moonluv810
Ready to race!
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- GTI Heaven
Back in March, after hours of researching and consulting with several forum members, I decided to get AWE Track Cat-Back system and could not be happier with the result. Please see my review on the following link: http://www.golfmk7.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8914
I was satisfied not only with the product, but also amazed with AWE’s customer support and their 100% satisfaction commitment. I ended up forking mucho dollars to get their catted downpipe although this was not on my mod plan at all.
Let’s stop for a second, if you only want to throw in comments that this product is overpriced, it should be this or that price, and there are other lower-cost options, let me be the first who tell you that I’m not here to change your mind. Everyone has their own rights to express their opinions, but please don’t trash the thread. This thread is meant to give others a review on the product, service, and overall company in general. It’s nice that we have many options to choose from, if you don’t like one option, you can go with another.
Also, I consider this review is fairly subjective, I don’t have any quantitative measurements I can provide. Exhaust sound, tone, and volume level are purely subjective. I don’t have any dyno graph or hard data to show any performance gain. So take this for what it’s worth. Since this is a subjective review, I thought it would be good to share a bit about myself to give a point of reference. I'm 37 with two young kids (7 and 3) whom I take to school every morning in the GTI. In the past life (prior to kids), I competed in SCCA DSP class in E36 M3 and M coupe and tracked the cars. I’m an engineer, anal about my cars, work on my car for most of items outside engine. My GTI is daily driven, but I bet you its under-carriage is cleaner than your engine bay!
My Personal Rating
Shipping/Packing: 10/10
Build Quality: 10/10
Installation and Fitment: N/A – see below
Sound: 9/10
Performance: 10/10
Overall Satisfaction: 10/10
Shipping/Packing
As you probably know by now, most AWE products are built to order. Some dealers started stocking some products. You should expect 3-5 weeks of leadtime if what you want is not in stock. To me this is actually a plus point. Yes, it sucks having to wait and count the days until the brown truck delivers your goods, but for me, I feel more “special” (for lack of a better word) knowing that someone out there actually processes my order and does the fabrication for me, instead of someone just picks up a box off a shelf.
In my case, it actually took about 3 weeks to get the downpipe delivered. I placed my order on May 8 and it was delivered on May 28.
Packaging was similar to the cat-back, very nice and protective. Box was thick double-wall corrugated with lots of stuffing to protect the gem. They don’t skimp on packaging.
Build Quality
I had seen the detail pics on AWE’s website, but those pics don’t do this downpipe justice. Holding the piece on your own hands would give you a greater appreciation. I may be a geek, but this thing is truly a work of art. The level of attention of details in the fabrication and welding is very impressive. The mandrel bends are flawless. I’m not sure the thickness of the piping and didn’t have a caliper, but the entire piece felt very very solid.
If I had a money tree growing in my backyard, I would get one extra pipe, frame it, and hang it on my garage wall.
Installation and Fitment
With the amount of travel I do for living and 2 kids, I decided not to tackle the install myself. I had 3Zero3 (AWE dealer in Denver) install the downpipe. They have an amazing shop and are a great group of folks.
Thus, I cannot comment too much about the install process, but 3Zero3 advised me that the install went smoothly without any hiccup and fitment was spot on as they had expected.
I put the car on stands this past weekend and checked it out more closely. From my visual inspection, I have no reason to argue on the fitment being spot on.
Sound
If you read my review on AWE’s Track Cat-back system, I really think that AWE Track is how the GTI should have come from the factory. The sound level and tone are simply perfect to be considered as a “stock” performance car. It’s simply how a GTI should sound from the factory, in my opinion.
After adding AWE catted Performance downpipe to the Track cat-back, here’s the chronological order of what you can expect:
From install to about 50 miles: holy $hit this thing is loud…. seriously, the downpipe really increases the sound level. Aside from the sound level increase, I also noticed something interesting. From idle to 4K rpm, the volume level increases linearly with nice low deep tone. Between 4K to 5K, you will be surprised with an exponential increase in sound level and increase of “raspiness” in the exhaust tone. The interesting part, past 5K, the volume level and tone goes back to pre 4K.
The raspiness between 4K to 5K really bothered me to the point that I was doubting myself if I made the right decision. I contacted Mike at AWE and he assured me that the system needed some break in time.
Past 200 miles after install: holy $hit this thing is cool! I have put in close to 250 miles after the install and it seems that the system has broken in and it changed the sound level and tone quite a bit. The spike in sound level and especially the raspy tone between 4K to 5K have subsided quite a bit. There’s still a volume increase in that RPM range, but it’s not as prominent as during the break in period.
Cold-Start: the system is loud during the first 40-sec or so cold-start. It will turn heads if you park your car outside. You will need to be honest with your wife or significant other that you just “invested” more dough in your baby. There’s no hiding guys!
Idle after warm-up: nice deep tone with very very slight burble, I don’t think most people would notice that the car has an aftermarket exhaust system
Light to medium throttle: With windows up, I can barely hear the volume increase compared to Track CBE. With windows down, the volume increase is more prominent.
