I've always been rather passionate about the sound of cars. Even hearing my dad merely giving the V8 4runner some juice in order to pass farm trucks made my spine tingly when I was a small turd in the back seat.

I do not own an IS F. But, I still research exhaust setups for potential future reference. Comparisons outside of real life should be taken with a grain of salt for a variety of reasons, but I think my ears still get an overall idea of the differences between recordings on YouTube.

To my taste, the stock LC 500 exhaust is the most flattering setup for the 2UR-GSE. It's the perfect balance of rasp and deep growls, all while remaining crisp and free of drone. The sound heavily reminds me of a C6 Corvette Z06 with a Corsa exhaust. I realized this even before I learned Yamaha specially tuned the LC like they did with the LFA.

With all of that said, what is your favorite exhaust setup for the IS F? What would you say the closest setup to a LC 500 is?

To me, it seems to be the XForce exhaust coupled with better flowing headers and changes to the midpipe. I noticed it has that near perfect growl on startup like the LC

 

Listen to equal length headers and unequal length online. In my opinion, that makes the biggest difference. I like the JoeZ exhaust the most.

Equal length headers are a bit raspier, but also have more of an exotic sound. Unequal length have a more loping, American muscle sound.

 

Since you're checking for opinions here I'll toss my hat in for stock. I think it suits the car perfectly. When the broken flanges on my manifolds bug me enough, I'll put on headers, leave the rest, and cross my fingers. I'm knowingly opening myself up to heat here.

The LC500 in that video sounds pretty good - even touches slightly on the intonation of the LFA - until he starts revving it. I hate that sound. I don't do pops and crackles.

I grew up with strong American muscle pitches next to the two-chamber Flowmaster hollowness of the 90s. Nothing aftermarket I've heard on the ISF sounds anywhere near American muscle to me. There are a few modern cars on the road that can capture it. The last two I can think of that I heard in person were a c63 & a GT350. The latter in a large slew of Mustangs that sound lousy.

That's not to say it has to sound like American muscle to sound good of course. I'd pay money to hear the LFA in person - I think it's musical. One of the greatest exhausts I've ever heard was an e60 M5 with titanium. Italian engineering often sounds beautiful. As of late, the coolest aftermarket exhausts that I'd consider tough have been attached to a few hairy vettes I've heard, and believe it or not an SRT8 with Borla of all things that belongs to a friend of mine. Every time I hear it I stop what I'm doing and think of the Stang in Bullitt. He got very lucky with that setup. As far as "modern" stock, I'll take mine or an e9x M3.

Again, I'm damn particular about this. I've had the exhaust done twice on my Firebird (still not happy) and am coming to the realization that I over-cammed it. I'll revisit it when I've got the cash. I think I heard one ISF awhile back that sounded OK with aftermarket - I can't place it. But until I can, I have yet to hear an option on the ISF that doesn't remind me of a WRX and I'd rather listen to 50 screaming babies on a 737 than the sound of a fart-canned WRX.

 

PPE full exhaust.

-Josh

 

I know it will anger some people but I really don't care, as I got the car this way. I think the car sounds amazing with no mufflers and stock headers. I've had many others compliment the sound as well.

Unfortunately the stock headers leave a lot of performance on the table though so its not ideal from that perspective.

 

ISS Forged. The first manufacturer, to offer a real exhaust tip(s) design through the rear bumper. I must admit, I was driving around with the stock exhaust for a month. I really do appreciate the stock sound. Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice the glorious induction sound for the exhaust note.

 

I love how mine sounds. Best sounding exhaust really depends on how you want yours to sound. This is how I like mine to sound. Equal length Novel headers, stock mid pipe, since I still want the secondary cats, and HKS axle back. I will someday get an Icode titanium mid pipe with cats but I don't think it will sound too different than what it is now.

 

Why did you decide to keep the secondary cats?

 

I easily get headaches when smelling exhaust fumes.

 

Hayward and Scott..

 

Should sound the same as an IS F but Novel Full exhaust (vid is a GS F)

 

I'm partial to how my full Novel exhaust sounds:

 

Here’s cold start with XForce cat back and varex mufflers in open position
no other mods

 

god damn those EL headers are screamers

PPE UEL headers with single 2 in 2 out spintech box and helmholtz resonators.

long v8 thumping ASMR idling


tons more on the page. fly bys, lauches, burn out etc.

 

Not sure why but the HKS doesn't seem to get a lot of attention. If I was to do one, that might be it. The drone is the one thing on this car I would like less of and the I think the HKS takes care of it with Helmholtz resonators. Not sure though but it sounds like the drone is largely tuned out.