Review: CNT Racing Exhaust

[Antonio1988]

Originally Posted by happos2

The tip size has me curious... I want to hear this versus the Megan as well.

Very different tone than the megan. The megan to me had a more exotic sound to it, this has a more muscular sound

[happos2]

Originally Posted by Antonio1988

Very different tone than the megan. The megan to me had a more exotic sound to it, this has a more muscular sound

Gotcha. Thanks!

[scutts]

Brief Cold Start..

Revving a bit

Overall, I'm very pleased with the exhaust. I thought it was way too loud in the beginning, but now feel that it's a perfect level of loudness (after about 3 weeks) - I actually wish it was bit louder in the higher RPM range.

This is only the axleback with stock x-pipe. There is drone from 2k-2.5k like other people have mentioned. Cold start is very loud and may be disruptive to your neighbors in the morning. Thankfully mine seem like they are fine with the cold start. Idle is very quite and livable and the highway cruising, I don't notice too much difference from stock (this is great). As the RPM goes up, you do get your engine sound to overtake the exhaust which I'm fine with, but would like it to be bit punchier. Lower RPM rumble is awesome and I thought my catless STi sounded good, haha.

The fit is great. The right side was hanging bit lower but loosening the bolt and adjusting it fixed it.

This is a wonderful exhaust and I highly recommend it

EDIT:: Link was wrong for the first video. Now fixed.

[Antonio1988]

Originally Posted by scutts

Brief Cold Start..

Revving a bit

Overall, I'm very pleased with the exhaust. I thought it was way too loud in the beginning, but now feel that it's a perfect level of loudness (after about 3 weeks) - I actually wish it was bit louder in the higher RPM range.

This is only the axleback with stock x-pipe. There is drone from 2k-2.5k like other people have mentioned. Cold start is very loud and may be disruptive to your neighbors in the morning. Thankfully mine seem like they are fine with the cold start. Idle is very quite and livable and the highway cruising, I don't notice too much difference from stock (this is great). As the RPM goes up, you do get your engine sound to overtake the exhaust which I'm fine with, but would like it to be bit punchier. Lower RPM rumble is awesome and I thought my catless STi sounded good, haha.

The fit is great. The right side was hanging bit lower but loosening the bolt and adjusting it fixed it.

This is a wonderful exhaust and I highly recommend it

My thread... you bought the exhaust after I did, put it on after I did, and still managed to upload vids before I did.

I'm a failure! lol

Thanks for putting these up buddy!

[scutts]

Originally Posted by Antonio1988

My thread... you bought the exhaust after I did, put it on after I did, and still managed to upload vids before I did.

I'm a failure! lol

Thanks for putting these up buddy!

Haha no problem man. Great exhaust that's cheap!

[sylonien]

Originally Posted by Antonio1988

Exhaust does drone a bit in the typical 2000ish range

That's the DCT favourite RPM zone.

[Infuzion]

Just got it installed! It sounds AMAZING! That's all I can truly say. It's a very muscley-sound, but not in a bad way. Bringing it past 5000/5500 RPM and the car brings out this epic tone that sounds super exotic. Nothing else around sounds like it.

Yes it drone at ~2000 RPM. Makes for every launch sounding epic . Aside from that, the tips look astounding. They're 0.5 inches bigger on every tip, which doesn't sound like much but it fills the M3 out nicely without looking like a ridiculous ricer.

I don't have all the pics, but I have the pics of the packaging that it came in. I'll have the shop send me the pics they took, and hopefully I'll be getting around to making a video of it real quick.











The quality of the welds is pretty stunning, considering this thing runs ~$500. Very professional, CNT Racing! I paid for 3-day shipping (CA -> CT) and it arrived in 2 days, so props to them for being prompt about sending it out! It came with all the hardware and was extremely easy to do. Took ~1 hour from start to finish.

Awkward thing I did: The driver's side DOES hang ~0.5 inch lower than the passenger side. We used all the OEM hangers and everything. Our solution? Grab the outer exhaust tips and physically move them rotating clockwise. The centerpiece thing that runs between the mufflers gave a slight bit of flex, without too much metal distortion. It isn't even noticeable, it's only on the bottom-right nut area on that metal piece. Nothing was structurally damaged and it saved me a trip to go to an exhaust shop and having them want to weld everything! They're perfectly even now, and it's amazing!

Shoutout to Mike from TopSpeedLabs (local company near me) for knocking this out quickly and letting me be there to watch/assist! Thanks man!!

Overall: I would give it a 10/10. It sounds amazing, it looks amazing, and it's CHEAP compared to all of the other companies. The quality is comparable to that of RPi and other larger companies. They definitely didn't slack here!

I bought it directly from the CNTRacing.com website, and if you search around there's a 5% off coupon .

Hope this helps anyone with their decision on it, and I'm always open to questions! Will upload more pics/videos soon .

EDIT: Oops, added the wrong links, fixed it sorry!

[M0J0]

I got tired of waiting for Megan to have some exhausts in stock. There was a sale today. 400 bucks. Used the 5% coupon which dropped it to 380 bucks shipped! Can't beat that.

