Does the JCW Exhaust have any drone. I had a magnaflow custom exhaust and ended up hating it cause it droned SOOOOO MUCH. I want to upgrade the exhaust but I don't wanna buy Altas stuff. I just cant afford it. I know its odd but JCW's stuff is cheaper. Anyway I hope someone can enlighten me on this. Thanks!! Also anyone know where I could buy just the exhaust system included in the JCW upgrade?

 

When I first purchased the car, the exhaust did start to get a little tiring. But once you shift up the drone does go away and turns into nice background noise. Those magnaflow exhaust is probably MUCH louder then the OEM factory exhaust so I doubt you'll have any issues. Hitch a highway ride with someone with a JCW.

 

You live in Nc? :-)

 

I don't think the sound is all that bad,however compared to a Milltek,it is quiet.Q

 

Do you have the JCW now?

 

Yes matter of fact, i have one on the car, and one that has never been out of the box. Almost forgot to mention,for 500.00 plus shipping it could be yours.I live near Sacramento,Ca.PM if i have your attention.

 

Does anyone know the diameter / bore of the JCW tuning kit exhaust???

 

Oh man. So tempting. It's for the 2nd gen right? Is there really bad drone?

 

I have an 09 JCW - no drone. The exhaust sounds great.

 

lol...

Sorry, if you ever get the exhaust you will know why I am laughing. The JCW exhaust probably adds 15-20% more sound over stock under WOT. At a cruise anything under ~60-65, the exhaust almost identical to stock (just a touch louder). Past that, you can hear it but it far from a drone.

I drive with my rear seats folded so that I can hear the exhaust more. In my opinion, the whole "drone" issue on the JCW exhaust is getting a little out of proportion. If you want a sensible, daily-driver capable exhaust, the JCW exhaust is what you are looking for.

 

I will feedback on this post tonight. I am picking up my R56 this afternoon with the JCW tuning kit installed. I had already installed Dynamat Extreme in the entire back end of the R56 so I am not expecting any problems.

 

I just had the JCW kit installed, exhaust is a little louder than stock at normal driving, quite a bit louder than stock at wide open throttle but not as loud as the other aftermarket exhaust. Nicer, deeper tone than stock.

As said above, if you want a nice exhaust for a daily driver, this is it. I have not experienced any droning.

 

Wow. Much louder and lots of drone. Not for you if you like a quiet ride...

 

I have an 09 Factory JCW and you can hear the exhaust...but NO drone at all...It is perfect.

 

Even though i have the JCW for sale,i still concur with the above remarks,the lack of drone.You want to hear drone,Borla Sport or Milltek,will give you drone.Yes this is the exhaust that comes with the JCW Stage 1 upgrade,which was installed on my 07 S.Q

 

So the Dynamat didn't do anything? I saw it for sale in the car audio section at Fry's Electronics the other day and wondered if it was worth the cost and effort. What's your take on the matter?

BTW I have the stage 1 and it definitely drones around 3k-3.5k rpm, but only under load. For example, if you're cruising along in 4th at 3k and increase throttle, not floor it, it makes a deep resonate drone that I actually like. It is not unpleasant, at least to me, but I do feel a substantial pressure in my ears (my wife describes it the same way) while the sound is at the resonate frequency.

I think it's perfect. You can actually "play" it like a musical instrument and call it up at will, or avoid it by adjusting your gear/throttle opening to move the engine out of the range the drone appears. It can sound really cool when you want it to - like when you take off from a light next to one of the kids in a Honda with the oversized, sputtering tailpipe.

Actually the resonation is simply bass sound waves reflecting back and forth within the car in what is called a "standing wave". When the length of the sound wave equals the distance from parallel walls (or a multiple thereof) it results in a standing wave. You can google it if you're interested for an in-depth explanation.

 

Just a comment...DRONE is not just hearing the exhaust. DRONE is when the sound from the exhaust drowns out all other sound in the cabin in an extreamly annoying pitch that makes it hard to relax at speed. I know drone from my Vettes and the JCW has NO drone.

 

Thanks, from the other's posts, I think I had my definition of drone wrong. Is "Drone" objective? Can we link it to some mechanical or physical phenomenon (e.g. buffeting felt when one window rolled down and all the others are rolled up) or is it a certain frequency/resonance?

