alright ladies and gents
as per the title i am one of the few lucky owners in this planet of the evolve e-tronic exhaust. i have opted for the full exhaust manifold back which includes the evolve x pipe and the greatly anticipated e-tronic...
first of all i just wanted to say that im coming from the M performance exhaust (which will be for sale as soon as i take some pictures of it) which is regarded as one of the best sounding on the market.
so onto the aformentioned E-tronic..
if you guys have been in to the trader section on here for evolve. you will have seen the amount of R and D that has gone in to this exhaust.. I am truly in awe of how much work they have put into it and hopefully all exhaust companies put in the same amount.
The exhaust came in one massive square box and the x pipe a big rectangular box.. very well packaged. From the moment i payed, the exhaust was delivered to my door approx 16 hours later. ie the next morning to praise again to them
install was fairly straight forward to an extent. only slight problem was deciding where to wire the power for the recievers for the valves themselves. essentially it has been wired so as soon as my car is awake via pressing the unlock button on my fob the valves are active.
now the sound... valves closed its a bassy note in the lower rpm, which carries on through too higher rpm, though u can tell has been muffled, closest thing i can compare it too according to my ears is the eisenmann sport but louder... it has a very rich pure sound though. there is a slight drone at 70mph but its a very slight drone but i dont have to raise my voice to hold a conversation. The 2k rpm resonance is very noticable even with the valves closed but its easy to drive around that
valves open: now this is a completely different affair.. the car's rear end absolutely comes alive. its loud but not over the top. This car sounds absolutely amazing at any rpm. this lower rpm sounds big capacity american v8 and the higher rpm is just pure sex to my ears.. i dont think words justify how amazing it sounds at full throttle. My friend the other night said i sounded like a maserati whilst i was coming off a slip road towards the petrol station he was filling up at.. praise really doesnt get much higher than this IMHO when it comes to exhaust noises.. i could easily drive with it open all the time.
downside to open valves.. again at 2k rpm the resonance/boom is very noticable. apart from that nothing else really. i find the drone at 70mph not much louder than valves closed which is amazing considering the real difference in volume between the 2 settings..
sound wise im 10/10 happy on the move.. i do have to say though.. cold starts are embaressing.. its VERY loud no matter valves open or closed. infact i dont think there is any difference between the 2 on cold start up. that said, i have the evolve r cable and my cold start delete will sort that out.
on the plus side (this is not placebo) the car has definately gained some ponies/torque. verified by my ass and neck dyno hehe also my delivery driver agrees. the car has more mid range and the top end has gained alot.
all is not perfect though. i dont know if it was damaged in transport or whatever but my left backbox has a dint on the bottom of the can.. only visible from underneath and my far left exhaust pipe( pre installing tail pipe) was not round.. we had to use a mallet to tap it round. minor minor issues really but not something i was expecting from a 4.5k exhaust..
is it worth the money??? yes and no.. the sound is glorious and i truly mean amazing but at the end of the day its a piece of metal that channels gas out from our engines...should you get it over the akra? YES...forget the fact that the akra weighs less, are you really going to notice 15kgs on a 1600 kg car? no and if u truly felt that way then go on a diet heheh (kidding)
i do love this exaust and if you have the money to buy one then i would definately suggest it..
i would just like to say a big thanks to the team at Evolve for producing such an amazing product, in particular Sal and Riz, who have been in replied generally when ive had question regarding the exhaust.
i would also like to give a shoutout too DW motorwork in winlaton mill. if anyone is local then i would suggest going to him if you need a good indy. he was head tech at bmw stratstone for 10 years and watching him work, he knows his way around any BMW's very very well..
thanks all for reading. if ive made any spelling errors i apologise. BIG post
please find attatched some pictures of the exhaust and install and a very quick video of the exhaust in action.. i shall take some more when time allows..
-ho
and the short video
