Well, I just got my Racing Beat non-resonated midpipe in two days ago, in preparation for my turbo install. I was planning on installing the midpipe now while I'm running NA so I have less to worry about installing when the turbo goes in but I'm concerned about volume. I haven't heard an NA RX-8 with a midpipe yet, so I'm curious how insanely loud it is. I've heard midpipes on the RX-8 but the owners all had turbochargers and the volume wasn't bad at all. How much worse will it be without the turbo to muffle it?

 

a na rx8 with the stock exhaust wasn't that loud, 4-5 was raspy though(and i liked being in that area )

i had a rx7store mid pipe non resonated

 

I have a resonated RP midpipe with my stock exhaust, its very quiet under normal driving and very loud under WOT.

Thats typically everyones opinions, obviously an catback, headers, etc will make it a bit louder under normal driving and way louder under WOT

 

Cool, thats what I wanted to know. I don't mind the car screaming its head off at WOT as long as it quiets down when I have a state trooper in the next lane. I absolutely love the sound of uncorked rotaries, I just want to be sure I can shut it up if I drive more carefully.

 

i have it with the racing beat dual exhaust and im able to quietly stroll by a police office (unless im going uphill!)

its not too loud, youll be fine!

 

non resonated is pretty damn loud all the time from what i've heard....but at idle shouldn't b enough to cause a cop to bother u maybe at WOT u might have trouble haha!!!!

 

the racing beat exhaust does a great job of quieting it down ALOT

mine is pretty raspy when it first starts up, but once the exhaust is warmed up it sounds a lot nicer and smoother!

 

Well, the pipe went in today... couple of interesting things. I was really sick today so I had my buddies at a local garage swap the pipe for me while I went to the doctor, and they said the car smelled terrible when they pulled it in. I've been running very rich since I put the AEM intake in two weeks ago, and noticed some smell, but apparently with the exhaust in the shop it was very noticable. The one guy said it smelled like someone had died in my exhaust. They said the smell went away when they swapped the midpipe in.

As far as sound, the car sounds stock at idle, and basically stock at low load, especially under 4kish rpm. At WOT it sounds like worlds largest, angriest weed-wacker. The sound is quite loud, and there is what sounds like vibration from the pipe which results in the buzzing weed-wacker sound. When I pulled off the ramp onto the highway and punched it... it was pretty noisy. It will take some getting used to, but it seemed alright, as long as I ease off the throttle around troopers I don't expect problems.

One thing I noticed is the car performed a bit better. I've been running so rich from the AEM, and waiting on an updated tune from Jeff, the car has been lurching around for the last two weeks. With a clear path with no obstructions it seems to breath more easily and wasn't getting bogged down. The base tune is still way too rich to really flog and I can't really compare (even with butt dyno) until I have a new tune, but the car does seem to be happier.

 

Yeah, so I had to drive it home from work after my last post and tried driving more like my normal self to see how it was.... ugh... it's really f*cking loud. I don't know if there is anything I can do about it, but right around 5k rpms it sounds like a HUGE bandsaw is hard at work. It's really obnoxious because it doesn't sound even like a rotary whine, it sounds more like the pipe is vibrating a billion times a second. I didn't do the install, so I'll have to poke my head under there to see if it is hitting against something to cause the sound. Above that range it doesn't seem so terrible, but 5k-6k rpms at WOT is really embarassingly noisy. Anybody else with this midpipe have the same issue?

I'm a little torn because I wanted to go midpipe for my turbo setup because of heat concerns, but this is probably too loud for me. My other options are to get an RP supercat or a resonated midpipe. If I'm not going to use a regular midpipe I would just as soon get the supercat and not worry about the gas smell.

Advice? Suggestions?

 

wow thats really surprising

what exhaust are you using again?

its probably hitting against something...

 

Stock exhaust, midpipe, AEM cold air intake. Its ***** cold outside so I didn't spend a lot of time lounging under the car checking out the install job, but I was really disappointed with how stupid loud it was. Hopefully I can get it to be a bit more discreet. I'm cheered that you have the same midpipe and aren't experiencing the same problem. That means its more likely that it wasn't installed quite right or there is a minor clearance issue rather than an innate flaw.

 

oh okay

yeah i just cant see how it could be so loud considering you have the stock exhaust and i have the racing beat exhaust and i dont find it too loud...thats odd!

 

you want to meet up? i can tell you if it sounds normal or not

 

all catless midpipes are going to be pretty loud. Your turbo will quiet it down quite a bit tho. If you still don't like it after that, consider this:
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-aftermarket-performance-modifications-23/%2A%2A%2A%2A%2Aattn-all-those-wanting-dual-resonated-midpipe%2A%2A%2A%2A%2A-161303/

 

That would actually be quite helpful. I'm going to see if there is something it could be banging against, but if it looks clear I'm going to need someone to let me know if this bandsaw sound is normal and make a decision about it. The more I think about it the more I don't think it's normal, because otherwise it should be making the same sound above 6k rpm and it doesn't.

 

Just wanted to update this... I put the car up on a lift (its too low to get on jackstands hehe) and got a chance to look more closely at the fitment. The fitment is beautiful, RB makes a really really nice product. There was nothing that was scraping or even remotely close to vibrate against. There were also no exhaust leaks visible. I was a little concerned about the volume if there was nothing it was vibrating against, but the weather has been ***** cold here recently. The weather finally warmed up today 40+ degrees woo, and the first thing I noticed is the pipe is much much quieter. Partly I think I'm just becoming accustomed to it, and partly the temp seems to affect its noise quite a bit. On the way to work once the car was fully warmed up I was burning along at WOT and it sounded awesome. Definitely louder than stock, but not bad sounding in the least.

The extremely bad exhaust fumes mostly went away when I reverted to my stock map from the MM tuning map I was running. It still smells a bit, but its hardly noticable compared to the other map. I'm definitely planning to keep the pipe installed at this point, and hopefully when I get an updated tune I will see a few extra whp from the opened up exhaust. Already I can feel a difference in the cars breathing.

 

Yea the pipe stinks. People tell me they can smell my car through their vents if theyre following me on the road.

The smell worries me more with cop trouble than the noise volume

 

I still believe I'll go with a resonator! But i'm glad u are liking it!

 

<3 my dual resonated midpipe.

I think I gained maybe 5dB of sound over stock CAT.

 

ok guys im new to the club, i'm thinking bout goin midpipe. i'm not worried about the noise cause i got the racing beat exhaust but is the smell of a midpipe really that bad?

 

The smell isn't terrible, but it is noticable. If you are stopped at a light with the windows down you will smell gasoline.

 

i love the smell lol

 

think of the polar bears

 

if i get the resonated pipe will it still be as noticeable(smell), and does the Rp supercat smell, i've been reading a lot of mixed reviews about its perfromance and how long it holds up. i'll be spraying in about a year so i'd appreciate the advice.

 

do you thinks the sound difference will be really noticeable running to a stock exhaust with a resonated midpipe