ZEUS
Enthusiast
For my '94 rt bone stock:
Like many of you with Gen 1's not satisfied with the stifled stock sound, I researched the sh&% out of the VCA and the Alley to come up with the best sound I could (specifically at low revs and idle) to go with the cars killer looks. If another buddy was to say "it's so hot looking, but why does it sound like a stock civic" I was gonna kill someone.
Anyways someone suggested I take off the cats ("You'll love the sound!"). So I did...no F'n difference, (maybe slightly raspier). And man it smelled especially at stops. And even if you can stand it, most chicks won't like it at all.
Decided to start from scratch without muffs and cats, just to hear what the car sounded like at its loudest for a basis. My midas guy cut the pipe before the cats and I took it for a spin (without side-covers obviously). Loud at idle but, it had a nice top-fuel dragster "gurgle, gurgle", surprising not as overly loud like you've heard all other cars without muffs. My old VW was 10x louder than this. However, as I drove, it was way too loud on acceleration, and WOT was really, really loud and really unique---wailing, wailing trumpets!!!....BUT MAN, I DID NOT EXPECT THE POWER JUMP, holy f%$#!!!! Throttle response was amazing, amazing, amazing...and third gear spins crazy man, what a rush, quite literally!!! As well it pops on decel so much and really loud too. Anyways it made me smile so much, but truly there is no way you can legally drive it with that noise.
Now to tone it down, I bought Hi flow cats from Roe (3" metal) and I took the advice from some and bought a glass pack 3" (actual red "cherry bombs") 30"long. They both fit exact distance (from cutting the original weld point of the oem cat) to the hanger before the turnout. No mid pipes necessary. Lastly Roe supplied me with the 3" turnout pipes they use in their system. (I carefully measured angle and distance of original exhaust cut-out, before I cut and installed the turnouts (Don't weld here use clamps for adjustments for placement).
Results:
The Bonus part is power. It is so much faster I can't handle it. Really, it made it a must (only now) to get some stickier rubber otherwise it spins every time I heavy-throttle it (not even WOT) with so quick a response in second and even third ("stupid" dangerous spining). The short (about 5" long) 3"diameter hi-flows are the only "obstruction" really in this system and they do an amazing job. Smells like stock now, thank God. The difference in power from no cats, no muffs is not even noticeable. It did muffle 70% of all the pops on decel (all the loud ones completely though).
The best part, the sound. It has low bassy gurgle, it has presence without being obnoxious at idle and part throttle. People hear some bassy muscle coming down the street. Now I know "likeable" sound volume is subjective, some will say that this straight pipish design is probably overly loud. But a good litmus test is what others/passersby think....yes great attention, they'll all hear that low grumble, but everyone thinks the car sounds like it is the original exhaust or the way it should've. Furthermore, I was in bumper to bumper traffic beside a cop windows down for about 5 mins with no hassles. No one questioned me this whole summer "what did you do to the exhaust", no one. HOWEVER, if you floor the throttle near that sweet spot rpm ie-3000ish...."wailing trumpets" (so original man! I and all my buds have not heard this on any car) and loud as to scare anyone on the sidewalk. Beware of police "hearing" you if you're racing in the area. But this is only around that rpm, and so normal ("mean") everywhere else (part throttle, 3/4 throttle). So you can modulate this at any time to never peak into higher revs if you wanted to be extra quiet, but it is really fine. As a matter of fact some Porsches/Ferraris etc. have an exhaust bypass at WOT for power/sound. Ours is 'natural'. But to summarize, people have never said the car is too loud, they think that this is how a Viper should sound.
Hope this helps people for their research,
-Tom (ZEUS)
NOTES:
-The original muffler is not straight through at all. It goes down to 1 5/8" wide inside...like it was a last minute idea by Chrysler to rid the WOT "wailing trumpets" that my car now has.
-Roe's 3" full system might be the same, slightly better, slightly worse. They use a borla 5" Can that like mine, is basically a straight through with the same Roe 3" hi-flow cats. A couple of people suggested a tinnier noise than the glass packs which are known to be bassier, but I'm sure they sound close.
-One thing to note, on cold start up it is raspier/louder than normal idle for a minute or so which might come across echoing into the house.
-I don't drive much with the roof on---it is not my daily driver, so drone might be an issue, but every change from stock will affect it anyway.
-I finally did the intake/filters/minus-intake-resonators just now, but increase is hard to feel with what the exhaust did for spinning tires.
-here is a video link of a quarter-mile run by Rich Detert's car...extra long glass packs (48" I believe) without cats, but only 2.5" all the way through. It sounds good (this video is the main reason I went this route) but it still doesn't come across as if you were standing curbside. http://richdetert.com/MARVideo.htm
-link for my 3" cherry bomb
http://www.supremeperformance.com/DisplayTab.aspx?tid=3
Like many of you with Gen 1's not satisfied with the stifled stock sound, I researched the sh&% out of the VCA and the Alley to come up with the best sound I could (specifically at low revs and idle) to go with the cars killer looks. If another buddy was to say "it's so hot looking, but why does it sound like a stock civic" I was gonna kill someone.
