After roughly $1200 invested, a week's worth of waiting, and 6 hours of installation (downpipe bolts were threaded- one bent and one snapped in two... thanks Audi!), the blood and sweat paid off. On the first initial run, gears 1-3 displayed the biggest difference, with the tires chirping on a rolling start after hookup (a quattro getting squirrelly with your friends as witnesses! How valuable is that??!!) Pickup definitely improved throughout the RPM range, with power coming on strong at about 2800 RPM to 5700 RPM. From there, the torque curve tapers down, probably due to the constraints of the K03 (APR tapers boost at high RPM's for this reason). As for highway cruising, flooring it at 80 mph does not provide quite the rush I expected, but I could still feel myself being pulled into my seat. The car was pinging lightly on the runs, but only after I had filled with Unocal 92 octane (car pinged on this crap gas stock). Chevron seemed to make the car run much better.

As for the exhaust, the sound is deep and pleasant. What makes the exhaust and downpipe great is the lack of the "rice cracker" sound which I hear on so many other exhausts, especially with 4 bangers (honda's?). At idle, only a vaguely light hum tells you what you've got until you get on the power and the sound comes into play. Very nice.

Although, it sounds like I'm head over heels on the setup, I did have a couple gripes, though minor:

1. End muffler only has one exhaust hangar as opposed to the stock setup of two. Muffler still stays near straight, and exhaust hangs with less play than some work I've seen at muffler shops.

2. At first when I saw the picture of the exhaust on the forum, I hated the tips (with a passion). However, after install, the chrome ovals made a nice addition to the car's profile. I guess you only know when you see it in person. As for the pipe within a pipe look of the tips, I discovered that by putting my hand over the tips (when the exhaust is cold and idling, of course), the outer pipe acts as a vacuum, assisting in "pulling" the exhaust. I don't know if this was in the development plans, but it's a neat feature.

Anyway, all in all, it's a claimed +68 hp package and it feels pretty close to that by seat of the pants. Definitely worth it if you have the means.

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