Aftermarket Valved Exhaust for Porsche 981 Boxster S: Awesome or Awful?

This is... the long awaited aftermarket exhaust video! Plenty of DRIVE BY and In-the-Cockpit sound clips of the exhaust. I bought a FabSpeed Valvetronic Exhaust. And it's Spinal Tap, like the movie: You can turn it up to 10 or to 11... those are your choices. Give the video a listen and note that you are apparently one mod away from turning your car from unassuming ride to snarling beast! At 7,000 RPM it's glorious. At 2,000 RPM it's... um, booming? Take a look!!!!!!!

[@RollingShutter]

I have the factory valved Eisenmann exhaust and it is actually very pleasant. I could imagine going a 120mph could get tiresome but actually its pretty awesome.

[@ThatOneChannelinAZ]

Welcome back Doug. I am on a roadtrip now in my custom 981 I've done 6.3K miles in 42, days I got a 981 Because of you

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

Thank you! And Congratulations! That is so cool to hear. What did you do to your 981? What mods? And I love to hear you're putting real miles on these cars. I should have more vids to come. They're filmed but not edited

[@ThatOneChannelinAZ]

@@autofocuscarsvids719 I ended up buying it with 48.9K miles on it and i than ended up putting a (BODY) Techart replica front lip and side diffusers, Carbon fiber side intakes, GT4 diffuser, GT4 Carbon duckbill, blacked out badges, Oled clear smoked sidelights, GTS taillights, Led hi and low beams done correctly, Hood stripe, Porsche operations black wheel upgrade, (Suspension) H&R Cup kit ie* Springs, Spacers some other stuff basically the GT4 Setup. (ENGINE) K&N Intakes, Soul Titanium exhaust, Intakes and exhaust sound like a Gallardo. (INTERIOR) Carbon console, infotainment, Shifter. Door stripes. I added more body color to the interior gauges and vents like the porsche operations. Painted the brake calipers yellow to pop on the blue and black wheels. I am sure i am missing some other stuff too.

[@ThatOneChannelinAZ]

Doug i did a 76 day road trip in my 981 i 8.8K miles in 76 days. I put 36k miles on my porsche in 17 months ​@autofocuscarsvids719

[@apolloandratti7922]

The drone with the aftermarket exhaust will be even more prominent with PDK, as the transmission will the chase the higher gear where the drone is the worst (7th). I drove a Cayman 981S with an aftermarket exhaust and experienced the same problem with drone in lower RPMs. I had to drop a gear, to 6th, to avoid the drone. Then I drove a 981 with the Porsche Sport Exhaust (PSE). The PSE has just the right balance--it is the only exhaust with absolutely no drone in any RPM. Porsche really got it right from the factory.

[@tomstamatakos8027]

Great job, I really appreciate your attention to detail and great drive byes. Love the 981 Boxster, its on my short list for sure!

[@Fzr005]

Great to hear this experience! Have been wondering about getting one myself and have held off so far..

[@SKLIFEstyle]

I am interested to see what I think versus the Porsche sports exhaust. I love the sound and ability to change from one to the other. I do like knowing you can add it in later. Interesting to know its not the same button selector as normal but not a deal breaker. I'm almost thinking I am okay without needing that option right off the bat, which helps with the pool of cars to choose from. Always leaves something to add and enhance it after having enjoyed it stock for a while.

[@jdev232]

One of the better things, to me, about driving a manual, is the lack of drone with aftermarket exhaust. While i have NO EXPERIENCE with a 981 or any porsche, i am picking my 14 981 boxster up in Ohio Sunday, and driving back to fort Meyers. 😁😁 i do however have experience with an 09 challenger rt without resonators and borla s-types. The v8s give a deeper rumble, where the higher revving 6 cylinder is more raspy, to me, hits that pitch that seems too loud??? Ear piercing? Maybe? Like sounds great on a race car, but the tuners and such...to me, as an older 52 guy with hearing damage, hurts my ears. I agree, the fabspeed sounds great, but theres a loss of a "middle" ground. Borla for the 981 seems "too much" and soul sounds right, but like to keep my money here in the USA...well...as mych as i can. So, I'll just be gappy to finally drive a porsche, and when i want more speed, I'll drive my wifes jaguar f-type r 380 supercharged. Its not pdk, but I'm a manual guy anyway. Both are convertible, and even tho my boxster hasn't even made it into its spot in the garage, you can believe....if the right 911 pops up....hers and mine, are GONE!!!! 😂😂😂 great videos!! Im sure you're a busy guy, but....get that editing done! 😉👍🏼👍🏼

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

I hope you love it! The F type was much less raw an experience, I thought... but surely some of the F Types are faster in a straight line than the 981 S. There is also a "Tubi" style exhaust sold many places (including Sharkwerks) and I'm not sure how it sounds but it may be American. I think CarGraphic is a US company too and it's well-regarded. Yes, with a manual you can keep the revs out of peak drone range.

