I recently ordered a Pride V2 Quad Tips exhaust and SOS adaptors from Mark. The overall transaction from ordering to delivery was very smooth. I was picky of the date for the exhaust to be shipped and arrive since I wanted to be there in person to receive it. The SOS adaptors were originally going to be shipped together in the same box with the exhaust to save me freight cost, but I expressed concern that the SOS adaptors could potentially dent the exhaust if the shipping was handled roughly. Mark was very understanding about this and offered to ship the SOS Adaptors separately to me at his own cost, which I accepted. Mark also promptly shipped the exhaust on the exact date that I requested and it arrived one day earlier than I expected which worked out well.
I received the Pride V2 exhaust safely in one piece (thank goodness since FedEx has a history of being rough in handling my packages). The exhaust was well packaged and it took some time for me to carefully remove areas that were taped to the exhaust. What bugged me was that the tape left sticky residue on the areas that were taped to the exhaust after peeling off the tape. Before installing the exhaust I had to go out and buy a bottle of Goo Gone so I could rub off the sticky residue, which took some time to do. Anyhow, I rather have a well packaged exhaust and deal with rubbing off the sticky residue left by tape instead shipping back a poorly packaged exhaust with bent tips. As for the overall exterior quality of the exhaust, I would give it a 9 out of 10. There are some tiny little dings and scratches on the metal of the exhaust if looked at very close-up, but more importantly the welds are well done.
The removal of the old stock exhaust and installing of the new Pride V2 exhaust took longer than I anticipated, but I did take my time. Besides doing oil changes myself, it was my first time uninstalling/installing an exhaust on any car. I told Mark about this and he told me to call him anytime if I needed help during the install. Although I never had to call Mark, I can tell his customer service attitude is excellent. I also read a lot of posts on NSXPrime about the exhaust install process, which looked fairly straightforward to do, so I decided to do it myself since a local exhaust shop quoted me $178 to install a new exhaust
. The hardest part was loosening the stock exhaust springs/bolts even after spraying WD-40. I first used a 14mm socket wrench to unscrew the springs/bolts, but I then realized (if I recall correctly) that I also needed a 12mm socket wrench to loosen the smaller bolts on the opposite end of the springs/bolts. Once I did this, loosening all the bolts were much easier. Getting down the old stock exhaust wasn’t as difficult as I expected. I just had to carefully lower it down with one knee.
Installing the new Pride V2 was quite a learning experience. Mounting the new exhaust to the exhaust hangars was a pain to do. The issue was that I bolted on the SOS adaptors onto the Pride exhaust, which put on additional weight and limited the amount of maneuvering room I had under the NSX. I ended up taking off the SOS adaptors, which made mounting the Pride exhaust to the hangers much easier. I then made sure everything was aligned properly, and lastly bolted and tightened up the SOS adaptors to the Pride exhaust and catalytic converters. The overall fitment of the Pride V2 is a 9 out of 10, it is not perfect, but good enough to me for the price and the sounds it provides.
Speaking of sound, the Pride V2 exhaust emits a very refine rumble/throaty/growling sound (whatever you call it). It is exactly what I wanted :biggrin: (note that I did not hear the Pride exhaust in person before my purchase). The Pride exhaust is definitely louder than the stock exhaust at idle, but not much (see my sample video below). I’m also glad that it doesn’t emit an annoyingly low frequency rumble at idle (kind of like a low bass/drone sound) that one can hear several feet away. When revving the NSX, the Pride V2 exhaust lets out a nice loud growl. During driving on the roads, the cabin sounds a tad sportier than the stock exhaust, and as the revs goes up the exhaust growls more loudly. There is a noticeable drone in the cabin between 2-2.8K RPMs, but it doesn’t bother me much. Other than that, the Pride V2 exhaust is very streetable and emits a nice sporty sound even with stock catalytic converters. It would have been nice if all NSXs came with a similar sounding Pride V2 exhaust from the factory.
Pride V2 exhaust idle and rev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ3O28k09Wc