Hard throttle/WOT: this thing simply screams! You (and drivers behind you) will definitely notice the car is not stock. I will let the video do all the talking.
Highway cruising: you can definitely hear the exhaust system in the background, but I would not consider it as an annoying drone. Tire/road noise seems to be louder than the exhaust sound.
While this combo is loud under WOT, I still consider it to be relatively civil for a daily driven car. I can drive it conservatively and barely notice the sound.
Performance
While I understand tuning is the best bang for your bucks in term of dollar to HP ratio, I decided against getting a tune while the car is still under warranty. So my mod plan only includes hardware mods.
Immediately after picking up the car from 3Zero3, I felt the performance improvements. Engine seems to rev up and down more freely now. Downshifting and blipping for rev-matching feel so natural. Boost builds up quicker. And one thing that I feel the biggest improvement is that the power curve feels flatter. You still get amazing pull from down to top end, but with less of that “head-snapping” feeling when you hit 3K. I feel this helps with overall traction when pulling hard on first and second gear (I’m on stock-size PSS).
I wouldn’t say I hypermile my GTI, but I try to drive conservatively during daily city commute and try to stay in the 30-32 MPG range. It seems that I get a slightly better MPG after the downpipe. It’s hard to put any number down since I even haven’t gotten a tank on the downpipe. Will report back after more seat time.
As their claim, I have no CEL without a tune!
Conclusion
I’m totally satisfied with the product, service, and overall customer support. Thanks to Mike @ AWE for tirelessly answering all my questions. I just wish I lived closer to AWE that I could meet the folks there in person and see some of the actions.
This downpipe may not be the best bang for your HP buck, but in my case, it is. I’m more than satisfied with the performance gains from this downpipe.
The sound is very subjective. It’s loud when you get on it, but relatively civil when you’re just cruising with low engine load.
The Track/Downpipe combo would have been a perfect system when I was younger. If I could redo my cat-back decision, I would have gone with AWE Touring and pair it up with this downpipe to bring the sound level down a notch.
Talking to Mike, AWE has a conversion kit to convert the Track CBE to Touring CBE, basically swapping the front section of the CBE from a straight pipe to a pipe with a resonator. I’m still enjoying the Track/DP combo now, but may consider converting to Touring/DP combo.
Hope this review helps some folks who are trying to make a decision on a DP. Please feel free to post or message me with any questions. I’ll try to respond whenever I can.
Pictures
Video
Cold-start
Outside
Light, medium, WOT windows up
Light, medium, WOT windows down
https://youtu.be/JlaKTrb3z-4
I was satisfied not only with the product, but also amazed with AWE’s customer support and their 100% satisfaction commitment. I ended up forking mucho dollars to get their catted downpipe although this was not on my mod plan at all.
Let’s stop for a second, if you only want to throw in comments that this product is overpriced, it should be this or that price, and there are other lower-cost options, let me be the first who tell you that I’m not here to change your mind. Everyone has their own rights to express their opinions, but please don’t trash the thread. This thread is meant to give others a review on the product, service, and overall company in general. It’s nice that we have many options to choose from, if you don’t like one option, you can go with another.
Also, I consider this review is fairly subjective, I don’t have any quantitative measurements I can provide. Exhaust sound, tone, and volume level are purely subjective. I don’t have any dyno graph or hard data to show any performance gain. So take this for what it’s worth. Since this is a subjective review, I thought it would be good to share a bit about myself to give a point of reference. I'm 37 with two young kids (7 and 3) whom I take to school every morning in the GTI. In the past life (prior to kids), I competed in SCCA DSP class in E36 M3 and M coupe and tracked the cars. I’m an engineer, anal about my cars, work on my car for most of items outside engine. My GTI is daily driven, but I bet you its under-carriage is cleaner than your engine bay!
My Personal Rating
Shipping/Packing: 10/10
Build Quality: 10/10
Installation and Fitment: N/A – see below
Sound: 9/10
Performance: 10/10
Overall Satisfaction: 10/10
Shipping/Packing
As you probably know by now, most AWE products are built to order. Some dealers started stocking some products. You should expect 3-5 weeks of leadtime if what you want is not in stock. To me this is actually a plus point. Yes, it sucks having to wait and count the days until the brown truck delivers your goods, but for me, I feel more “special” (for lack of a better word) knowing that someone out there actually processes my order and does the fabrication for me, instead of someone just picks up a box off a shelf.
In my case, it actually took about 3 weeks to get the downpipe delivered. I placed my order on May 8 and it was delivered on May 28.
Packaging was similar to the cat-back, very nice and protective. Box was thick double-wall corrugated with lots of stuffing to protect the gem. They don’t skimp on packaging.
Build Quality
I had seen the detail pics on AWE’s website, but those pics don’t do this downpipe justice. Holding the piece on your own hands would give you a greater appreciation. I may be a geek, but this thing is truly a work of art. The level of attention of details in the fabrication and welding is very impressive. The mandrel bends are flawless. I’m not sure the thickness of the piping and didn’t have a caliper, but the entire piece felt very very solid.
