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Ordinarily at this point you would already be done and enjoying the extra power, but we decided to go a step further and have Kooks install some V-band clamps to both the test pipes and the original cats so we could swap them back and forth in the future. Why not when you’re at one of the best exhaust shops in the country?
All of the welders at Kooks Custom Headers’ are artists, TIG welding the V-bands on with beautiful beads.
Impressive work that reflects all of Kooks’ products.
Once the welding was done, the mid-pipes were re-installed. Keep in mind that you will get a Check Engine Light if you don’t have a CEL suppressor or software like our ESS Tune which prevents the TPs from throwing a CEL.
We also dropped the exhaust to clean it up a bit and replace our dinky stock exhaust tips with a set of more aggressive EAS 80mm Exhaust Tips.
Since the bulbous OEM muffler hangs down really low and visually takes away from the exhaust tips, we painted the stock can with flat black engine enamel.In stock form, the E9X M3’s exhaust note is extremely quiet both inside and outside the cabin and unfortunately does not have the growl of a Mercedes C63 or an Audi RS4. The intake noise from the 8 throttle bodies is actually the prominent sound within the car. The Macht Schnell “Bypass Track Pipes” should not only give us a good increase in power, but should make the car sound a little sportier as well.
Our stock mufflers and exhaust tips look like wimpy little cannons that should be in the wing of a WW-II fighter plane, not on the back of our sports sedan. Instead of dropping huge coin on an aftermarket muffler to improve the looks of the rear at the risk of making the car way too loud, we decided to install a set of EAS’ 80mm exhaust tips to improve the looks of our factory muffler.
