Dynomax VT Muffler Dyno Test! Does Quiet Mean Slow?
By Mike Kojima
Our web guy Frank is getting old. The Frank we used to know once built a 500 hp turbo SR20 engine himself and owned a daily driven 11 second Sentra. Now a few years later and Frank has turned into a uh, puss. Something about getting married and having a kid screws up one’s priorities.
We had been bolting stuff onto Frank’s Infiniti G35 sedan, including a really cool prototype exhaust system from Berk Technology. All this did was cause Frank to complain about how loud the car was. Did we even know this guy anymore? Anyways, to appease Frank who also happens to be the best web guy we know by far, we had to do something about the noise.
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| Domesticated Frank's family hauler. |
The prototype Berk exhaust was a 3” diameter system with a straight thru racing muffler and a small resonator. Unlike the Nissan 350Z, the G35 has a lot less space in the back to put a large muffler and it was hard getting the exhaust acceptably quiet for a typical sedan driver. What is acceptable for someone with a sportscar like a Z probably will be too loud for a sedan driver like family man Frank.
Frank was willing to trade off some power to get a really quiet exhaust note and we were challenged to find a high performance muffler that could quiet the car down enough to satisfy Frank’s age induced pickiness.
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| We really like Frank's car, but the family is not happy with its high performance tone. |
Frank's biggest issue was part throttle drone. Something about his daily drives over hilly terrain put his car in the drone throttle position for miles at a time. It was bad enough that he had taken to wearing earplugs on his daily commute. My suggestion that he simply turn up the radio didn’t go over very well with him either.
