MyG37 - My Custom Straight Pipes Review

Hey all,

I'm new to the myG37 community, and this will be my first post! I'd like to share my review of my new pipes.

About a month ago, I installed new straight pipes in my 2013 G37S 6MT. I had spent months before that poring over different exhaust threads, watching YouTube videos of different exhaust setups, and wishing I had more money to spend on making my G sound better. Some setups that I liked sounded great, but were too expensive. I saw resonator deletes and regular straight pipes that all sounded way too raspy and pretty much like a different car. I even looked into cutouts (for those of you who don't know, they're electronically controlled butterfly valves that open and close, essentially switching your exhaust from stock to muffler/resonator delete at the push of a button) but decided against them because of all the cutting/welding and the final cost of that project. I love the classic VQ sound, and my goal was to keep that sound but just make it louder when I want it to be loud, and reasonably quiet without drone while cruising.

The Setup
After extensive research, I decided to do straight pipes, but with a twist. I had a custom dual-layer pipe installed, which is essentially a pipe within a pipe. I did this because I was afraid of boomy drone while cruising, as well as the crappy ricer rasp of a typical straight-pipe/muffler delete setup. I heard this in the flesh when I drove around without my mufflers for a day. It was incredibly loud and sounded great at some rev ranges, but was raspy, unrefined, and extremely heavy on drone. After a bit of trial and error, we finished the project successfully. In the end, I could not be happier with the result of our work.

Sound
My G sounds INCREDIBLE now. It's tough to describe in words how satisfied I am with the sound of my car. I was all smiles when I first took her out for a spin; she sounds like a howling animal under full throttle. The exhaust burbles, cracks, and pops during overruns; sometimes I downshift for no other reason but to hear it. It's loud, but not so loud that my ears are ringing after I go on a drive (however, I am able to set a car alarm off or two on the street when getting on the throttle). It's just perfect...my "pedestrian" G37 now sounds like an exotic car, though I wouldn't compare it to a V8 Ferrari or a V10 Lamborghini because the VQ has its own unique sound that can't be matched.

At the same time, it can be a completely different beast when simply cruising and going light on the throttle, thanks to the extra pipes. There is no drone when cruising, and all you can hear is just a distant rumble in the background that is barely noticeable and the opposite of the annoying drone you hear in other setups. There is some drone when you're in a high gear and low RPMs and you get deeper onto the throttle without downshifting, but it is minimal. I commute to and from work on the freeway 5 days a week, and I can easily cruise in 6th gear with my music on without hearing the exhaust in the back. I can pretty much drive with my mom, with kids, or around cops with no worry of my exhaust whatsoever. These pipes almost serve the same function as the butterfly valve cutouts.

Cost
This is by far the best bang-for-your buck mod available for the G. I realize that most people, with myself included, ultimately look to upgrade their exhausts to improve the sound of their cars. Sure, the cat-back setups out there might give you an extra 10 hp and make your car sound better. But is that worth nearly $1000? I even looked into some axle-back systems such as Tanabe, which are cheaper than a cat-back and only improve sound. In fact, I liked the sound of the Tanabe quite a bit, and was leaning toward getting that system before trying the straight pipes out. But I really didn't want to spend that much money on my car and deal with selling the exhaust later on. My setup was less than half the cost of any other exhaust setup, and I am more than satisfied with it. In my opinion, it sounds just as good, if not better than other systems out there. The price for this project was so reasonable that it is almost a negligible amount of money. I don't even have to worry about selling my pipes when my lease is over if I don't want to, because they were pretty cheap to begin with.

Lease Issue
One of the other issues that exhaust shoppers run into is the fact that their cars may be leased. I leased my G for two years. But this setup works perfectly for me because it is a bolt-on, bolt-off part. I simply took off my old exhaust, muffler and tips included, stored it, and installed the new pipes. I didn't need to cut up my whole exhaust system, ruin it, and run into trouble a year and a half down the road when I return my car. If I messed around with my entire exhaust system or welded cutouts into my stock system, I could be looking at Infiniti charging me a few thousand dollars for a new system at the end of the lease.

Conclusion
For me, the beauty of getting these new pipes is the new experience that it provides. From a driver's perspective, I think that sound is just as important, if not more important than downright performance numbers. Take the new F10 M5 for example. It's got 550 hp, but it sounds TERRIBLE. BMW even had to play fake sounds through the speakers. It's pathetic. On the other hand, we've got any Maserati GranTurismo, which isn't close to as fast as the M5, but sounds incredible. I'd pick the Maserati just because it seems more exciting to drive (granted I haven't driven either car lol). There are few feelings out there that are better than downshifting in my G and just getting into the throttle and listening to the glorious sound of the VQ coming out of my pipes. The new pipes have made my driving experience more visceral, more exciting, and way more fun. It's like driving a better car. The exhaust sound brings this G onto a higher level of curb appeal. People naturally think a great sounding car is a more exotic and expensive car, when I only spent a few hundred bucks on the mod for my G! If I had known how awesome these pipes would make my G sound and how cheap and easy it is to install/remove, I would've done it in a heartbeat. These pipes truly make the G the best of all worlds.

Here are some YouTube videos I just posted. It sounds pretty good on tape, but the microphone hardly does the exhaust any justice!

(Cold Start + Revs)

(Windows Down Full Throttle)

(Drive-by 1)

(Drive-by 2)

(Revving in Parking Garage)

(Cruising with Windows Up)