New Custom Exhaust Z4M

[S55TAK]

Just thought I'd share my recent addition to my Z4M Roadster, I had an appointment with Long Life Exhausts (Style Dynamics) in Hayes today. I was quoted £325 for removal of my OEM back boxes to custom build straight pipes instead, since having my Zed for 6 weeks I felt the stock system was quiet. I went ahead with the build and had it fitted earlier today. First impressions it's LOUD but this is kinda what I was going for, I must say the popping and crackling on the overrun is awesome, just thought I'd add a video of a drive by of my car after having it fitted to show everyone in case anyone else was considering a straight through system, will try and get better videos over the next few days, any tips on best methods would be much appreciated  

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z7GdCXhbiIo

 

[sammyz]

Longlife in Leeds fitted my system, that was 5 years ago now I deleted the centre resonator as well. It's lasted well so far!

My only criticism of aftermarket systems is that you loose some of the metallic rasp from the OEM sound. It's quite unique to the S54 engine.

 

[ga41]

[youtube]z7GdCXhbiIo[/youtube]

Sounds raspier than the RPI's but not bad at all. Now go find a tunnel and blast a few times through it in Sport mode with several down-shifts in between. Trust me.. :lol:

And get a better camera and/or camera crew for next time!

 

[S55TAK]

Haha unfortunately there aren't any decent tunnels that are near me, I did manage to get a couple better videos earlier today which i will add links to in this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHE760C4qw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1dxYImONNI

 

[ga41]

I bet you were shocked the first time you heard it after the fit weren't you? I was a bit "What the hell did you do...?" But it grew on me day by day.

 

[tomscott]

Sounds great but what's the drone like?

 

[S55TAK]

Yep had the shock of my life when it was started after getting it fitted, was thinking to myself the same thing "what have I done!" as when it is started from cold it's really loud for a couple minutes till it warms up a bit.

Drone is something that is quite loud pretty much all of the time which i was expecting, in my opinion it's all worth it to hear the popping and crackling when changing gear and decelerating and the fact that I don't do much motorway mileage is an added bonus.

 

[Ian58]

Love it !

 

[ranski]

The drone will eventually drain the life out of you and the enjoyment of the car...

 

[ga41]

ranski, depends on your tolerance. I've had my RPI's for about 2 years now and it's my daily driver. You get used to it.

 

[ben g]

that has a proper old skool supercar noise about it 8) not something i could personally live with every day, but as a weekend car i'm sure it's very very fun!

 

[S55TAK]

ga41 has it spot on, it entirely depends on you as a driver as to whether the sound will become too much to live with as an everyday car, for me personally I actually look forward to getting into my car and going for a drive, the sound is very addictive, especially at high RPM

 

[JuniorJet]

I've come to notice the drone of the standard exhaust is more than enough for me... Couldn't deal with more, although the extra parp-age would be cool.

Though no doubt my insurance would love to hear about it...

 

[mmm-five]

One of my worries when I fitted the Diablos was not the having to live with it, but the 'attention' it would get from the local constabulary.

Luckily it's quieter than my straight through exhaust (no cat, and both silencers removed) that I had on my 3.6 M5. That was so loud that I replaced it with a standard system after 3 months, as I was having to coast past cars around town to avoid setting the alarms off.

The Diablo's are significantly quieter than those, but nicely louder than OEM - and will pass noise testing at all UK circuits.

 

[mad4slalom]

glad you are happy with the results, personally i think you have chavved up something that bmw spent thousands of r and d dollar getting right, to then go to some exhaust shop who I am pretty sure sell systems on the noise factor and that alone, I think you will draw attention to yourself for all the wrong reasons, police, boy racers etc. plus lowering the tone of a quality car, look at how older scoobys have become council estate drug dealer cars . sounds harsh maybe and each to their own but not an improvement imo :thumbsdown:

 

[exdos]

There's one factor that I should think most people never actually consider about the OEM silencers, and that's their aerodynamics. The underside of the silencers in a fore/aft direction are rounded, where the centre part of the silencer is closer to the road than the front and rear. As such, the air flowing under them will demonstrate the Coanda effect, where the flow of air speeds up beneath the silencers causing negative pressure between the silencers and the road, thus countering any tendency to lift and this will work in conjunction with the centre rear diffuser section which occupies the space between the silencers. This really is a very clever design!

A simple example of the Coanda effect is: hold a spoon by the tip of the handle and let it dangle and then move the spoon towards the stream of water from a tap, so that the back of the bowl of the spoon just touches the water. Notice how the flow of water pulls the spoon into the water flow, as will air passing under the silencers pull them towards the road surface. If you ditch the OEM silencers then you'll be losing the aerodynamics too.

 

[ben g]

does it matter? we're not all racing drivers, hugging the apex at the speed of light.

 

[gallaghb]

does it matter? we're not all racing drivers, hugging the apex at the speed of light.

Probably not but some would argue for keeping it how it was designed, which it seems they did for a very good reason!

 

[exdos]

does it matter? we're not all racing drivers, hugging the apex at the speed of light.

It all depends on why you bought a Z4M. Personally, I can't see the point of having such a car if you're going to castrate the performance.

 

[S55TAK]

Clearly this is a topic where everyone will have different opinions on, for me personally my car will probably never see a track, I can appreciate BMW spend an endless amount of money on R&D compared to Aftermarket companies, however as this car is currently being used as my second car mainly for weekends I am very happy with the results, obviously not everyone will agree.

With regards to attracting unwanted attention, yes if you drive like a nutter through town centres or sit in car parks revving your engine then admittedly this will get you noticed, but surely this would be the same in any other car.