Stainless Steel Race Exhaust & Center Link Pipe, MX5 Mk3
Click to enlarge
£771.35
inc £128.56 VAT
Available at checkout
Availability : None In Stock
Not in UK? VAT will be deducted at checkout
It’s the best exhaust (rear box) I’ve had, including custom ones. Unfortunately, other than that the system is OEM so not sure how it would perform on a de catted car in terms of sound. On mine, zero droning, very subtle pops/burble and just enough difference from OEM to let you know you’re in a sports car! Very subjective I know but a quality piece of kit out yesterday covering 190 miles of mixed driving and it sounded amazing.
Barrie
I really like this one, just looks so well made although the price is well up there. I read somewhere it’s noisy with a de-cat so I’ll see if anybody else comments but this is on the short list for sure.
You can still find the Cobalt exhaust used from time to time.
I’d call MOSS Europe parts and see when they are getting their new ones. They already told me they have done the R&D, testing etc just waiting for them to be shipped but they have been saying that since Nov 20.
With a standard pipe my Cobalt has only added 10% increase in noise so I would imagine it wouldn’t be too bad with your set up, purely speculation though.
I will end up with ILM 4-1 headers decatted with the Cobalt, so hoping it won’t be obnoxious.
I think the Cobalt sounds great on the standard mani. I wish I could find an example of what it would sound like on the IL de-cat manifold. I’d love to go and buy one today but maybe it’s good that they are out of stock for a while as it gives me time to try and do a bit of research and hopefully get it right first time.
Already I’ve ruled out the Cobra as too loud.
Go Perform is still a contender
BBR GT back box and iL Motorsport are contenders but proper money to buy new.
RB Power Pulse I’m still considering.
If anybody has these exhaust back box’s with a de-cat manifold and standard mid pipe it would be great to hear from you.
Haven’t forgotten the promise to provide a sound clip for the set up I have (BBR Manifold, BBR Centre and RB Power Pulse). Tried yesterday but the wind noise killed it. Plus, didn’t capture the tone well at all.
I have an external mic that I’ll mount and try over this weekend.
I also have a DB meter to measure loudness so I’ll post the results of that too at idle, rev and driveby.
Hi, I’ve got the Cobalt back box, BBR decat manifold and standard mid pipe on my NC Sportech. I did the back box first and the change was fairly subtle but a nicer deeper tone and perfectly acceptable (loudness-wise) on long journeys. The decat definitely made it louder but the sound is just fantastic. Most of my journeys have been fairly short and the volume hasn’t been an issue but I have just done a 200mile round trip to WIM (coilovers and full alignment) and I did notice my ears were ringing a bit when I got home. Planning a much longer trip to Scotland later this summer so might look into putting the OEM back box back on temporarily for that trip to avoid upsetting the missus!
Shout out to Joe and the guys at WIM by the way. Really nice guys and the car feels fantastic on their fast road setup.
Thanks for the post Ben. Cobalt seems to be out of production for the NC for the foreseeable future. Moss say there is a new one coming but have no information when which is slightly perplexing.
I’m looking at BBR GT now but they are way more money and a 8-week lead time. RB Power Pulse probably a bit loud for me with a de-cat fitted already. I-L motorsport out of stock and even more money than BBR.
Probably one of the hardest choices I’ve had to make when modding my car!
Hi Jimbo, yes I agree it is a very tough choice. I did a lot of research when looking for mine before settling on the Cobalt as it is seemed to fit the bill sound and price wise. Everything else was either too loud or too expensive so am sorry to hear it’s out of stock. I remember I had to wait for ages (pre covid) to order mine so it sounds like Moss are still having stock issues. Hopefully they will get it sorted as the world starts to get back to some sort of normal. For what it’s worth, I’ve been very pleased with mine so it might be worth holding out if you can. Good luck with the search!
Well after a bit of messing about with couriers I received and fitted the BBR Grand Tourer exhaust silencer on my NC2 today. As I said before this was probably one of the toughest decisions I’ve made when modding my car as I wanted a reasonably subtle enhancement without the booming, farting and outright volume of some of the other options. I was sold on a Cobalt tbh but they are like rocking horse at the minute for the NC so I went for the BBR GT as it was recommended for a de-cat mani setup like mine and research suggested lots of other aftermarket silencers don’t perform as expected with this setup.
So what’s it like?
Expensive at £600 shipped inc VAT but not THE most expensive.
Same weight as the OEM silencer but 10cm shallower.
I’m impressed with the build quality, I’ve been all over it and the welds and quality are v good.
Pretty easy to install once the rusty seized old bolts were cut off I lubed the rubbers with silicon spray, supported the silencer on my jack and it was fitted and connected up in 10 mins.
I took a fair while doing OCD antics over the positioning of the tail pipes as I didn’t want them sticking out too far like a wheelbarrow but wanted the nice etched BBR logo to be visible, they are wider compared to OEM but not like some of the plant pots you see on some Subaru’s etc etc…
I’m happy with the look, enhanced but not too bling and shouty
So the all important thing what does it sound like? Well with a K&N panel filter, iL de-cat manifold and remap on a standard mid pipe for me it’s just what I was after.
The car sounds quiet and very OEM when idling. Gentle use of throttle doesn’t raise any eyebrows and won’t upset pedestrians. Mid range is louder but more defined and crucially not boomy roof up or down on my soft top. There is no resonance or buzzing like some people have experienced with Cobra or similar systems. 4k up to 7k is just fantastic. It properly sings now combining the induction noise with the exhaust its got that proper classic sports car raspy sound but not so harsh that it makes your eardrums shudder or becomes fatiguing to listen to. A bonus is some nice little pops on up shifting during hard acceleration and accompanied by lovely crackles and burbling on down shift especially when rev matching.
Basically I am very happy with my car now its exactly how I wanted it to sound although I appreciate other systems might give you something similar at less cost this is a well rounded sound and not just volume over definition like we’ve become used to these days.
Anyway thanks for reading this long post my hope is that it’s of use to mx5 owners now and in the future, feel free to chip in with your experiences I’m sure someone will benefit as I have.
Hiya! Great review and looks like it was well worth waiting for always nice to see a few pictures in a post too I guess after a running in period it will sound even better?
Yes I’m sure it will develop a bit more character once it’s bedded in properly and built up a bit of carbon on the internals. It was quite smelly yesterday after giving it a good thrash. Probably oil or left over flux from manufacturing was my guess. I think aside from fitting light weight alloys at some point in the future I’m pretty happy with the car now but then how many times has that been said before😅
Available at checkout
Not in UK? VAT will be deducted at checkout
out yesterday covering 190 miles of mixed driving and it sounded amazing.
at the minute for the NC so I went for the BBR GT as it was recommended for a de-cat mani setup like mine and research suggested lots of other aftermarket silencers don’t perform as expected with this setup.
I guess after a running in period it will sound even better?
