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Below is my review of the
Speedtech 3" catless race xpipe exhaust for the 997TT
Installed this week
Short version:
John @speedtch - Great customer service
Exhaust is phenomenal!!!
All the reviews and feedback was 100% correct
Great fitment
My car RIPS through the gears like a gt1 race car
I LOVE LOVE LOVE it
If you want that exotic racecar sound , want to feel more power, and save weight - You should buy one
Long version:
My Philosophy:
To me the 997tt is an amazing feat of engineering
It's ability to deliver elite performance (7:38 nordschleife time), massive power (0-60 3.7s), yet also be a calm comfortable luxury GT car (they are just so supremely beautiful, simple & elegant inside) is what makes it the best "all rounder" type of car on the planet
However..
This all rounded-ness comes at a compromise
You simply cannot be a calm quiet luxury cruiser and have the sound,theatre and drama of a racecar
To me the car was missing a soul, missing character.
To be more accurate - it's more like Porsche HAD to suppress it's race-inspired soul IN ORDER to make it more palatable to the wider business-man/daily commuter audience
THIS is what I wanted to change...
I wanted to UNLOCK this race heritage and allow the car to sing the song of its people
I wanted it to show its true colours and open up its character that Porsche had restricted in order to appeal to a wider more sedate audience
I knew that There was a race car hidden inside just waiting to come out!
And that's what the Speedtech 3" catless XPipe delivers
Research:
Given the prices of exhausts for the 997tt I wanted to take my time to research all the options out there to make sure I made the decision correct the first time
I had looked at fabspeed catted straight pipes - and was close to purchasing. But I had heard bad reviews of that company overall (although personally I have no complaints they were always very courteous to me) and that put me off.
I also learned that owners of such systems suffered terrible droning in the cabin - and would later sell those systems in favour of the Xpipe designed ones
Also I found that dyno sheets have shown that the xpipe design deliver MORE power than the straight pipe
Catless / catted:
At first I wanted catted to ensure no cel and out of fear of being too loud
Once I learned I would not do damage to the engine by going catless I saw it as an option.
So I found a car with a catless system and I loved the sound vs catted - much more raw
Plus you get more power gains catless
Back to the search...
So I focused my search at xpipe catless type designs:
I knew if three reputable companies that had systems like this
1. Tubi race exhaust
2. Gmg
3. Speedtech
To be honest I would have bought either one of these
As far as I can tell they are all great systems
The Tubi to me had a slightly higher note to it which makes it a bit different and although power gains are great , it has a larger muffler box which made me think it would be heavier
So it came down to the GMG and Speedtech
They both are x pipes with no mufflers or resonators
Reading through many posts on 6speed and elsewhere I saw that there were many more reviews on the Speedtech and everybody who had the Speedtech was thrilled with the system
So I Pm'd John the owner, who is also very active in the forum and we sorted it out quickly and efficiently to get a system fabricated and shipped out
Arrival:
The Speedtech system arrived in a couple of days well packaged
It came with instructions for installation
I also bought some 02 spacers with "mini cats" to install with the exhaust to see if I could keep the downstream 02 sensors warning cel off
Unfortunately the mini cats did not work - on some cars they do , on others they don't so my only way to get rid of my cel is through a tune
Installation:
Took the technicians about 5 hours
Exhaust review:
My tech texted me after install
He said - it's perfect
Words I've never heard him say before
He later told me after hearing the exhaust the other tech is planning on selling all his cars for a 997tt
My thoughts:
Let me say that this thing is amazing
It truly RIPS through the gears
It's everything that was promised
I immediately can feel the free flow of the exhaust and the quicker spoil of the turbos
The stock exhaust was not only heavy and noise suppressant, but really clogged up the pathways
It's like the car was smothered and gagged and with the gag off it can breathe finally!!
The noise is intoxicating
It is such a low mean growl in the lower revs
Then in the upper revs it screams like a racecar
On even a tiny boost the turbos whine and the car sounds like some sort of German spaceship
I can finally enjoy and appreciate this car on the mildest and most boring of journeys
You can be going 30mph and giggle at all the pops bangs and crackles
Best of all - NO DRONE
It sounds fantastic and there is no drone whatsoever - I can't believe it
The cabin is actually really nice an quiet with the windows up even on highway
The noise is so clear and clean
Not being obtrusive or annoying in the slightest
It's such a well engineered piece - and you recognise it as soon as you hear it - that you'd think it came from Stuttgart itself
It's made my 911 from a respected performer to something truly special and unique on the road - in my eyes exactly what a 997 Turbo is - perfection
Thank you Speedtech
If this is something you are looking for I highly recommend this system
- I finally have my dream car sounding Like a dream car should!
Below I have added pictures and later i will post a video of some of the sound clips
Nice review and feedback! Bobby's car sounds insane in his videos, always loved the way his sounds so I can imagine your beast. Looking forward to some good sounding videos!!!
