Fabspeed F355 Challenge exhaust in collaboration with YellowCompass:

Just want to start off, by saying thanks to Fabspeed and Yellowcompass for coming together to get the challenge exhaust shipped out to me in Montreal. Fabspeed is at the top of the market for producing aftermarket parts and I would say Yellowcompass is one of the most innovative vendors I’ve come across in a long time.

This all started as an experiment after hearing my friend’s 355 with test pipes on a local cruise at the beginning of this season. My car a 1997 GTB with Nouvalari exhaust + Fabspeed headers + all stock cats, although on its own does/did sound great. It was no comparison to the sound with test pipes, almost muted. So I did a bunch of research on test pipes. In the end I decided not to go test pipes as I preferred not to deal with the potential hassles of CEL’s. Many have had great success running O2 spacers with test pipes, but they are still not full proof and preferred to steer away from possible CEL’s with a 5.2 car. Plus as some mentioned the exhaust smell.

After considering other options or potentially stay as is, I came across Fabspeed’s challenge style exhaust. As per the description on their site, they designed it as a custom one-off piece for one of their client’s track 355’s. But is now available for 355 owners to buy. However to my understanding I may be the only other 355 running their version. So after some discussion with them and Yellowcompass I put in the order. After 2 weeks it arrived.

The piece is very well made, very nice welding and the mirror finish tips are beautiful. Im not a DIY type guy, but luckily my friend was willing to bring his tools to my place and we did the install together. I referred to Robb’s Capristo install thread for the step by step. Although a relatively easy job, it was still quite the undertaking for us. But we got the job done all good slowly step by step. Fitment was all nice and good too. One thing with Fabspeed’s design, it does away with the flanges and clamps at the cats. The exhaust inlet tips just slide right over the cat outlet tips and then tightened down with the supplied v-band clamps. I see this as a big advantage as I almost lost one of the oem cat clamps, while looking under the car one day, it was hanging almost completely off.

My goal/hope was to achieve close to test pipe sound, while retaining all stock cats setup. After running it now, I think this is the closest it can get. Light throttle street cruising speed sound is very reasonable, highway cruising sound is more than fine almost the same. As some I spoke to said test pipe sound can get taxing on the ears on a long highway cruise, so this is a good plus. Also no exhaust smell. Mechanically the car runs exactly the same, no CELs or anything. Performance wise, the throttle definitely feels crisper and rpms rise quite quicker. Now at full throttle, it sounds like a bomb going off and screams like hell at higher rpm. My only concern with the setup is the idle, which is quite loud. My Nouvalari idle was loudish but reasonable, the challenge idle volume feels well above this now. I planned to sell my Nouvalari, but I think I’ll have to keep it now as a backup, in case I get a warning or something. Hopefully not. I appreciate the idle, it does sound great, but I feel bad for the surrounding traffic at a light and neighbor’s lol. I can control the volume with the throttle somewhat when cruising. But sitting at idle theres nothing I can do. So this is the only unexpected outcome. The rest is fantastic and exactly the extra I was looking for.

Attached are some pics. One directly from Fabspeed when my unit was finished welding and a few of the install. Lastly I did my best to capture some sound clips. You can hear I have a bit of BPV buzz, but it comes and goes intermittently.

Again much thanks to Fabspeed and Yellowcompass..!!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPxGasLd-Eg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2lF1pCRCNM
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yes that's you lol... all this is your fault..!

 

the setup is overall great.. very reasonable at cruising speeds.. with the extra crackles and pops.. screams at full throttle.. would not be surprised if some small flames would be visible at night..

no CEL problems..
with nicely noticeable difference in throttle pickup..

my only personal criticism is the idle volume.. but what can I expect I guess, with a non-muffled challenge setup..

the idle volume of the Nouvalari was just perfect.. this would be the only thing im missing since swapping it out.

 

thanks for the feedback..

indeed there is definitely noticeable throttle pick up with this unit on.. I felt it immediately during the first run..

my concern was not really the cabin volume... it was more the external idle volume in stop/go traffic or sitting at a light. especially if theres a cop near by. it has not happened yet.. and I drive my car almost daily, so its still to be determined if I get questioned..

would make sense, downward tips would lower the volume.. but looks wise not too appealing..

wrapping it, maybe would help cabin volume.. but not sure it would no anything for exterior volume.