CT-5 BW Exhaust - Pre Production

[Paragon Performance]

Wanted to share something with you guys. We love our CT-5 BW here at the shop and wanted to give it a bit more life.

We've gone ahead and started work on an exhaust that will be affordable and help waken up the beast.

Some quick points.

1. You will have to cut at a specific spot the rear muffler section off. Directions will be included of course.

WHY? Because making pipes from the front to the back is expensive, not only to produce but to ship. It's also semi pointless due to the OEM diameter of pipe.

2. It will not retain the valve mode that stock has.

WHY? This is too expensive to re-create. V mode still works to activate the bangs and pops, but outside of V mode you will still have increased sound just no bangs and pops.

3. Going back to stock (if you sell or trade in) will be as easy as putting the stock muffler back in and then using an included clamp section to join it back together.

4. Will be quad round tips that exit straight out the rear. Available in Carbon Fiber, Polished, or Burnt Stainless.

5. System will be mostly slip fit. Doing this allows you to not remove the rear bumper to install. Space is TIGHT for getting around some heat shields. Also allows for easy adjustments.


Any a quick pic below. Ignore the straight pipes which were used to just move the hot gas past the bumper for sound testing.


Cold Start ->

Some Revs ->

Drive By -> Coming Soon

 

[Lpe385]

Sounds strong, I’d be interested to know the weight savings.

 

[d0wnShifT]

Wanted to share something with you guys. We love our CT-5 BW here at the shop and wanted to give it a bit more life.

We've gone ahead and started work on an exhaust that will be affordable and help waken up the beast.

Some quick points.

1. You will have to cut at a specific spot the rear muffler section off. Directions will be included of course.

WHY? Because making pipes from the front to the back is expensive, not only to produce but to ship. It's also semi pointless due to the OEM diameter of pipe.

2. It will not retain the valve mode that stock has.

WHY? This is too expensive to re-create. V mode still works to activate the bangs and pops, but outside of V mode you will still have increased sound just no bangs and pops.

3. Going back to stock (if you sell or trade in) will be as easy as putting the stock muffler back in and then using an included clamp section to join it back together.

4. Will be quad round tips that exit straight out the rear. Available in Carbon Fiber, Polished, or Burnt Stainless.

5. System will be mostly slip fit. Doing this allows you to not remove the rear bumper to install. Space is TIGHT for getting around some heat shields. Also allows for easy adjustments.


Any a quick pic below. Ignore the straight pipes which were used to just move the hot gas past the bumper for sound testing.


Cold Start ->

Some Revs ->

Drive By -> Coming Soon

Good try but...
Not integrating the stock valves are a huge turn off for me. I'd like to be able to tone down the exhaust note the same way the exhaust is providing. I'm sure prospective customers will feel the same.

The tips look hideous and not representative of a $100k vehicle. I'm all for function, but put a little more thought on the form. This setup looks terrible and is not in any way representative of a vehicle like this.

I'd love to be a test mule or a buyer but the end product needs to be seriously polished before i'd even consider something like this. Integrate the stock tips or come up with something stylish.

 

[jbawden]

^^^bro, this is not the finished product. They already listed the tip options and I didn't see "mandrel bent finished by sawzall" as one of the options.

With that said, I personally think the OEM exhaust sounds really good, and the ability to adjust the "volume" is awesome.

 

[Paragon Performance]

Good try but...
Not integrating the stock valves are a huge turn off for me. I'd like to be able to tone down the exhaust note the same way the exhaust is providing. I'm sure prospective customers will feel the same.

The tips look hideous and not representative of a $100k vehicle. I'm all for function, but put a little more thought on the form. This setup looks terrible and is not in any way representative of a vehicle like this.

I'd love to be a test mule or a buyer but the end product needs to be seriously polished before i'd even consider something like this. Integrate the stock tips or come up with something stylish.

Reading isn’t your strong point is it?

 

[d0wnShifT]

Reading isn’t your strong point is it?

I should ask you the same thing. Integrate the technology that’s already in the car with a muffler that supports the exhaust valves. Still curious to see the fit and finish if the final product.

 

[rubberduck]

Reading isn’t your strong point is it?

Hopefully this isn’t representative of your CS attitude.

 

[Tall Steve]

I like a good pissing contest! IMHO the OEM exhaust is fine, but maybe I'm just old and don't know any better...

OP second post is kind of rude.... Good luck on the forum and sales...

 

[rubberduck]

OP second post is kind of rude.... Good luck on the forum and sales...

