It’s no secret that factory exhaust components and lack of interest from the general in loud cars has taken a toll on the deep, throaty exhaust sounds that we love. Many modern cars are dead silent or pretty close to it, even modern musclec cars often sound much wimpier than they actually are, and it’s because their exhaust systems have been dumbed down so greatly.
If you’ve got a 2018 Mustang GT and want your car to sound like a true performance machine, AmericanMuscle showed how to do it with a full Corsa exhaust upgrade. The company’s long-tube headers work with your car’s stock Active Valve Performance Exhaust system and improve the sound output and quality on every setting. These things really do a great job of setting your modern Mustang up to sound like it’s much louder predecessors.
Those long-tube headers just flat out look better than the stock exhaust manifolds.
Stephanie Wood of AmericanMuscle was kind enough to step in front of the camera and show us how the exhaust system affects the sound of your exhaust, and since we’re just listening on our computer speakers, she also shows us the difference on a decibel meter so we can get a fuller understanding of just how much change is made to the exhaust sound by this one modification.
Stephanie explained that AM installed Corsa’s 1 7/8-inch long tube headers using the stock cat-back. While some people may choose to go with an aftermarket cat-back system, Stephanie explained that the Active Valve Performance Exhaust system means that more people may be happier with the stock cat-backs than they had been in the past so we might be seeing more people using them in the future. With that in mind, they wanted to show off what the stock cat-backs would sound like with the active exhaust and a nice set of long-tube headers.
Corsa’s collectors are 3 inches in diameter, so they had to install step-down adapters to mate with the 2 ½ inch stock exhaust with the headers. They also had to trim some of the extension pipes to work with the stock cat-backs. “So, needless to say, yes, long-tubes will work with the stock cat-backs,” Stephanie said, “But you’re going to have to do some work to get them there.”
It’s up to the owner or installer if they want to keep the stock cat-backs or upgrade to aftermarket equipment.
Stephanie then goes through the different modes and shows how they each sound with the decibel meter. The results are clear that the long-tube headers provide a louder, more rich sounding car than the stock exhaust, even with the stock cat-backs.
| Stock Exhaust | Corsa Long-Tube Headers | ||
| Quiet Mode: | 100.7 db | 105.7 db | |
| Normal Mode: | 111.9 db | 121.8 db | |
| Sport Mode: | 113.4 db | 123.6 db | |
| Track Mode: | 114.3 db | 123.8 db |
This decibel meter was used to show exactly how much of a difference was made at each setting by the Corsa exhaust. It’s hard to really tell just how much the volume changed over your computer speakers or on your phone, so the meter really gives a great benchmark to show just how much change was made.
The jump from Normal mode to Sport mode is much smaller than the jump from Quiet to Normal, and the move from Sport to Track is even smaller still, but only when comparing the Corsa headers in each setting. The long-tube headers blow the stock exhaust out of the water at every level. The diminished difference between setting is because the stock cat-backs have reached their max sound output, so if you’re looking for something a little louder in Sport and Track modes, aftermarket cat-backs would be a good choice for your car.
Make sure that you watch the video with the volume up so you can take full advantage of the sound that’s given off by the Mustang they use as their demo car. The stock exhaust doesn’t sound bad, and the Corsa long-tube headers are like music to our ears.
