Town and Country exhaust opinions!

serious · Postby **serious** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:53 am

any photo or sound tape will be great!

kelvinator · Postby **kelvinator** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:17 pm

Wow! So many glowing reviews, I reckon I'm sold.
I have some time off later in the month and may make the drive over. Any guides on cost and what the system consists of? Full system, including headers and cat or cat back?***
A nice 8+ hour drive home should burn it in nicely or what better excuse for a GOR trip on the way back.

***Derrrr.....Probably better to give them a call myself. Just did that and seems very reasonable. Will get the cat as well. Mine is probably overdue being on there for nearly 20 years. Roll on end of September!!!

Mr nanotech · Postby **Mr nanotech** » Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:10 pm

Went to T&C today to have a look at that bigger tip and they offered to put it on for me while I was there. Unfortunately they couldn't get my car into the shop, apparently it's too low for the rear driveway and my front lip clips a gutter.

Mr nanotech · Postby **Mr nanotech** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 2:00 pm

Ok so the exhaust has been in a while now and sounds COMPLETELY different to when I originally had it put in :shock:

But in a good way :mrgreen:

I'm not kidding, it's gotten waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay deeper now!
I lent the car to Dad today and heard him pull away down the street for the first time since having the this muffler put on.... WOW!

So deep and so mean. And you know what? I've warmed up to the stock looking tiny exhaust tip. It's actually so small that it's cool now hahaha. It looks stock as hell but sounds faaaaaaaaar from it!
The only complaint is that the exhaust tip is a rolled tip and looks sorta cheap rather than a real looking tip. I dare say the perfect system would be having this muffler with the stock exhaust tip cut off and welded onto it.
Stock look with awesome sound = win!

Thank you so much Peter for convincing me time and time again that TnC to a fantastic job, have to catch up sometime and compare them. Love to see your 3" tip too.
PM me next time you're free!

murph · Postby **murph** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:32 pm

Made the trip to town and country today after reading this forum, as my old exhaust 2.5 Inch which was on the car when I bought it had given up and started rattling etc.

Spoke to Colin, organized the tried and tested pcmx5 special and headed down to geelong. On the way down was debating whether this was the right decision as the 2.5 inch has always had a nice deep throaty sound and I didn't wanna step backwards.

Met Colin upon arrival ( go up the drive on an angle, very steep ), straight onto hoist, and showed me what the system comprised of. Chose to go for the larger tip, and everything else as recommended.

Went for a counter meal to the pub up the road on Colin reccomendation, came back a bit over an hour later 15 bucks poorer and bout a kilo heavier, and wollah, exhaust just finished.

All I can say is the workmanship was excellent, the sound is just brilliant - much much better than what I had before, and car seems slightly more responsive.

Thanks to pcmx5 and the guys at t&c for all the research and developing a great system. very happy so far and looking forward to the great ocean rd on Sunday!

droo · Postby **droo** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 12:24 pm

I had my 5 done last saturday.
My existing setup was a 2.5" from the cat back, then Y split into two resonators then into two 3" tips.
too large, too noisy.
Had to shout at your passenger at 100-110kph to have a 'conversation'
Had to recover for over an hour after driving for 2 hours just to get normal hearing back on any longish distance travel (Bendigo to Melbourne etc)
Essentially, the exhaust setup i had was "ambitious but rubbish."

Incidentally, Colin had pointed out that the Y pipe splitter was responsible for robbing power/torque. I have noticed also around some decent inclines at 100kph (Calder highway near home) that 5th gear had no torque to pull the car without dropping down two gears. Also, didnt have much torque below 3000rpm in general tootling driving.