If I had a money tree growing in my backyard, I would get one extra pipe, frame it, and hang it on my garage wall.
Installation and Fitment
With the amount of travel I do for living and 2 kids, I decided not to tackle the install myself. I had 3Zero3 (AWE dealer in Denver) install the downpipe. They have an amazing shop and are a great group of folks.
Thus, I cannot comment too much about the install process, but 3Zero3 advised me that the install went smoothly without any hiccup and fitment was spot on as they had expected.
I put the car on stands this past weekend and checked it out more closely. From my visual inspection, I have no reason to argue on the fitment being spot on.
Sound
If you read my review on AWE’s Track Cat-back system, I really think that AWE Track is how the GTI should have come from the factory. The sound level and tone are simply perfect to be considered as a “stock” performance car. It’s simply how a GTI should sound from the factory, in my opinion.
After adding AWE catted Performance downpipe to the Track cat-back, here’s the chronological order of what you can expect:
From install to about 50 miles: holy $hit this thing is loud…. seriously, the downpipe really increases the sound level. Aside from the sound level increase, I also noticed something interesting. From idle to 4K rpm, the volume level increases linearly with nice low deep tone. Between 4K to 5K, you will be surprised with an exponential increase in sound level and increase of “raspiness” in the exhaust tone. The interesting part, past 5K, the volume level and tone goes back to pre 4K.
The raspiness between 4K to 5K really bothered me to the point that I was doubting myself if I made the right decision. I contacted Mike at AWE and he assured me that the system needed some break in time.
Past 200 miles after install: holy $hit this thing is cool! I have put in close to 250 miles after the install and it seems that the system has broken in and it changed the sound level and tone quite a bit. The spike in sound level and especially the raspy tone between 4K to 5K have subsided quite a bit. There’s still a volume increase in that RPM range, but it’s not as prominent as during the break in period.
Cold-Start: the system is loud during the first 40-sec or so cold-start. It will turn heads if you park your car outside. You will need to be honest with your wife or significant other that you just “invested” more dough in your baby. There’s no hiding guys!
Idle after warm-up: nice deep tone with very very slight burble, I don’t think most people would notice that the car has an aftermarket exhaust system
Light to medium throttle: With windows up, I can barely hear the volume increase compared to Track CBE. With windows down, the volume increase is more prominent.
Hard throttle/WOT: this thing simply screams! You (and drivers behind you) will definitely notice the car is not stock. I will let the video do all the talking.
Highway cruising: you can definitely hear the exhaust system in the background, but I would not consider it as an annoying drone. Tire/road noise seems to be louder than the exhaust sound.
While this combo is loud under WOT, I still consider it to be relatively civil for a daily driven car. I can drive it conservatively and barely notice the sound.
Performance
While I understand tuning is the best bang for your bucks in term of dollar to HP ratio, I decided against getting a tune while the car is still under warranty. So my mod plan only includes hardware mods.
Immediately after picking up the car from 3Zero3, I felt the performance improvements. Engine seems to rev up and down more freely now. Downshifting and blipping for rev-matching feel so natural. Boost builds up quicker. And one thing that I feel the biggest improvement is that the power curve feels flatter. You still get amazing pull from down to top end, but with less of that “head-snapping” feeling when you hit 3K. I feel this helps with overall traction when pulling hard on first and second gear (I’m on stock-size PSS).
I wouldn’t say I hypermile my GTI, but I try to drive conservatively during daily city commute and try to stay in the 30-32 MPG range. It seems that I get a slightly better MPG after the downpipe. It’s hard to put any number down since I even haven’t gotten a tank on the downpipe. Will report back after more seat time.
As their claim, I have no CEL without a tune!
Conclusion
I’m totally satisfied with the product, service, and overall customer support. Thanks to Mike @ AWE for tirelessly answering all my questions. I just wish I lived closer to AWE that I could meet the folks there in person and see some of the actions.
This downpipe may not be the best bang for your HP buck, but in my case, it is. I’m more than satisfied with the performance gains from this downpipe.
The sound is very subjective. It’s loud when you get on it, but relatively civil when you’re just cruising with low engine load.
The Track/Downpipe combo would have been a perfect system when I was younger. If I could redo my cat-back decision, I would have gone with AWE Touring and pair it up with this downpipe to bring the sound level down a notch.
Talking to Mike, AWE has a conversion kit to convert the Track CBE to Touring CBE, basically swapping the front section of the CBE from a straight pipe to a pipe with a resonator. I’m still enjoying the Track/DP combo now, but may consider converting to Touring/DP combo.
Hope this review helps some folks who are trying to make a decision on a DP. Please feel free to post or message me with any questions. I’ll try to respond whenever I can.
Pictures
Video
Cold-start
Outside
Light, medium, WOT windows up
Light, medium, WOT windows down
https://youtu.be/JlaKTrb3z-4
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