I've never had a vette

 

The developer of the Stratmosphere exhaust for the R56 wrote on drone here:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-cat-back.html

and here is an extract from what he wrote:

In regard to it's inherent volume level, and drone, and related concerns:
-It's definitely louder than stock. I think it sounds absolutely great! Of course, I would. But here is the honest thought process: The MkI Mini,with the supercharger, had a very sporty, zippy, fun sound to it. It had some 'soul' if you will. My first drive in that car was all smiles through every gear- when I hit 6th, I was like "aww..." and slowed down, just to shift all over again because the sound was fun. The MkII as stock, did not have that same feel to me. The car was without a doubt much faster, but just lacked 'character' in a sense. So our goal was to dig out the 'soul' buried within that car.
See, anything that moves with a pattern creates a noise. Engines at certain rpm's will create a tone regardless of the exhaust note sound. It is the actual frequency at which the cylinders fire. That is why people can identify an engine's number of cylinders just by listening- they have unique tones. Now, this is also why there is drone: 'drone' is actually just a frequency range that is irritable to the human ear because it creates the feeling of 'pressure'. Every engine exhibits it. In fact, the sound range is from about 94-130hz. That means that 4 cylinders drone from about 2800-3800rpm. The Mini, however, avoids that range pretty well. That's around the area where the turbo really begins to pull, so that very much helps. The physical location of the muffler on our system combats that drone further. Is there drone? Only in a minimal range that is hard to recreate in any driving scenario. The car is actually pretty quiet cruising at highway speeds.
The second-to-last prototype I made, I think was actually the most fun sounding... But that... was definitely LOUD. Drone was not an issue. So I reduced the volume output of the car to what you hear now. You can hear on our little youtube clip that the car has a throaty idle, some burble, and a good 'brap' as it gets going. Believe me, it sounds even better as you pull higher through the revs. It's just tough to do a good 3rd gear pull in our parking lot, haha.
It passes "the wife test". One of the owners here had his wife take the car for a week of daily driving. No complaints! That's a very good sign to us, because we love the sound. Drive it casually, regularly, and the sound is there, but absolutely not intrusive at all. Get on it, and you're reminded that you're driving a sports car. You cannot help but smile when you hit the right pedal hard!

 

Exactly..if you read the above post...from the guy who developed an exhaust system you will see DRON is subjective. Most description of exhaust note are from manufacturers. From experience I will say is that the factory JCW has "ZERO" cabin drone.

A good point is the Turbo's do drown out unwanted cabin noise. Our C6 Corvette had headers and an agressive Borla exhaust and the Drone & noise was almost as loud as a NASCAR...uncomfortable on highway cruising but cool on acceleration...I installed Twin Turboslast year and kept the exhaust system (not the headers) and the car is almost quiet...under hard pedal is roares but not in the cabin.

 

I don't know about the factory JCW, but my 07 MCS with a stage 1 kit installed drones as I described in my previous post. (I know exactly what a drone is, what causes it, and how to eliminate it.) I have never ridden in a factory JCW or MCS with an aftermarket exhaust, so I cannot speak for those, only the stage 1 kit.

Doesn't the original post inquire regarding replacing an existing exhaust with the JCW exhaust?

One may disagree and I am certainly not going to argue semantics. The question was asked if it drones. Mine drones. Someone else doesn't feel theirs does? Great. Mine drones. Good luck with whatever you choose

 

I dont know if you call it a drone but mine has a deep nice sound when cruising 70-80ish....took a few weeks to get use to but i love it

 

I had a 2006 MX-5 with an aftermarket exhaust and Mazdaspeed intake before the MINI. When I decelerated through the 3,000 rpm range, the rear window rattled like you wouldn't believe due the volume and deepness of the sound from the exhaust. That is drone.

The JCW exhaust is louder. If you are looking for an exhaust that isn't louder then you are looking for the wrong thing.

 

There is a big diffrence between loud & drone. You really should be talking to people that have what you are looking for.

 

Though I've only got a Stage I kit as opposed to Redbull's Stage II kit, I'm in complete agreeance.... no droning and sounds GREAT!!!

I love the exhaust sound now. In fact, most of the time I drive in sport mode so it's in 5th just so I can hear the exhaust more.

PERFECT....


Mark

PS. I am in Charlotte, if you ever want to take a ride...