RR on Mugen
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,660
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From: Midlothian
I finally got my Mugen catback. I just finished the intall. The old exhaust is a huge huge, honkin hunk of iron - good riddance!
The Mugen fit perfectly, and construction details were, well, Japanese, as in superbly high. No trouble at all fitting it, with those little bolts and nuts compared to the big ol' SVT Cobra's header back system - nice and light little sucker. The tips have beautiful welds, with rainbow highlights, but not as garish as the Amuse. The small welds that attach the tip to the muffler canisters look like Japanese sport bike quality - beautiful. Even the material surrounding the pipe tube in the canisters is high quality - it appears to be brass. The back end of the canisters have perfect little rivets. Quality is A++++.
I was surprised how resonant the exhaust note is - it sounds deep and mellow, rather like the SuperSprint to me, and not as quiet as others had stated. Maybe the 2.2L has a distinct sound? The tips were big, and filled in the spot where the oval tips were before quite nicely. I measured the angle cut tips at about 110 mm diameter. The right was a tad lower than the left, but after 5 minutes of staring and thinking, I put some heat on the hanger and a pry bar and moved it a scrunch, and boom, it dialed in nicely.
Wanted to get out of traffic, so i headed up Old Gun Road - now doesn't that sound like a fun road? It is, but it is affluent Richmond gentry-ville, so I took it a bit easy, going for 2nd gear VTECS, and the sound was very reminiscent of my beloved NSX-T. A bit of drone when I was on the throttle, but quieter in cruise mode. With top up, quieter still, although for a long drive I would wear ear insert plugs, since I need to keep my ears sensitive to audio loudspeaker testing.
Some kid in a 240SX who had no forced induction but had an intake and a farty exhaust sewer main tailpipe, said he liked the look of my car, the sound, but then he said he just "blew off a Z06" and I just nodded my approval (to hide my incredulity) and said "C ya".
Beautiful day, highs in the 60's, clear as crystal, perfect top down weather, so i head out into Powhatan Country, where I am pursued by a 911 Vert - he could not keep up with me - poser. I would trail brake and he almost hit me once, so I just clipped them apexes and at one point he got loose and must have wet his pants, because he slowed way down. Cruising through Appomatox, the local gendarme eyed me, more for sound than speed, since the V1 had long since alerted me of surveillance tracking. I pulled into a store lot to get a cool drink, and he slugs his Crown Vic over to say "Howdy do" - he was actually a nice guy, was very interested in the car and the red and black interior, and if he saw the covered V1 master on the dash under the black cloth, he did not care at all. He did ask about my "stealth" tag, and I just said my 4-year old made it up, and he seemed happy with that one. As I fired up the little Honda that could, he touched the brim of his hat, and said in a low, cop voice "Watch out for the Staties - they like to monitor this strip up a few miles". He wasn't kidding - the V1 practically threw up over itself a few minutes later, and I was muted for 5 miles as a Blue and Gray trailed me just out of eye view waiting to pounce on me, but eye view and electronic eyesight are, fortunately, quite different. Thanks, Mike Valentine.
OK, back to the exhaust. When i got home and let it sit at idle, I could smell the usual new exhaust smell, a combination of human hand oils and assembly compounds, burning off in a rancid cloud, like a bad cheese. I have a fan in front of my garage, to cool the car down after a run, andf after 5 minutes, i put on some gloves and wiped the exposed parts of the pipes and the muffler cans with mineral spirits, since they would leave spots after a while.
All in all, it was pricey, but worth it to me. It now sounds like a proper sports car, without being irritating to me, others, or John Law. I hope Honda will pass it for inspection - I'll prbably go to the Acura dealer where I got the NSX worked on, as they know me and perhaps figure I am a candidate for another one next year. (Not to mention the 4 TL's and the RSX for my nephew).
