Well after looking at several catbacks I decided that I would go with the RE-Amemiya Super Dolphin Exhaust. Pretty much as soon as I saw it, I decided that was the one for me. Its alittle pricey but its also alittle different. I really liked the pipe work on it and the way the mufflers were setup.
Impressions:
Looks awesome couldn't be happier in that department.
Little louder at idle and low rpm's then stock but not by much.
WOT and higher RPM's it does get much louder than stock.
Its a nice deep rumble.
Seems to have a bit of a drone at highway cruising speed but not to an extent that it drowns out your radio, I probley hear road noise and wind noise just as much if not louder than the exhaust other than WOT.
Performance gains:
Butt-dyno says yeah but then thats probley just me expecting it because its new. It does seem to be a little quicker response wise but I wouldn't expect any more gains than any other catback on the market.
Install notes:
Installation sucked. Not the actual install part but the removing of the stocker. I origonally thought that I would be able to disconnect the stock main pipe from the stock muffer system. Well it might as well have been welded on. Ended up removing the exhaust tip shroud on one side and that let me wiggle it on out.
Also the stock spring and bolts that connect the main pipe to the cat pipe did not want to go back in with the RE-Amemiya main pipe. After trying for a while and it getting darker and darker I ended up going through my bolt collection and found the same thread on a little longer bolt so used that with the spring and a washer. When I get the car up on a lift to do the AutoExe Member brace install, I will try to get the stockers back in there. I was using some car ramps that I ran the back of the car up on for the install and it was pretty tight when it got to the main pipe/cat pipe connection so there wasn't alot of wiggle room, a lift should cure that.
Overall:
I love it. I love the sound of it and the look of it plus its not an exhaust that is going to be overly common on every RX-8 you come across and I like to be alittle different every now and then.
Please forgive the dirtyness of the car and exhaust underside, we've had some rain here lately and little mud puddles seem to jump out of nowhere.
Here is a link to RHDJapan's pictures of the exhaust not installed, my camera was dead so I didn't get any pictures before the install.
https://www.rhdjapan.com/home/produc...uct=RE-Amemiya Stainless Super Dolphin Tail Muffler Set SE3P RX-8&image=Image5.jpg
Jonathan