Hi everyone, I saw a video and some forum posts by Bamford Rose about the Vantage S backbox being the best backbox, and fortunately found a used V8VS backbox on eBay for a great price. Also, bought a used set of RSC 200 cell cats that had about 10K miles on them. Here are my thoughts:

1) Sound: Much louder (maybe a bit too loud?), sounds great under max load, more like a muscle car, a bit more blaring and may have lost a little of the tone. Based on what I had read and heard, I was expecting that the 200 cell cats might make the sound a little more raspy and blaring, but I thought the Vantage S backbox might compensate to make it a little more sonorous. But on the whole the car sound more like a muscle car, which wasn't exactly what I was going for. I had previously decided against an x-pipe because I had seen videos where it sounded very high-pitched, and I didn't want to fundamentally change the sound of the car, but I've realized that the videos I've seen that sound very high-pitched are on a 4.7, and that on a 4.3 the x-pipe doesn't sound too high pitched. So now I plan to get the x-pipe, and I think, combined with the more muscle-car sound of the vantage S backbox, that will be the right mix.

2) Performance: Maybe slightly better throttle response, but that could be in my head. As for the power gain, I can't really tell. No tune on my car yet. I've only had my vantage about 8 months, and I've driven it infrequently, so I thought I probably wasn't going to be able to tell the difference of 10hp or so. Could totally be in my head, but when I floored it at 4K, I even thought it might be less punchy. That's probably wrong though -- I made a sound recording on my iPhone of a 1st and 2nd gear pull, before and after, and if anything, the pulls with the exhaust on sound like they are a little quicker, but it's hard to tell just by listening to the sound (not sure how to post iPhone sound recordings). I think what is happening is the sound is not commensurate with the speed, and so it seems like it should be faster. Normally an increase in the sensation of sound comes with an increase in the sensation of speed, but I think it has the opposite effect for me -- it sounds like it has 100hp more than it did, but the actual power bump is so modest that it gives me slight cognitive dissonance. The cats seemed in pretty good condition and like I said only 10K miles on them, so doubt there is anything wrong with them. Wondering if anyone had the experience of race cats being slightly less punchy at any point in the RPM range, though.

Just ordered a Velocity AP tune though and will be trying to get an X-pipe, so more upgrades on the way.

 

Why not just stick with stock exhaust and the 200 cell cats or better yet just the decats?

 

I installed an X pipe on my 2015 GT. It was a huge disappointment, so I removed and went with secondary cat deletes. You will lose the signature Aston sound with an X pipe.

 

I have VAP headers, RSC 200 cell cats, and RSC sport backbox on my 4.3 with a VAP tune. It's loud but sounds like the wicked V8 that it is and makes 385 hp at the rear wheels. The sound of the exhaust makes grown men giggle like a little kid.

 

You didn't like the X pipe but you liked the cat delete pipes? Interesting... On the 4.7L cars, you have two sets of cats which should reduce the effect of the X pipe somewhat. I really enjoy my stock 4.3L's exhaust note (including the relatively quiet muffler), but I would welcome the higher pitch from an X pipe as IMO it makes the car a little more exciting. At least going by Youtube recordings, the difference from an X pipe alone doesn't sound that big to me, since the X pipe comes after the cats. Tavarish's video seems to show the Fabspeed 200 cell cats adding more loudness than "high pitch" to my ears.

 

My X pipe was a secondary cat delete X pipe. It did sound amazing over 4000-5000 rpm. But below that the car was incredibly quiet, and that is with the fuse removed. I did like the higher pitched sound at higher RPM's but at lower RPM's it sounded dead to me for lack of a better description. I spoke to Quicksilver and Larini and the X pipe eliminates the phasing of the Aston V8, that is why they don't offer and X pipe for the Vantage. I found out the hard way. I know many guys on here seem to like the X pipe, but it just wasn't for me. I have a Larini valved back box with secondary cat deletes and it sounds amazing IMO.

 

Interesting! Well I think I'm going to experiment, because right now I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between my car and a mustang with a loud exhaust, whether it was the cats or the V8VS backbox, I'm not sure, but it pushed it in that direction -- nothing against mustangs but it wasn't what I was going for. So I'll see what effect the x-pipe has. As I say below, it might be a different effect on the 4.3 than it was on your GT.

The bolded seems to be what I can hear just from youtube videos, too, that the X-pipe seems to have a different effect on the 4.3. For instance I inquired of the owner of this car in this video, and he has 200 cell cats, x-pipe, and backbox from Powerflow, it sounds a little smoother but still pretty raspy, I think it's exactly what I'm going for and with my mods adding the x-pipe should get me something similar:



Tavarish's videos that you mentioned sounded similar. Compare that to this 4.7 with an X-pipe, sounds a lot smoother and more high-pitched to me:


Just speaking from what I can hear on youtube though, maybe someone who knows first hand can confirm or comment

 

Well I can't exactly isolate what affect the backbox has on the sound as opposed to the 200 cell cats because I did them both at once, I wanted to actually do them separately but it would have meant more time and money, and it's not easy for me to arrange to get it to the shop multiple times. Ideally I would test it out if I could do it myself, but at this point I'd have to pay a shop to switch it out and then back, and given what I've heard, the vantage S backbox is superior to the standard 4.3 backbox in every way, so that would likely be a waste

 

Headers might be the way to go in the future! I hear that might smooth out the sound slightly as well, although it will likely make it even louder and I don't think I can do that lol