Borla exhaust. Some doubts
 

I just bought a 2000 Boxster S which is equipped with Borla exhaust and, probably, had two cats deleted.

Sound on acceleration is awesome but there are some downsides. It is too high ( and ugly) when you are accelerating in a maneuver. It sounds like a four cylinders with direct exhaust. Besides, at cruising speed ( usually around 2.5k rpm) you barely can keep a conversation inside the car.

First question: is this the normal for a Borla ? I heard that Topspeed exhausts are not too loud and keeps a beautiful sound. Should I replace it ?

Thanks

Borla is about as loud as they get. It's ok for track use but damned uncomfortable just cruising around town. Any "two can" Boxster exhaust that does not have a common resonance chamber will resonate in the 2-3K rpm range. Some are worse than others and it's simply a physics thing. If you value conversations in the car while cruising the freeways, run a stock exhaust. If you want to be heard at the racetrack over the din of a dozen race prepped 3.2L Carreras, keep the Borla. It's all a tradeoff.

+1 on Topless' comments. I have the Borla, headers, and 100 cell cats on my autocross car. Everyone at events loves the sound. When the car had no cats, the sound was in excess of the 96 decibel level and I was warned by SCCA officials. :)
My wife hates the sound and rarely rides in the car. I was forced to get a 996 for everyday use. :p

Thanks guys

Now the worst part comes. Make a choice between sporty and beautiful sound at high speed or silent cruising. I was wondering if there is anything between stock and Borla. I saw a post where some owners where saying that Topspeed was a good combination of
silent cruising and louder sound at high acceleration.

For while I will keep the Borla even because I must be gaining some HPs. :dance:

Here is another choice... the Pedro PSE. It retains the stock wave cancellation to eliminate drone but just makes the car more aggressive sounding.

Make the Pedro Sport Exhaust

I have a 02 S with a 3.4L swap. Relevant mods noise-wise would be a custom air intake, headers (removing two cats) and the Borla exhaust.

I rarely drive with the top up. (Why would I?) When I do, the whole car is louder than I would like for daily driving, but much of that it my suspension also.

Top down, the exhaust while loud when on it, is not bad at all during normal driving.

This might be the issue with many people regarding the Borla. I posted this a few years back on here somewhere: Borla changed their design of the mufflers at some point. My original set had smaller diameter mufflers and they had an annoying drone. A weld broke on that set, so they send me a new one. This "updated?" one came with much larger mufflers. It was night and day. Much quieter, no drone. I am really happy that I stuck with the Borla, after the replacement.

Maybe you can get the one on your car replaced with the updated one?

I googled PSE and I found that it is a reworking on stock mufflers. I do not have the stock one anymore and I live down here in Brazil. I am traveling to US for Christmas. Do you know if I can buy a new PSE ?

Thanks

Probably mine is the old one because muffler seems to have smaller diameter. Car came with it and probably I cannot replace it anymore. As I live in South America, maybe I could try to bring a brand new Borla from US. I am now checking the options I have.

I wonder what drone is like in this car

Ford GT40 start up - YouTube

Stock exhaust in good condition is cheap and plentiful in the USA at many dismantlers. Doing the PSE mod to a stock setup is pretty simple really. If you asked Pedro he would probably do one for you and ship to Sao Paulo.

Short of an all out race or x-pipe style muffler, my custom 9ff catback is more "ripping" than any Borla or aftermarket exhaust that I've heard. Yet, there isn't a hint of drone at any rpm. That's what 9ff promised, and that's what they delivered. But, I paid dearly for it. :o

Probably I am moving to a stock muffler or something closer. Of course I will keep Borla and then I can install it again when I start to get bored by the stock muffler.

I am also contacting Pedro to see what can be done.

Thanks !