ok so fitment all done and heres my honest opinion......
first off, it all bolted up with no problems at all.......now ultrex have admitted that sometimes on the VF the exhaust may line up a little scew wiff down the center of the chassis.........they simply combat this by adding a spacer to one side between the cat and the exhuast for alignment correction....
luckily for me mine lined up perfect so no need for spacers.........but i did find.......that if i had needed a spacer, the factory flange bolts on the factory cats are welded.......and are not long enough to accommodate a spacer.........so it wouldnt have worked as a direct bolt up but instead one would need to unweld the factory bolts and use longer ones...........
but for those using aftermarket cats........no problemo.....bolt on away !!
where the middle muffler is theres a cross brace, now the clearance is only 5mm so the exhuast knocks it when going over a bump or travelling along a bumpy street (the cross brace clearance just wasnt made for a 3" pipe), so you may need to either leave the cross brace off or lower it by another 5mm with washers..........i chose to lower it and problem solved.
otherwise all the other clearances down the middle of the chassis are good...........exept, there was one little bolt protruding out of the fuel tank, which held on the heat shield, ........this bloody thing hit the hotdog on the left bank..........but after a few kind words with the angle grinder, problem solved (see photo)
also i must say the twin tailpipes, one side fitted a little too snug for comfort but something i could live with but i will have to watch for heat damage, if any......
these minor adjustments were all that were necessary..........exhaust done.....
at start up the note is deep and rich.........its not loud enough to make people think "whos that d!*ckhead"........but just a deep growl to let everyone know "im calm now but can roar if i have to"
and thats exactly what it does........put your foot down and its a nice mature roar.........enough to turn heads but not idiotic..........
slide the auto over into manual and it really shines...........nice alternating tone of deep roar that follows the revs...........back off on the throttle and it doesnt bark, splutter,cough or gurgle but instead settles back to a nice growl
so whats the one thing that f@*Ks this all up......you guessed it AFM !!
now dont get me wrong its not an unbearable drone, the resonators in the system do a great job of eliminating any drone............but start to cruise and you lose your deep growl into a lighter growl, much like going along in a high gear and not changing............bloody annoying to the enthusiast but for the layman they probably wouldnt know.
but for city driving........the payoff of having this exhaust over stock is definitely worth it.....
as this is my first AFM motor i really noticed the difference and wish i had my old L98 back............so for me its now VCM intake and a tune with AFM disabled..........
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