[@jdev232]

@autofocuscarsvids719 after driving my 14 boxster 1300 miles home (4 days now), I can say, it's nowhere near as fast as my f-type, but handles 10x better. My 981 base was specd with the x73 from factory, and I can't imagine anything else. The jag at high speeds in curves or even in straights sometimes, bounces, and loses its line. Porsche is like like fine cutlery. 👍🏼 plus I can row gears and have sport+ 😁

[@WFORacer]

I have PSE no drone, it’s a little louder. My issue with loud exhausts is the fact that it draws attention from the LEO, every time I drive mine I do 125 plus.

[@weldchip]

Nice video, you confirmed my suspicions that it was too loud even in quiet mode. If you just do short trips and backroad blasting its fine but doing any distance run with such a drone would be bothersome. My preference would be stock volume in quiet mode and obnoxious in loud. Also It doesnt look like they fitted it properly the tail pipes stick out too far and they are not centered properly.

[@joenatividad3425]

In a KZbin world saturated with content parroting and over the top biased opinions.. your videos are refreshing. Not to mentioned it gets old watching channel after channel cover the new 995.2 GT3RST Club Sport Limited that no real person will ever own 😂 Love the mod. Reviewers swear that the soul performance valved exhaust has “no drone.” Was that setup considered in your search?

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

So, in my exhaust choice I was guided by loss avoidance -- which as we know can be stronger than the desire for gain. The FabSpeed guy in his videos on the 981 exhaust references again and again exhausts made in China and then sandblasted to disguise their cheap origins. Then he talked about loss of power from aftermarket exhausts and because the Boxster S is far from overpowered, I couldn't bring myself to risk spending a few grand to have my car make less HP. I looked at IPE and FabSpeed but my local Porsche dealer had experience with FabSpeed and they were made and shipped from Pennsylvania, so I went with FabSpeed.

[@louisnguyen6038]

That exhaust sounds incredible, regardless of how loud it is

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

I agree too! I couldn't give it up. Thanks!

[@chloebear11]

Super lucky to have 981 GTS Boxster stock PSE the best sounding Porsche End of. 😮

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

yes, i see the value of the gts is that it actually has the total suite of performance and fun options. they are available on the S but so few have them all.

[@mattyp3119]

Sounds like you wanted the sound of a header with PSE. Closed valves you get the exact same sound up to 4000rpm and a nice increase in sound above 4k. Open valves you get a big difference all the time probably similar to your open setup.

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

that is an interesting observation! the dealer's head of maintenance said they start seeing a lot more check engine lights with headers... and I have an extended warranty, so i stuck with the catback system... but i'd love to hear a PSE with headers!

[@johndyer3743]

I would go Porsche exhaust

[@zinistrr]

ah the problem here is you didnt get the SOUL PP exhaust

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

I looked into it. SOUL doesn't claim to add power or even claim not to lose power. In a car that is not high on HP to begin with, the absence of dyno plots and the absence of any claim about performance pushed me away. It certainly has a bigger muffler than the FabSpeed version I got, but nearly all have had drone. Even the 718 Spyder's factory exhaust has a tricky valve open at low RPM, valve closed for cruising RPMs, and then it opens again around 3,500 or 4,000. These are droning engines. Have you used to SOUL exhaust?

[@zinistrr]

@@autofocuscarsvids719 yea if it's power you're looking for, it's not. it though it does weigh a lot less than the stock. But from what I've heard, it sounds the best

[@Aiken47]

Any change of the headers? Try a 992 GT3 for noise levels - 😊

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

i have the stock headers. the maintenance guy at the dealer said check engine lights get far more common with headers but not with cat-back exhausts

[@jamesmccray2930]

Can you add your remote to your garage pad

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

Yes, you can. I have not, but it can be added just like a garage door opener.

[@stanleynewsomejr3616]

Who does your maintenance? Oil changes. I live around Creve Coure Lake.

[@autofocuscarsvids719]

I do annual maintenance at the Porsche dealer. I have an extended warranty and so I usually turn to them. They also store tires for me and swap them when seasons change.