Thanks guys. Yes I think that is the least amount we'd want to make them for. Its a solid 5-6 days of Sam's time, then I have to get orders together, coordinate everything, order parts, pack and ship them out, etc. Its a lot of work. I just don't see how you could make these for less, even if you were to tool up somehow. Remember that Sam can make a piece of art in a week and sell it for 5x this amount. The obvious benefit here is that he can make several at a time and have guaranteed buyers at the end. He is also engaged in the project and likes how so many people are interested in it. He was pretty surprised how many people were into the idea when I showed him this thread.
So, as far as I know there are two
competitor exhausts, the KKS and Kreissieg. I think the KKS is around $4K and the Kreissieg, 6K?! Last time I checked, both were about a 2 month wait.
I'd like to get into a little history here for those that don't know. I never went into this project thinking that it would be a new sales opportunity. Initially, I was just a guy with a new M3 looking to buy an exhaust. I felt that although the intake noise was to die for, I could barely hear the exhaust and after coming out of a rambunctious C5Z06, I really missed the sound. The M3, for me, was missing something - too refined, too "old man." I previously got hooked on the concept of valve-based exhaust after almost buying a 911s with a factory valve exhaust system installed. What a great concept - to be able to have a nice quiet car for phone calls or long trips, but then when you want to have some fun and be a little obnoxious, you can just hit a button and all hell breaks loose!
When I started to look at the only two options for the M3, I got serious sticker shock and decided to investigate other solutions. I found JML's thread where he paralleled the cutouts to a "ferrari sound" and that peaked my interest
http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...=valve+exhaust. But I researched further, and found that all of the cutout-based exhausts drone (all of these were pre-muffler), and this was unacceptable to me, I didn't want any compromises like that.
So I started looking at what causes drone, and why stock exhausts don't drone, and read up on the Helmholtz chamber inside - a very interesting concept. I talked to several engineer friends and researched for many weeks online. I drew up some plans (see page 1), and obtained a sacrificial exhaust to play with off of this forum (Thanks Boosted!). Three months later, I have what I think is the best sounding exhausts I've ever heard. I dont mean to be cocky, but you just have to hear this thing in person to understand, and anyone in the NY area is welcome to stop by for a listen. I put a lot of effort into the recordings so I could share, but I just cant capture the right sounds. I may just take some straight WAV or high quality MP3 recordings to bypass the possibility that its my camera thats ruining the sound.
Ok, so there you have it. Thanks for following my little project here and all the positive comments. Its wicked fun to come in each day and see what people write.
