Engine compartment looking more performance oriented after removal of the factory air intake and installation of the AEM short ram. Is the factory air intake a joke or what?! I estimate that, by adding the AEM air intake and removing the restrictive factory downpipe/primary-cat and the resonator, I've boosted my horsepower to 140 up from the 130 factory spec. Torque of course has increased as well.
Close up look at the AWR 21.5mm sway bar. Holy cow. Talk about tightening up the rear end. My car now handles like a rear-drive vehicle. I've had to relearn the driving characteristics of my car. I've got one good spin-out to vouch for that. Thing is we use sand on winter roads up here in New England so my taking a twisty aggressively before the sand was cleaned up was foolish. Live and learn.
Wagner Motorsports 2.5" downpipe (without cat) now installed. What a difference this baby makes. Opened up the bottleneck that was once the small factory downpipe with restrictive cat. However, at this time I was running the Bosal cat-back system. My car got obscenely louder and was now not suitable for a daily driver. So I put the OE muffler back on. But it's mated to the 2.25" Bosal cat-to-axle pipe which does NOT have a resonator. I'm surprised at how good this sounds. And now, I have noticeably more low end torque to go with the opened up high end. There's a silky smooth, wide range power band.
*** *** *** JUST SAY "NO" TO OEM! *** *** *** FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS DRIVE STOCK! *** *** ***