I hope it is not too loud with test pipes.

[m3peat]

Anyone know the weight of this exhaust and Megan exhaust? Both sound nice and have decent prices, just looking for weight reduction between the two.

[M0J0]

Shaving 10lbs will do nothing for this car. You really have to shave off a lot of weight to feel a difference.

[m3peat]

Originally Posted by M0J0

Shaving 10lbs will do nothing for this car. You really have to shave off a lot of weight to feel a difference.

Totally agree but if you shave 10 here, 20 there, etc., it starts to add up.

And if both sound decent and prices are similar, I would go with the lighter of the two since you are not getting any power anyways.

[Dave07997S]

Originally Posted by Antonio1988

Very different tone than the megan. The megan to me had a more exotic sound to it, this has a more muscular sound

Agreed, especially when testpipes are installed. It has a tone down low of muscle, yet more exotic at mid to higher rpms.

BTW, you save I believe 23.2 lbs. with the Megan over the OEM exhaust.

Dave

[M0J0]

Originally Posted by m3peat

Totally agree but if you shave 10 here, 20 there, etc., it starts to add up.

And if both sound decent and prices are similar, I would go with the lighter of the two since you are not getting any power anyways.

I don't think you would even notice 50lbs. There is only so much weight reduction you can do. Exhaust, Batt, Rims, Tires.

I bet the CNT is within 5lbs of the Megan. To be that is not worth 100-150 dollars more. Also, you can't buy the Megan. It is always out of stock.

[UGADawgFan]

picked one up myself last week..I'll be sure to post my thoughts/impressions as well

[TeknoVkng]

Are you happy with CNTs quality?

[M0J0]

I will take some pictures and weigh it when mine arrives this week.

[UGADawgFan]

So I got mine installed today. I can concur with those who have the left tips being about a 1/2" too low. Overall fit and finish is quite nice aside from this and I'll have an exhaust shop fix the hangar to level it out. It's also way way lighter than stock.

So...the sound.

It's thundering, bassy, and obnoxiously loud on a cold start. Your chest vibrates, the ground vibrates, the garage door to the garage you're installing it in will vibrate. Any rattles you had in the car will be more pronounced. Lord help the animal that is sitting behind the exhaust when you crank it.

Driving around normally it's very loud as well. From 0-2500 RPM the drone is insane. This is not a subtle exhaust by any stretch of the imagination. Old ladies in their 70s will wave at you and tell you that it sounds awesome. They'll tell you that this reminds them of their youth and that they used to date guys that had cars that sounded like yours (yes, this happened to me today). The white overly slammed 350z at the traffic light with the white wheels that has a droning ebay exhaust will wish he was you and try to race you. Manly men and teenage boys will fawn over it. Less manly men, animals, most women, and police will probably not fawn over you and will likely hate you. Your neighbors will most certainly hate you when you crank the car in the morning or come home late at night.

I can also concur, as you wind the car out, the engine roar takes over from the exhaust. You can still tell it's there, but it's nowhere near as raucous. I have a DCT car and when you're cruising along at 70-80 mph on the interstate, it's pretty dead silent.

DCT downshifts are orgasmic.

Do I like it? I'm not sure yet. It's a little loud and obnoxious for normal cruising around but my car isn't a daily driver. I hate spending $1x10^6 on exhausts, but I may have to bite the bullet and get an Eisenmann Sport or AA to get the right combination of tone and aggression.











and don't make fun of my huge black M3 badge. It's being removed in the morning and I'm searching for the correct size gloss black one.

[Antonio1988]

Nice write up. If your ears do not like the more muscular sound of a v8, then this exhaust is not for you. I come from a background of mustangs and vettes, so I am clearly biased in this respect.

[M0J0]

Is it really that loud? I might not bother installing mine. I don't want massive drone. Maybe I will just sell it and wait for a Megan. I don't want boy racer loud. I will have cold start delete so that is not a big deal. I have until next week when mine arrives to see if I am just going to flip it. The reason I liked the Megan was that it was not too loud. I just wanted louder than stock.

[Antonio1988]

Originally Posted by M0J0

Is it really that loud? I might not bother installing mine. I don't want massive drone. Maybe I will just sell it and wait for a Megan. I don't want boy racer loud. I will have cold start delete so that is not a big deal. I have until next week when mine arrives to see if I am just going to flip it. The reason I liked the Megan was that it was not too loud. I just wanted louder than stock.

If you have the cold start mod then it's a different story. It's louder than the megan by about 15-20% I'd say.

[kerrit]

I heard the exhaust idling on UGADawgFan's car. It's very rumbly and loud under 3000 rpms. I have the megan and it's completely opposite, more mellow and hardly any drone, and sounds a bit more exotic and louder at high rpms.

For a DD I wouldn't go with the CNT unless you really like the noise.

[UGADawgFan]

Originally Posted by Antonio1988

If you have the cold start mod then it's a different story. It's louder than the megan by about 15-20% I'd say.

at lower revs it's easily 15-20% louder than the Megan. At higher revs and at highway cruise the Megan is louder. A friend of mine (kerrit above) has the Megan on his E90 M3.