Anyways someone suggested I take off the cats ("You'll love the sound!"). So I did...no F'n difference, (maybe slightly raspier). And man it smelled especially at stops. And even if you can stand it, most chicks won't like it at all.
Decided to start from scratch without muffs and cats, just to hear what the car sounded like at its loudest for a basis. My midas guy cut the pipe before the cats and I took it for a spin (without side-covers obviously). Loud at idle but, it had a nice top-fuel dragster "gurgle, gurgle", surprising not as overly loud like you've heard all other cars without muffs. My old VW was 10x louder than this. However, as I drove, it was way too loud on acceleration, and WOT was really, really loud and really unique---wailing, wailing trumpets!!!....BUT MAN, I DID NOT EXPECT THE POWER JUMP, holy f%$#!!!! Throttle response was amazing, amazing, amazing...and third gear spins crazy man, what a rush, quite literally!!! As well it pops on decel so much and really loud too. Anyways it made me smile so much, but truly there is no way you can legally drive it with that noise.
Now to tone it down, I bought Hi flow cats from Roe (3" metal) and I took the advice from some and bought a glass pack 3" (actual red "cherry bombs") 30"long. They both fit exact distance (from cutting the original weld point of the oem cat) to the hanger before the turnout. No mid pipes necessary. Lastly Roe supplied me with the 3" turnout pipes they use in their system. (I carefully measured angle and distance of original exhaust cut-out, before I cut and installed the turnouts (Don't weld here use clamps for adjustments for placement).
Results:
The Bonus part is power. It is so much faster I can't handle it. Really, it made it a must (only now) to get some stickier rubber otherwise it spins every time I heavy-throttle it (not even WOT) with so quick a response in second and even third ("stupid" dangerous spining). The short (about 5" long) 3"diameter hi-flows are the only "obstruction" really in this system and they do an amazing job. Smells like stock now, thank God. The difference in power from no cats, no muffs is not even noticeable. It did muffle 70% of all the pops on decel (all the loud ones completely though).
The best part, the sound. It has low bassy gurgle, it has presence without being obnoxious at idle and part throttle. People hear some bassy muscle coming down the street. Now I know "likeable" sound volume is subjective, some will say that this straight pipish design is probably overly loud. But a good litmus test is what others/passersby think....yes great attention, they'll all hear that low grumble, but everyone thinks the car sounds like it is the original exhaust or the way it should've. Furthermore, I was in bumper to bumper traffic beside a cop windows down for about 5 mins with no hassles. No one questioned me this whole summer "what did you do to the exhaust", no one. HOWEVER, if you floor the throttle near that sweet spot rpm ie-3000ish...."wailing trumpets" (so original man! I and all my buds have not heard this on any car) and loud as to scare anyone on the sidewalk. Beware of police "hearing" you if you're racing in the area. But this is only around that rpm, and so normal ("mean") everywhere else (part throttle, 3/4 throttle). So you can modulate this at any time to never peak into higher revs if you wanted to be extra quiet, but it is really fine. As a matter of fact some Porsches/Ferraris etc. have an exhaust bypass at WOT for power/sound. Ours is 'natural'. But to summarize, people have never said the car is too loud, they think that this is how a Viper should sound.
Hope this helps people for their research,
-Tom (ZEUS)
NOTES:
-The original muffler is not straight through at all. It goes down to 1 5/8" wide inside...like it was a last minute idea by Chrysler to rid the WOT "wailing trumpets" that my car now has.
-Roe's 3" full system might be the same, slightly better, slightly worse. They use a borla 5" Can that like mine, is basically a straight through with the same Roe 3" hi-flow cats. A couple of people suggested a tinnier noise than the glass packs which are known to be bassier, but I'm sure they sound close.
-One thing to note, on cold start up it is raspier/louder than normal idle for a minute or so which might come across echoing into the house.
-I don't drive much with the roof on---it is not my daily driver, so drone might be an issue, but every change from stock will affect it anyway.
-I finally did the intake/filters/minus-intake-resonators just now, but increase is hard to feel with what the exhaust did for spinning tires.
-here is a video link of a quarter-mile run by Rich Detert's car...extra long glass packs (48" I believe) without cats, but only 2.5" all the way through. It sounds good (this video is the main reason I went this route) but it still doesn't come across as if you were standing curbside. http://richdetert.com/MARVideo.htm
-link for my 3" cherry bomb
http://www.supremeperformance.com/DisplayTab.aspx?tid=3
I hope I can feel the type of performance increase that you described! Especially since I am doing Belangers,exhaust, and VEC1 at the same time. 
