santiago fonseca

Hey guys, ever since I left Germany, I've regretted not getting a quad exhaust for my car, but the reason I was very reluctant to do it is I didn't find anyone who'd do a true quad (a pipe on each bank terminating on a dual tip - a-la M5). Hamann had a set up that took an extra pipe off the one muffler, re-routed it to the other side and had it come out with dual tips. Eisenmann had a pipe just welded to the one side in front of the spare wheel well and it came out of the other side with two tips as well. I just didn't want to spend so much money for a fake exhaust - no matter how nice it looked.

So I asked around here and found a shop and the guy is a pro - he'll do this next Friday and I will let y'all know how it comes out and I will post a mini-movie with sound so you get an idea.

As we talked about it and he described it, I think it's going to be awesome. And the price is VERY reasonable.

The BMW dealership here (Fields BMW) now has a Motorsports shop and they install quads and they go for 1500 bucks (not counting the body work) but I don't know if it is as clean and efficient installation as I think I'm going to get. Once mine is done, I will go see the dude and show him the work - if it comes out well that is...

Again, I'll let you guys know and I will take pictures of the finished product from below as well.

Now ALL I have to do is modify the rear apron for an extra cut out (I have the M-Aero Kit on my car). I'm just going to cut mine to allow room for the pipes, and it will look hokey at first but I will modify it later and finish it right.

One week to go! I know it will be louder - it will finally sound like a V8 - and I can't wait. I've told the owner if this comes out well, I will give him all the publicity and maybe we can start making them for others.

Later!

Santiago.

PS - Picture for Nick Katsikas and Anthony Malefakis attached. GREAT Greek Restaurant in Ybor city! Nikos, I'll send you a note later...

jcool10181

Sounds interesting. FYI, if you don't have 4 mufflers (2 on each side) then it's not a real quad setup. Also, the M5 quad setup doesn't use all 4 mufflers at the same time unless you're at WOT where they automatically open up. If you're doing a real quad then i doubt that you'll have this auto opening feature and you might end up losing HP due to back pressure. In addition, you can only fit 2 mufflers on the passenger side by upgrading your whole trunk cargo to an M5. Good luck and keep us posted on your results. Here's a pic of an OEM M5 QUADS:

santiago fonseca

Thanks for the feedback jcool10181! You're right, I guess what I meant by a "real quad" is a pipe feeding off each 4-cyl side and going into their own mufflers and into a splitter with two tips each, and not one pipe with a cut out for the other side (I've attached a Picture of the Eisenmann system with the cover removed).

The M5 Quad shows 2 pipes that are split, go into two mufflers on each side and a pipe comes out of each into its own individual tip. Mine would have two pipes each going to a splitter with two tips on each end/side.

Thinking this thru, I may just do a single on each side, but I need to check with BMW (or Mike Miller of Bimmer Magazine) and see if I'm incurring any side effects by doing this.

About fitting two mufflers on the pass. side - you're right, there is around 8-10"" of space between the battery box and the spare wheel well.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Regards,

Santiago.

sparky

Take a look of the pics below. It's a custom made exhaust on my E60 with 2 middle and 2 rear REAL mufflers!!! The rear mufflers are like the racing dynamics I installed the two middle resonators because i din't want any sound at all. The car is so quiet as the normal one!!! Tips, you can make anything you want, circle, oval, it's up to you


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My535i

That looks really nice!!

santiago fonseca

Sparky, that looks great! Nice license plate! I also have a GR license plate in the front (courtesy of Nick - do you know him? He lives in Athens as well), and have the Nurburgring sticker in back. I lived in Darmstadt, Germany when I bought it and took it to the track and did the circuit once.

I'll post pictures of the work and the finished product. My ONLY concern is mucking with BMW engineering and removing something that has some kind of sensor or some other crap like that hosing something unknown to me..

Having a 550i I already have two pipes - one on each side of the engine, so a dual all the way back makes sense. I DO want some noise though. If I wanted it quiet I would not touch it. It is loud when I open it up on the highway - but being stateside "opening it up" is a relative term... :-)

Now I need a set of M6 wheels and a modified rear apron and I?ll be set. I?m going to drive with a sawed off hole in back for a while until I can either get a replacement panel or I do some plastic/fiberglass work and modify mine to take the dual pipes.

Thanks for your pictures and advise.

Santiago.

sparky

Thanks 'santiago fonseca . You mean Nick with the nickname nicke60gr with a black 520i e60 who lives in Chalandri? If you mean him, he is a superb guy, many questions about the e60 modifications were solved by him. I am looking forward for some pics with the exhaust. Way to go........

jcool10181

Sparky - Very nice and interesting setup you got there. Do you have any idea if you lost or gain HP? This is the first time i've seen exhausts in the middle of the car and i'm not sure how that will affect your car's performance.

Santiago - keep us posted on what you decide on and update with pics.

radzM

That is a nice looking set-up you got there and nice exhaust too!!!!

Gene

Very Nice Sparky GL Santiago