I've now got his system installed, with twin exhausts as well. I spent several hours there chatting and discussing various options and optimising the path for clearance around the chassis. He was very open to suggestions i'd made and also got the job done very well. I've got some video and plenty of photos of the day's work, and in time i'll get that edited and posted here. (too madly rushed at the moment)

The Y pipe splitter was replaced with a twin outlet muffler, which has improved torque very noticably. I'm not sure on the power output as yet as i havent been able to drive the car significantly. The thing is, i've only wanted improved torque for drivability but i have no doubt it would not have effected top end power adversely. This torque improvement is evident in all gears at below 3000rpm. Driving the incline near home, i didnt need to change gears from 5th. *happy!*

After it was *INITIALLY* completed, the car was quieter, but not as quiet as i'd hoped - not a ear bleeding noisy but a higher frequency. Cool sound (actually very cool sound) but always "loud" in all RPM (but still no way near as deafening as what i had earlier)

I'd suggested adding a deadpipe, unfortunately i didnt have my info with me on calculating the ideal length. At the moment, it's fitted with one which is a bit short and essentially cancels out exhaust noise (literally all the exhaust noise) at 5800rpm (with a quiet patch +/- 500rpm of that). An offshoot of that now is the resonant harmonics from the deadpipe's 1/4 wavelength also quietens down 3500rpm too. No appreciable affect on performance.

My car is currently off the road getting my rims repainted, rear bearings sorted and new pads installed, but i need to get some work done on measuring highway cruising speed exhaust temperatures at the muffler. This temperature is critical in the formula i've derived for working out the deadpipe length. I've since bought a thermocouple and reader and basically need to get the car cruising on the highway for 30 min to get the temps up and recorded. Once that's done, there'd be only two variables left to use - drone rpm and the number of vehicle cylinders, and it will work for any vehicle.

The thing is, the exhaust work is excellent, sounds great, is SIGNIFICANTLY quieter then what i had, has more torque then before (equating to better fuel economy), and i can have a conversation with my passenger or on my handsfree like i would at the same volume at a cafe while travelling at 100kph.
Colin is extremely friendly/approachable/hospitable and welcoming. Fitting of the twin exhaust tips and the amount of time we spent with the details on making the best appearance for the outlets was welcoming, reassuring and is part of a work process that impresses me.

He has ensured excellent clearances for the piping not to collide at any point with the body work, with generally atleast 1" spacing from all undercarriage.

Based on that info *ALONE* i'd strongly recommend his workmanship.

Once I have my formula (temperature value) sorted for the deadpipe length, i'll hand it over to him to get optimised on my car and for future MX works for other people if they choose not to use his standard non drone setup (unlike mine) and will report back here (or a new thread) on how it is, with plenty of photos and videos with audio recordings to demonstrate.

As mentioned, i've taken loads of video of the process for that saturday but haven't had time to collate it to a film yet.
I'll report back when i can.

Big thumbs up to Colin and Town & Country Exhaust.
(apologies for my rushed & wordy post)

Colin had called in a fellow member PCMX5, had a good yack during and after the installation.

droo · Postby **droo** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 6:33 pm

progress on the formula, decided to make it go visual, so i can inspect and sus out temperature variances.
(values are for testing purposes only, so dont go off these)

So far it looks like there can be nearly a 100degree variance in temperature with only a marginal targeted RPM drone frequency shift. (this is good news!)

btw, if theres anyone out there who can do Javascript programming to get some equations plotted onto various charts, please get in touch with me!

hamx5ter · Postby **hamx5ter** » Mon Dec 12, 2011 11:16 pm

Ok... so I'm biting the bullet and getting a T&C while I drive down to Melb next week (22/12/11).. Looking forward to the drive back up the Alpine Way

initial D · Postby **initial D** » Tue Dec 13, 2011 8:50 am

A video of the sound would be nice

shake and bake · Postby **shake and bake** » Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:47 pm

I had the T&C system put on over a year ago now. I made a quick vid of it just a few days after it was installed. Heres the link if you want to have a look. Sounds even better now, as everyone has been saying. (Hope mine sounds like everyone else's) :shock:

Hope people dont mind me making a video of it, if any problems just delete the post.

Its the best mod i have done to the car without question.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SIroiwL2Xc

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 3:59 pm

Sounds good - certainly a popular mod for Vic MX5ers.

miatalim · Postby **miatalim** » Sat Jan 07, 2012 12:09 am

I can second any recommendation to town and country exhaust system. I really hated my nb 1999 exhaust but the tc exhaust really transformed my experience of my mc to a much more thrilling and satisfying ride. I feel like mid range and top end has improved subjectively. I had my exhaust done about 10 mths ago.