I've been debating for some time now which catback setup to go with. In considering contenders, I knew one thing, NO DRONE was a must! Another must in choosing was double walled tips. Rolled tips on some exhausts brands are hideous to me. I had a '13GT with SW LTH, Resonator delete midpipes and SLP Loudmouth axlebacks and it was OBNOXIOUS!!! I couldn't even hear my radio when driving the car no matter how loud I turned up the volume so hence the no-drone necessity but yet VOLUME in my next quest for an exhaust. LOL
So the decision was made and SOLO Performance would get my money. I called Jeff at SOLO on a Saturday and we chatted it up with what would work best for me. Since I have Stainless Power Longtubes and O/R Performance leads:eyebulge:, Jeff thought it would be best if I went with the Mach Thunder instead of the Street Race version so the order was placed.
The exhaust setup is boxed VERY WELL!!!!
Two huge well constructed and padded boxed are what's delivered if you get a catback setup. One box has the midpipe and the other box has the pipes just after midpipe and axlebacks.
Construction of these pipes look EXTREMELY well done. The welds are top notch and alot of attention has gone into the design and craftsmanship IMO
CLOSE UP OF J-PIPE FOR SOUND/DRONE TUNING. Another feature I LOVE is the way they have the J-pipe tailpipe portion on a ball-n-socket so you can actually align the tips with the hole in the facia without having to muscle and bend crap to get it aligned like other offerings. I love this feature!!!:headbang:
The Double walled tips are a HUGE 4.5" in diameter and are VERY NICE!!!! Here's some shot's of the tips and comparable shot's of the cheesy OEM axleback tips:
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Now for the WTF moment...........Again, I have the Stainless Power Longtube headers w/Off road(catless) 3" Performance leads, that means they DO NOT taper down to accept the crappy OEM 2-1/4" pipes. The SOLO midpipe comes with the Taper adapter welded onto the midpipe so I had to cut this off and PAY to have someone MIG weld two 3" ID to 3" ID couplers onto the ends of the midpipe to be able to fit these correctly!:frusty:
Pic of the reducing ends cut off
Replaced with this 3" ID to 3" ID for a full 3" full length exhaust
PIC OF THE COUPLER MIG WELDED ON THE MIDPIPE:
So after spending an ADDITIONAL $10 for couplers, $25 for 2 more exhaust band clamps to secure this section in assembly and THANK GOD the guy only charged me $20 to weld the coupler's on the midpipe, I have an ADDITIONAL $55 into this catback that I didn't expect to have to dish out.:crazy:
The install is straight forward and let me say that there is JUST enough pipe in the overall length of the system to fit/slip into each other when assembling to be able to clamp and secure the pipes with the Torca clamps. It took ALOT of adjusting to make sure there was enough pipe slid into one another to secure and still run the full length of the underbody and mount correctly. Just shoving and bottoming out pipe into pipe left me a good 4-6" short so I had to spread this out by adjusting each connection so it would all mate up and leave no room for the pipes to slip out of each other and still run the full length all the way out the back. This took awhile.
Pics of the final installed product:
I hope this system lives up to it's reputation from the car enthusiast I've talked to and even read good things about. Only time will tell but I can say that dealing with SOLO Performance was easy and pleasurable to date.
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https://youtu.be/8NeUwQ5WgOs
SOLO Performance Mach Thunder install and Review
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