Initial thoughts on the DRB exhaust.

[crabman]

Overview

The exhaust came packaged adequately. The welds were well done and had decent penetration. The were no flaws such as knicks or scratches although these may have been hid by the powdercoating..... I ordered the set with the black chrome powdercoat and the powdercoating looked good. The look of the powdercoat itself received a lot of positive commentary before I had even left the dealership. A thought I have here is that with the powedercoating the tips worked on the car but I think without it or the rolled tips they would appear too stark and would not blend in to my eye. I would not order this exhaust with the plain stock thin wall tips. I had the exhaust installed at the dealership while I was filling out the paperwork. The tech reported that the fit was fine.

The sound.

Drone is very minimal. There is a resonance around the upper teens and going into the low 2k range which is mild but there. It does not cause anything to shake and I cannot feel it in the floorboard (or anywhere else) as many describe on a lot of these various exhaust options. I found with the DCT this was easy to drive around as the car likes to be a little above that range naturally anyways in steady state cruising and passes right through during acceleration. The exhaust is not as loud as I expected. I have heard few exhausts to compare to on this car but those I can... It is louder than the M performance all through the rpm range up to 4500 which is as far as I made it in my car so far. Cannot comment on the high rpm volume. It is comparable to the Akra slip on at idle but the tone is different and it has less bass to it than the Akra. It gets louder than the Akra though as rpm increases. The last one would be the Gintani sport but that deserves a paragraph of its own.

The BMW Seattle dealership is situated so that the sales section and service are separated by a street. I walked across to grab the car from service to bring it over to sales where they were just finishing up and parked it outside sales. Hadn't quite killed the main when the first young feller was at my window and wanted to know what exhaust I had, said it sounded great. Brief conversation and a few revs and I went back to fiddling in the idrive and the next young feller was at the window wanting to know much the same. He had an M3 and it turns out with the Gintani sport mounted. We talked a bit and he liked the sound of mine far better than his. He was actually visibly upset when he found out that mine was half the price of his and part of that I think came because there was a bit of a crowd around by then and he was taking a ribbing from some of his co-workers who were fully in agreement that mine sounded better. A few comments overheard, "Sounds throaty but without too much bass", "I hear a lot of these and a lot of them sound like crap but I like this one", "What was wrong with the stock exhaust?", "I've never seen silver tips, I think I like it but I"m not sure".

Overall tone is hard to describe but the closest I have heard is the bullets that B&B sold for C5 and 6's. The tone is quite similar although the bullets are loud as hell and will set off car alarms even in open parking areas. These are much more subdued and I'm not sure if they would set off alarms in an enclosed garage or not. What it sounds like to me is that a couple of big resonators have been mounted for those that are familiar with that tone.

@otto I cant comment on just how child safe this exhaust is, that is something only you can decide. I have heard many V8 exhausts over the years on many cars and the drone here is about as minimal as it gets if you add much volume. IMO if you are greatly concerned it would be hard to point at anything other than the M performance. No drone on that one and it can legitimately claim to be family safe for just about anyone. Plus it has a great shriek to it when flogged that will satisfy most I think. In fairness you know more about someones take on something when you know them somewhat. I used to take my kids out in my race car which was loud enough to shake houses in neighboring states. They are grown now and that was a different time but there it is...

Last thoughts.

I don't have my data cable with me so I cant transfer pictures from my phone to the laptop and post them. I would say that the video that is posted in the DRB exhaust thread is a reasonable representation of what the car sounds like and you can notice the "resonator tone" in it. Brian got a lot of grief in that thread which I saw was later cleaned up by moderators and while this exhaust will not appeal to some its not bad at all and more than one guy owes him an apology. The exhaust is legit. Might not be to taste but its the real deal.

[SoTempted]

Email the pics to yourself...?

[crabman]

Originally Posted by SoTempted

Email the pics to yourself...?

Ok mister smartypants. Sorry about the quality, was with cell phone obvioiusly and with the car filthy its hard to get an impression of the coating on the tips but for all that here it is.

[SoTempted]

Haha sorry man, wasn't trying to be a smart ass. I email pics to myself ALL the time to upload them.

Looks good though, no frills, just an awesome sounding exhaust. Great review too, this is going on my short list of possible exhausts.

Still think I'm a rolled tip kinda guy if I were to get this... no homo.

[kitw]

The tips look really close to the bumper, that looks like it may melt when they get hot?

[SoTempted]

Originally Posted by kitw

The tips look really close to the bumper, that looks like it may melt when they get hot?

True. How far, if at all, do they even stick out?

[crabman]

No I agree, as I said I do not believe it would look right to my eye without the coating. It would be too plain. With the coating it blends in OEM style to my mind. Course I never spent any time looking at the stock chrome jobs so I haven't got it in my head that anything is missing there without some shiny bits. I'm of the type that thinks an exhaust should be heard and not seen though which is also why I had them tuck the tips in as far as possible. If I were to take a guess I think most people would be happiest with the rolled tips were they to choose this exhaust.

One other thing that I'll add in here now. I drove home with the back seats folded down to carry the stock exhaust. While this is stating the obvious (in hindsight) the volume level goes down a notch with the seats folded up as I discovered after I dropped the old can(s?) off into storage. Should have thought of that earlier and waited till I had a chance to put the seats up before I posted my impressions. O_o

[crabman]

I was wondering about the closeness to the bumper myself. How far should they be? I see they have moved up to quite close now, bout an 1/8" I would say.

[SoTempted]

Yeah I'd say coating is a MUST with this system.

[Mike Lu]

Thanks a lot for your time writing such a detailed review. Would you mind taking a pic from the side showing how much the exhaust stick out of the bumper ?

[jww///95]

Originally Posted by crabman

I was wondering about the closeness to the bumper myself. How far should they be? I see they have moved up to quite close now, bout an 1/8" I would say.

I haven't installed mine yet but Brian did send me a word doc set of install instructions that specifically had you tighten the clamps while pulling down on the pipes so that once heat cycled it would clear the bumper by 1/2".

[Rekrul]

Not bad brah.

[Erie Von Otto]

Originally Posted by crabman

Overview
@otto I cant comment on just how child safe this exhaust is, that is something only you can decide.

Thanks for the note. As long as it doesnt drone much, it should be fine. The vids that I am hearing all seem to appear that it really doesnt and has a nice tone. Did you happen to take any video?

[e92Mjunky]

in the installation instructions I wrote, it does say move it further away from bumper than you would like, as it breaks in it will rise . 25-.33 inches. Crabman, I bet any exhaust shop would loosen the clamps at X-pipe for you and get it into the desired position for almost nothing. it does look rather close, it only needs .3" or so not to burn the valence.(trust me i know dozens of times adjusting until I got it perfect) I think Boost Logic had a great design with pure form and function in mind and not winning any beauty pageants. Thanks guys, we have 4 units left I am picking up at Boost Logic on Weds., I am keeping one for myself for an E92 or E90 I am going to pick up again in the near future..

[crabman]

I read the instructions but getting the techs at the dealership to read them are another matter. Regardless I'm not worried about the fit, I'll adjust it till I am satisfied. I haven't hardly ever mounted a set of cans without fiddling em later.