, I got the last one and caused a national backorder. However, sedan owners are in luck; theres still some in stock.
NOTE: This is only my first day with the new exhaust - time will tell about noise levels. Some people may find this system too loud, however, after my MazdaSpeed experience anything's an improvement.
Cheers
BBW, owner and operator of the infamous Wulfswagon
(drinks)
Everything was well packaged and undamaged at delivery, and my first thought was: this is a serious exhaust system. Theres nothing flimsy about any of the parts. The hardwares heavy duty and built to last - flanges, piping, all of it. I was especially pleased with the appearance of the polished muffler/tip rear section. This looks much better in person than what Id seen in photographs.
And for those proctological types:
Installation took me about an hour. I probably have an advantage here in that Ive had my rear section off so many times it takes me about as long as a pit crew to change this out. I bolted the S-pipe to the resonator before I put it on the car because this seemed the easiest way to handle and mount the parts. There werent any instructions included, so I made a quick call to Sean for some direction with tightening the nuts and bolts. His advice: Run the nuts up finger tight and then take them another half-turn everything will tighten-up the first time it gets hot. I was good to go.
The weather sucks here today intermittent rain but I managed to get everything wrapped-up and was ready for my trail run. Ive got a 5-mile route that has a good range of driving conditions varying from 15 MPH residential, to 75 MPH+ interstate. The idle was nice a deep throb directly behind the car, but close to stock on the inside. (Its the sort of idle thatll make people look around at a stoplight to see whos driving the car with something obviously significant under the hood.)
On the road and interstate it sounded just a notch above stock the slightest bit of tone cruising at 75 MPH, but nothing annoying or intrusive. By this time I was most of the way through my course and starting to think the exhaust was too far in the quiet direction. Wrong. The last leg of the route has some stop and go driving, and here is where the grinning began.
Stand on the throttle, let the RPM build, and soon youre rewarded with an authoritative growl (sweet music to a wulfs ear) that lets everyone know youre driving something with more than just good looks. The tones as sincere as the hardware it comes form. (Id offer a sound clip, but dont have the means to record it.)
And there you have it my first impression of the Racing Beat system. Sorry to be so long winded. And as long as Im apologizing: if youre thinking of getting a Racing Beat exhaust for a P5, I got the last one and caused a national backorder. However, sedan owners are in luck; theres still some in stock.
NOTE: This is only my first day with the new exhaust - time will tell about noise levels. Some people may find this system too loud, however, after my MazdaSpeed experience anything's an improvement.
Cheers
BBW, owner and operator of the infamous Wulfswagon
(drinks)
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