 

[Tflong24]

In my younger days modifying a cars exhaust was my first mod. Nowadays I only will think about it if 1. the stock exhaust sounds bad, 2. there is significant power to be gained, 3. there is a significant weight savings. With the 5BW I really cannot find a fault with the stock exhaust except I am sure the stock muffler is heavy. The car sounds AMAZING as is. the ability to tone it down is a must, losing valves is a no go. i cannot imagine driving every moment with the setup posted here. As far as a power bump goes, I am sure in the wide open setting the stock exhaust is pretty free flowing. So in summary, I see very little to no need to modify the stock exhaust. Hell my wife even said the car sounds incredible and for referance she thought my GT350R sounded just ok! We won't get into my F80 M3.

I believe the same can be said in ref to the facotry air intake system. The systems on many cars are very efficient and are true cold air systems. I would be very skeptical of any after market system showing notable power gains.

 

[DustinEarnhardt]

This seems like a pretty 'brute force' approach to changing the exhaust sound.

I don't imagine too many people with $100k 'exotic' sedans are excited to basically sawzall off their multi-functional exhaust and replace it with a less capable component. Sure, the sound is louder, but I just don't see the trade of losing the electronic valves being worth it. Maybe some people would be interested, but I would hope this exhaust would be priced at a point that is representative of the actual engineering involved (read: low) and not simply a marked up profit grab, just to be in line with the sticker price of the car.

I have no idea what the internals of the current muffler looks like, but my guess would be there is a potential to split one open, remove baffling and/or re-route gas flow to gain more sound and then weld it back up. That's a service I would be much more interested in than a set of glamorized straight pipes that require irreversible modifications to the car. Not to mention, I'd be willing to pay considerably more for an elegant solution than something that seems more akin to a mod done on a 2003 F-150.

 

[safridi22]

Yea im on team “oem” for this one. As much as im all for modifications, i personally dont think theres any need to start hacking parts off. Especially in this “last of us” climate we’re in.

 

[rubberduck]

If it was a run of the mill car, and I knew I could buy another one down the line, I’d be more into modding. My 5BW, I’m going to stick close to OEM. I had two different exhaust systems on my S4 and the last one was catless long tube headers. Sounded pretty decent for a V6.

 

[Neveready]

Reading isn’t your strong point is it?

 

[Paragon Performance]

We understand this isn't for everyone but offers those who want more an option.

We won't see anyone really make anything for this car due to its low production volume so this may end up being the only option ever. We shall see.

As far as it not being reversible, that's not true. You can put back in your stock system and have it welded back to where the joint was created by any local exhaust shop when you are ready to sell or etc. Or you can use the included clamps to put the stock system back on.

As far as not having valves. The engineering time, fabrication time, and etc are just not worth the squeeze. You're going to end up with a system that's 5-6K easy. And maybe move 5 of them.

Granted probably only 10's of these will also be sold but it's much easier to make. Which still isn't that easy. Room is TIGHT back there. We're using several very tight u-bends to get the tips out and in the right spot. It's not as easy as some would think to make it work.

Video of some sounds. We threw tips on it, for the Dyno. They stick out further than they will when production is done. That's currently being finished. Should have some nice finished shots in a week or so. This is just a side project for us and if it doesn't work out for a lot of people that's fine. But for the few of us who want more sound it's a great option. The stock system is way to quiet for how cool of a car this truly is.

REAR Sound

FRONT Sound

 

[theprototype]

Coming from a valveless sport exhaust on my old c63 I for one never missed the lack of valves. Once you get used to it, and if it sounds as good as it should, you'll never be using the valved mode anyways. How many times have y'all in here turned down the exhaust note in your my mode?? I'd be willing to bet not many. With the amount of sound deadening the BW cabin has I'm sure it is totally livable inside as well. Keep us posted on how the final versions come along!

 

[Lpe385]

I was gonna post something the same. Every car I had with exhaust valves that was the first thing I did was open up the exhaust valves.

I’d really like to know the dyno numbers to see if it added anything and the difference in weight between the factory muffler and the Paragon set up.

 

[Paragon Performance]

We're going to dyno stock this week yet and then compare to what we ran the other day with the exhaust. We're not expecting much for gains, but never know.

 

[Paragon Performance]

Coming from a valveless sport exhaust on my old c63 I for one never missed the lack of valves. Once you get used to it, and if it sounds as good as it should, you'll never be using the valved mode anyways. How many times have y'all in here turned down the exhaust note in your my mode?? I'd be willing to bet not many. With the amount of sound deadening the BW cabin has I'm sure it is totally livable inside as well. Keep us posted on how the final versions come along!

Agreed.

I drove around with windows up and you can barley hear the thing. Lots of sound deadening there.

 

[jbawden]

On my SS I usually had it in sport (open) but plenty of times where tour was preferred (only two exhaust modes). With family on a road trip, for instance, sport mode becomes tedious after a few hours. No matter what anyone says, you're going to end up with some level of drone with non-factory exhaust and that is a hard pass for me. Just like money, valves don't make me happy, but they do give me options.