[s-cars] Sweeter Sound

[Mark Strangways]

It's da shit...

All  I can say about the Stromung, I found myself driving around in the dead 
of winter with my window down so I could enjoy the new sounds weeks after 
the install.


Mark
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Postupack, Jeff" <Jeff.Postupack at analog.com>
To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 4:23 PM
Subject: [s-cars] Sweeter Sound


>
> Matt:
>
> I admit to being biased toward Stromung , because I endured 4
> generations plus all the fame and pain of being the GP guy.
> I've been working this problem 4 years now.  What a masochist!
>
> That being said here's my ideas.
>
> I've owned Gen 2,3 and now Gen 4 is on my S4. This is the revision Chad
> refers to.
> _Many_ people contributed to this edition and the component is better as
> a result.
> Stromung held price for 2.5 years now at the GP level despite material
> cost inflation.
>
> If you are seriously considering an exhaust replacement at all, and you
> will keep your S car,  buy a new Stromung Gen 4,  NOT a used one.
>
> It's no sense to go thru the trouble and installation expense if you
> find a used Gen 2 for example, and learn about the boom and drone of
> early generation systems
> now solved in Gen 4.
>
> Gen 4 is it..save your money, buy a new one.
>
> Built from type 304 stainless everything, including the flanges!  Drops
> your vehicle weight 70 pounds, sounds freakin' killer if you prefer deep
> rumble at idle
> plus ripping roar at WOT. In the cabin though it exudes a very high Wife
> Acceptance Factor  because it is not noisy.
>
> Performance?  I'm not going to touch that one as I did not spend money
> for before and after dyno results to satisfy curious technical minds.
>
> Many of us think it is a very good improvement based upon uncalibrated
> butt dyno's.
> We even had one Sargeant Shultz hang his head out the window assessing
> audio quality compared to Stebro in a live 'evaluation'
> Didn't we Paul?
>
> I read carefully Chad's comments about parallel flange surfaces and
> three hole flanges.
> However the demand for this system has declined to where Stromung would
> need a fitment car in LA to improve the system.
>
> I sent you the Powerpoint this morning to supply the details,  write if
> interested.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:26:15 -0400
> From: Matt Molyneux <mmolyneux at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Sweeter Sound
> To: Chad Clark <chadaclark4 at msn.com>
> Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Message-ID:
> <f283ba70510101126v765c94faw63479207dd1dec46 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Thanks for the advice. I'm getting closer to the Stromung. It's gonna
> require some saving though. In the meantime if anyone has a used
> Stromung for sale, let me know. Thanks.
>
> On 10/10/05, Chad Clark <chadaclark4 at msn.com> wrote:
>>
>> Matt,
>>
>> Coming from the guy who's definitely BTDT, I'll try and save you some
>> time, money and headaches.
>> I'm sure others will chime in with their experiences but here's what I
>
>> did.
>>
>> Like you, I wanted to hear my car run. I could not afford the Stromung
>
>> system at the time and thought I could come close to the sound quality
>
>> with simple muffler deletions trial and error.
>>
>> Started with a simple cat delete on stock exhaust. No change in sound
>> level that I could detect. I'd like to sit here and say that my
>> seat-of-the-pants felt a bit quicker spoolup from the turbo but that
>> may have been just wishful thinking at the time. Car came very close
>> to passing the emissions test but nonetheless failed from high
>> Hydrocarbons.
>>
>> Next was the center muffler delete. The car could now be heard but I
>> wouldn't call it sexy. Sounded more like a 5 cylinder truck engine. A
>> bit anemic, wrong sound at WOT, short band(3500-5000rpm) where it
>> sounded ok, quiet otherwise.
>>
>> Next was a rear muffler swap with a 3" in/out Dynomax turbo unit. I
>> had a 3"
>> "Y" installed post dual cat-delete and a true 3" to the rear Dynomax
> box.
>> Sorry I don't have the dimensions offhand. Now we were getting
>> somewhere as the sound was deep and throaty but it droned too much. So
>
>> now I needed a 3"
>> center resonator installed to get rid of the drone. This helped and
>> the car sounded pretty good but not as good as some of the Stromung
>> systems that I had heard. Plus I still had the stock exhaust plumbing
>> from the turbo.
>> Even
>> more, the system was cobled together with lots of welds and bends that
>
>> looked like $hit, it hung too low and scraped over speed bumps.
>>
>> As a side note, what I would have loved to hear is Dave Dawsons built
>> motor with the 3.5" nascar oval pipe, turbo back, single rear muffler
>> system before he threw some resonators on it. Apparently it sounded
>> something akin to Audis Sport race motors at full wail, especially
>> going through the 2 miles of Eisenhower Tunnel at 10,000ft elevation.
>> We really need to get some sound clips of this Dave!
>>
>> Reluctantly I finally bought the generation 4 Stromung sytem, a true
> 3"
>> turbo back stainless system, and have never looked back. Yes, its
>> expensive but the system is well built, fits properly and more
>> importantly(for me) sounds the best. I probably spent close to what I
>> would have paid initially for the Stromung system on my cobled,
>> wannabe, ghetto setup after all the trouble I went through to get it
>> right. The only issue I had was I needed to file down the two mating
>> flanges at the downpipe/mid pipe joint so that the sections joined up
>> better. I was getting an exhaust leak at the base of the flanges
>> because the two flanges weren't completely flat with each other.
>> Took me about 1.5 hours of flat filing with a 12" bastard flat file.
>> The only thing I think this system could improve on would be three
>> hole flanges as opposed to two hole flanges so that others won't have
>> this issue. Small issue for such a nice system though.
>>
>> Obviously if I had to do it all over again, you know what I would have
>
>> done from the start. Is the car any faster? Sure it is because it's
>> louder and sounds better now:-)
>>
>> Nothing to gain from Stromung, just a satisfied customer.
>> HTH,
>>
>> Chad
>>
>
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