Thanks for the responses guys. Wonder why I didn't receive an email notifiction sooner
Anyway, I ruled out
Thermal from day one because of noise. Its all subjective of course, but I have a lot less tolerance for noise than most of the import drivers out there - and most I have talked to speak of the thundering vibrations throughout the cabin of the car from
Thermal exhausts.
The
Tanabe Racing Medalion is not what I would call quiet, though it does offer very good performance. I have heard them, and not a big fan of their sound, particularly at WOT.
It was good to read the post in that link,
801, but while turbos are known to quiet down exhausts, it has been my experience that SC's, while they do
change the exhaust tone, do not quiet it down. My current exhaust system is noticeably louder in boost than out of boost (I've had the SC belt off many times, which has helped establish a good basis for comparison). In that thread,
Etylorcen said it right, that someone needs to make a 3''
Mugen twin loop muffler design. I've already looked into this, and even asked about having one of these custom-made, but there is just not enough room to loop around the huge 3" plumbing as would be necessary.
There are a handful of 3" universal muffler and resonator choices, including
HKS (recommended to me over at
Hostboard). However, IMO, there is a difference between a 3" universal muffler, and a 3" muffler geared towards a 4-cylinder engine, so that while an
HKS muffler may sound great on a Supra's inline 6, it is much more difficult to extract an exhaust note anywhere near as audibly-pleasing from a 4-cylinder. The same argument applies to
Maglaflow mufflers/resonators, which I have heard the same subjective argument for from friends who know me and what I am looking for in en exhaust, that I will not be happy with the sound.
Since I first posted, I found sound clips at the
Remus web site (
www.remus.at) of some of their exhausts, including 4-cylinder applications. Granted, it is a safe bet that none of them are 3" systems, but they do offer kind of hushed, mellow hum tone is exactly what I am looking for. And while I am not muffler shopping for looks, a nice looking tailpipe does not hurt either, and the
Remus parts are some of the nicest-looking I have ever seen.