Cheap way to make a NC a bit louder?

[TNurburgring]

I hve the feeling that the stock exhaust muffles the sound far too much...
Is there a cheap method to make tye NC a bit louder?

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Find the rear silencer and drill a few holes in it.
Cherry bomb?
Alternatively, remove the center silencer if it has one?
Did this on my Renault and it made a big difference to the sound.

[Chris Type R]

On the S2000, the "cheap" method was to remove the lid from the airbox.

Didn't like it personally.

[dragonheart]

Im running a cat back Scorpion s/s exhaust and a K&N Apollo closed intake. Not exactly cheap cheap but not hugely expensive either. Sound the nuts when accelerating hard also pops and bangs when you lift off the throttle.

[TNurburgring]

Thanks for the tips!
The Scorpion does look good, but it's pretty expensive...

[dragonheart]

TNurburgring said:

Thanks for the tips!
The Scorpion does look good, but it's pretty expensive...

Keep your eye on eBay, they do pop up from time to time.

[TNurburgring]

I decided to buy a exhaust and splash some money... What exhaust do you guys have?

[poing]

Is your car soft top or folding hard top? I bought the one from mx5parts and on my folding hard top it was far too boomy at light throttle when cruising, apparently the soft top doesn't suffer from this too badly.

[TNurburgring]

poing said:

Is your car soft top or folding hard top? I bought the one from mx5parts and on my folding hard top it was far too boomy at light throttle when cruising, apparently the soft top doesn't suffer from this too badly.

Soft-top. Could you post a link of the exhaust you bought? There are a lot on their site.

[poing]

I ended up buying it from e-bay, turns out they have an ebay page and you can save a bit buying it there instead. As such, can't be certain which type it was I'm afraid. It was the rear box and then my local garage found me a centre section, but the garage did comment on the quality being excellent when they fitted the rear box. They were less complimentary about their own sourced centre section.

I wasn't impressed by the noise though, not a nice tone. My older mx5 (with the mx5parts exhaust as well) sounded much better, I think it's the NC that just doesn't respond that well to it unless you are careful. I told myself if I did it again I would spend the extra and get a Scorpion, Racingbeat, Cobra, speak to BBR or Roddisons and do it properly. A standard exhaust costs a lot though so my man maths told me spending a little more on a stainless item was a sensible investment

Sadly I never found a cheap way to make it louder but plenty of options if you are willing to spend a little.

[TNurburgring]

At the moment the Cobra is my favourite... It seems to have the nicest tone and be the loudest.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1rMSUs3EQyc
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QSnKY-aGxwU

[browno]

I've got the cobra on mine and it gives a nice sound - it is worth bearing in mind when you're buying whether you might do any further mods in the future (e.g. freer flowing exhaust mainfold can get you to 180BHP-ish, but can be noisy with certain exhausts). For the cobra, you have 3 options - Race, which is LOUD, Road, which is quieter, but can apparently still be loud with a manifold, and there is the "king cobra" available from Roddisons, which has a bigger box - still sounds good (but quieter) on a standard car, but tones things down with the manifold.

I am happy with mine (the road version) - which I bought second hand from Nutz (so got a good price), but I do have a nagging in the back of my mind that I might need to switch it if I wanted a manifold in the future... It sounds nice, crackles a little on overrun, and not too loud at a cruise - so pretty well balanced for now!

Edited by browno on Thursday 12th March 08:54

[TNurburgring]

Sounds good! I am actually leaning towards the Race version for a bit more sound, pops and bangs. Have you a video if the sound of yours? On Youtube there are only vida of the Race version...

[dragonheart]

I would advise caution, loud can become tedious. If you are sure that you can constantly live with a loud exhaust then fine go for the loudest you can find, but if there are likely to be times when you don't want all of that noise then go for a compromise. As i have stated before my Scorpion seems to offer a very good compromise, makes a nice bark under hard acceleration and pops and bangs when you throttle off. The Scorpion also looks nice, is well made and fits well. Choose wisely, as once you have bought and fitted it, it's likely to be there for quite a while.

[TNurburgring]

dragonheart said:

I would advise caution, loud can become tedious. If you are sure that you can constantly live with a loud exhaust then fine go for the loudest you can find, but if there are likely to be times when you don't want all of that noise then go for a compromise. As i have stated before my Scorpion seems to offer a very good compromise, makes a nice bark under hard acceleration and pops and bangs when you throttle off. The Scorpion also looks nice, is well made and fits well. Choose wisely, as once you have bought and fitted it, it's likely to be there for quite a while.

The car is just a fun car, so no daily driver. That's why I want a louder exhaust.

Do you maybe have a video of the Scorpion?

[g40steve]

I have numerous combinations of back boxes listed below are a few from my thread on Nutz, do not buy on sound clips off the internet as nothing like in real life.


http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1...

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1...

http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1...

[TNurburgring]

Thanks for the links!

It's hard not to decide with the help of Youtube, bevause that's the only thing I have...

[Sko77y]

Cheapest option would have been to switch out the centre section with a de-cat.

Removing the 2nd cat and silencer. Still passing an MOT. Although I've no idea how noisy that'd be.

My centre section cost me £99, but if you wanted the manifold later on you'd have to find a cat somewhere.