I currently have a Kline 2.75". I love how it sounds like OEM+ at regular speeds and how it sounds like hell at WOT. But i love the raw sound of the catless non-muffled x-pipes. I would've switched to one by now if the exhaust wasn't such a pain in the *** to swap.
One thing that peeves me about the SpeedTech is the exhaust tips are perfectly flat with the ground/bottom horizontal tubes, but it does not fit the bumper exhaust cutout at all. In fact, the curvature of the bumper cutouts makes the exhaust tips look crooked the wrong way. SpeedTech should angle the tips to fit the bumper cutouts better
Thanks for taking the time to post such a thorough and positive review of our product and for the kind words regarding our company and the service you experienced. But you do not need to thank us, we are the ones that are thankful for the confidence you placed in us. That said, you are certainly welcome! It's a great reward for our efforts to receive feedback like this and to see you so pleased with your decision....Enjoy your new exhaust! Thanks again and enjoy!
There are several advantages. By combining the two banks of the motor or "balancing" the flow, a negative pressure void is created within the exhaust with each firing, which helps pull the subsequent gasses through the pipes for improved flow. When engineered properly, balancing the exhaust will also dramatically reduce undesirable resonance (drone). Lastly and very noteworthy for most customers - on the Porsche flat six motor, using a well engineered overall exhaust design that further incorporates a balancing X-merge at it's core, we can achieve a vastly superior, extremely high quality exotic sound characteristic vs. a traditional non-balanced or chambered exhaust. A non-balanced or non-"X" design is akin to running two separate 3 cylinder motors side by side and in our opinion, the sound quality is simply inferior to a well designed "X" based system. Given the fact that most customers desire a substantial sound improvement when purchasing an aftermarket performance exhaust, we have found the ""X" design is a critical component in obtaining/achieving our performance and sound goals.
It's a great design but with a bit of ingenuity the same effect can be achieved much more cheaply. The exhaust for a 997tt is very simple if you want to go catless. I built a system for £160/$200 using a big magnaflow x pipe muffler. Very simple to build, zero drone and amazing sound. Turbo exhaust technology is not quite like NA technology. A simple, easy path and a path that produces a nice sound is all that's needed.
I don't know about about only $200 worth of materials including muffler, but i get your point. It's the Porsche tax. When i was younger, i've fabricated intercooler pipes, down pipes, and exhausts using mandrel u-bends. Mandrel u-bends are probably $30 a piece where i live.
It's a great design but with a bit of ingenuity the same effect can be achieved much more cheaply. The exhaust for a 997tt is very simple if you want to go catless. I built a system for £160/$200 using a big magnaflow x pipe muffler. Very simple to build, zero drone and amazing sound. Turbo exhaust technology is not quite like NA technology. A simple, easy path and a path that produces a nice sound is all that's needed.
Thank you for the compliment, however, with all due respect, IMO, your comments are somewhat misleading...first on cost and secondly on simplicity of fabrication. It seems you had better luck (and more skill) than most I have spoken to with DIY turbo exhausts (we have helped a few DIYers out). For example, the turbo flanges alone are $100 for a set before the labor to tig weld anything to them. An entire system is comprised of several bends, numerous welds - all of which are back purged for unrestricted smooth flow, pipe expansion, slotting, deburring, milling of tip components, "X" fabrication, polishing, cat substrates and cone fabrication (on catted versions), 02 bung drilling and welding, and hardware (clamps, straps, etc.). $200 is not even close to construct a comparable system to the OP's, even with labor counted as -0-. Then there is the considerable amount of time that goes into fabricating one of our systems and we have jigs to make it easier. For a 1st time design or DIY project, to arrive at something of equal quality that fits correctly and has the outlet tips positioned properly is a significant and extremely time consuming endeavor. And that is just the fit aspect. Of course it can be done by a talented fabricator that does not put a monetary value on their time required to do the design, test fitting, corrections, etc., but it's a lot of work to save a few hundred dollars. For someone with no welding skills, forget it - it's not even a viable option to try to fabricate one of these.
Then once completed, if it's a 1st time fab job, you still don't know what it will sound like - we always test several designs before taking the best sounding version public. From direct experience, I will offer that it's very easy to put in the effort and then not be overly pleased with the end result the first time. That leads to revisions to tweak the sound - just more time, work and materials...so as much as I agree it is possible for a person to save a little money doing it themselves, a system of our quality (not to mention the R&D revision costs), would be considerably more expensive than you allude and certainly not simple for the majority or Porsche owners. It would not even be simple for me and I have a jig, as I am not a tig welder. I rely on our skilled TIG welders for fabrication and stick to the design, testing and sales of our products. These are the thoughts that crossed my mind when I read your post about the cheapness and simplicity of fabricating an exhaust like this - As you can tell, I don't feel it's quite as cheap and easy as you and I deal with it every day.
08-29-2017, 02:43 PM