The Mugen fit perfectly, and construction details were, well, Japanese, as in superbly high. No trouble at all fitting it, with those little bolts and nuts compared to the big ol' SVT Cobra's header back system - nice and light little sucker. The tips have beautiful welds, with rainbow highlights, but not as garish as the Amuse. The small welds that attach the tip to the muffler canisters look like Japanese sport bike quality - beautiful. Even the material surrounding the pipe tube in the canisters is high quality - it appears to be brass. The back end of the canisters have perfect little rivets. Quality is A++++.
I was surprised how resonant the exhaust note is - it sounds deep and mellow, rather like the SuperSprint to me, and not as quiet as others had stated. Maybe the 2.2L has a distinct sound? The tips were big, and filled in the spot where the oval tips were before quite nicely. I measured the angle cut tips at about 110 mm diameter. The right was a tad lower than the left, but after 5 minutes of staring and thinking, I put some heat on the hanger and a pry bar and moved it a scrunch, and boom, it dialed in nicely.
Wanted to get out of traffic, so i headed up Old Gun Road - now doesn't that sound like a fun road? It is, but it is affluent Richmond gentry-ville, so I took it a bit easy, going for 2nd gear VTECS, and the sound was very reminiscent of my beloved NSX-T. A bit of drone when I was on the throttle, but quieter in cruise mode. With top up, quieter still, although for a long drive I would wear ear insert plugs, since I need to keep my ears sensitive to audio loudspeaker testing.
Some kid in a 240SX who had no forced induction but had an intake and a farty exhaust sewer main tailpipe, said he liked the look of my car, the sound, but then he said he just "blew off a Z06" and I just nodded my approval (to hide my incredulity) and said "C ya".
Beautiful day, highs in the 60's, clear as crystal, perfect top down weather, so i head out into Powhatan Country, where I am pursued by a 911 Vert - he could not keep up with me - poser. I would trail brake and he almost hit me once, so I just clipped them apexes and at one point he got loose and must have wet his pants, because he slowed way down. Cruising through Appomatox, the local gendarme eyed me, more for sound than speed, since the V1 had long since alerted me of surveillance tracking. I pulled into a store lot to get a cool drink, and he slugs his Crown Vic over to say "Howdy do" - he was actually a nice guy, was very interested in the car and the red and black interior, and if he saw the covered V1 master on the dash under the black cloth, he did not care at all. He did ask about my "stealth" tag, and I just said my 4-year old made it up, and he seemed happy with that one. As I fired up the little Honda that could, he touched the brim of his hat, and said in a low, cop voice "Watch out for the Staties - they like to monitor this strip up a few miles". He wasn't kidding - the V1 practically threw up over itself a few minutes later, and I was muted for 5 miles as a Blue and Gray trailed me just out of eye view waiting to pounce on me, but eye view and electronic eyesight are, fortunately, quite different. Thanks, Mike Valentine.
OK, back to the exhaust. When i got home and let it sit at idle, I could smell the usual new exhaust smell, a combination of human hand oils and assembly compounds, burning off in a rancid cloud, like a bad cheese. I have a fan in front of my garage, to cool the car down after a run, andf after 5 minutes, i put on some gloves and wiped the exposed parts of the pipes and the muffler cans with mineral spirits, since they would leave spots after a while.
All in all, it was pricey, but worth it to me. It now sounds like a proper sports car, without being irritating to me, others, or John Law. I hope Honda will pass it for inspection - I'll prbably go to the Acura dealer where I got the NSX worked on, as they know me and perhaps figure I am a candidate for another one next year. (Not to mention the 4 TL's and the RSX for my nephew).
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,660
Likes: 2
From: Midlothian
Originally posted by AP1_rock
good write-up!
any noticable gains? how's VTEC sound?
good write-up!
any noticable gains? how's VTEC sound?
Didn't that tell you something about the sound?
It seemed to pull a bit harder in VTEC, but that could be placebo effect. But I do not recall as tenacious a lunge towards 8200 before.
sebrings2k/JL9000: I was just kidding - I am not that thin-skinned, but words are soemthign i do well, but a picture is worth a 1000 words....I need to get a digicam and connect it to this high dollar, super speed, supersized Dell Dimension I bought for cryin out loud!
