Well, what can I say - first road run completed with the new G56 kit fitted and I am completely blown away by the change in how the car drives. But first....
Mine was an early kit (S/No.6 on the plate) with black heat-shields and it arrived looking very nice in the proper 'coffin' - very Abarth, I must say.
To make removal of the stock pipes from the headers easier, I took the entire system off the car so as not to risk damaging the header/exhaust port connection. These came apart easily, as in fact I'd been running the factory 'Noisy Pipes' for a while (slightly better flowing than the stock pipes, but not as ear-splittingly loud as the factory straight-throughs...) and I then took the opportunity to re-wrap them properly, using water and more tension. Seemed to work OK.
I removed the seats and side panels and fitted the new brackets, which all went together easily. For what it's worth, this is what the bracket supports for a June 2013 car look like;
I like the professional feel to the kit, as it has just what you need to do the job properly - all quality bits as well. I moved the bobbins from old to G56 pipes and readied myself for an alignment and fitting struggle....!
Suitably covered in nice new black wrap, I remounted the headers loosely and then offered up the new pipes to the front section and they slipped together like a dream, which was a pleasant surprise. The new silencers then sat straight down on the new brackets and the bobbins popped through their respective holes without any pushing, shoving or misalignment whatsoever. Just a spot on fit. I then aligned everything and nipped up the headers nuts and silencer mounts and to my amazement I had gained a good 20mm extra clearance between the header and the offside front shock. They were no more than 10mm apart on the old pipes and occasionally collided.
I repeated the same process the other side and again, it all went together perfectly and similarly found me nearly an inch of clearance between the pipe and shock. This nearside setup before had been a real nuisance as clacked away on bigger bumps the entire time, such was the slim gap previously. Now I have all the clearance in the world and I could even now consider dropping the car if I felt so inclined, although I doubt I'd gain much as the Empire setup is so good already.
I then replaced the air-cleaner cover - or rather tried to, but one of the hex bolts had become very tight and got rounded off by the Allen key when I tried to remove it. Would you believe that it needed drilling out and a stud extractor deployed to removed the old bolt. And this was supposed to be the easy bit! Fortunately I had another matching bolt handy and within a minute or so I had the full kit fitted.
I then left it overnight as the headers were still wet from the wrapping and it was gone midnight, not the best time to see just how loud the car was in sleepy Surrey village land....
So to this lunchtime and the first start. It churned for the usual few seconds and then a much deeper, baritone bark came forth and the beastie was up and running. Man alive, what a nice noise! Much deeper and more rounded than the other pipes (like a good Chilean Carmenere) and with a great 'finish' at the tail, as if you could hear the movement of the dinner-plate piston. Excellent stuff. And then the smoke started....
... which I let calm down a little before venturing out, so as not to alarm the folks at the end of the road and risk a call to the Fire Brigade. I noticed less rock & roll from the new pipes too, which may be down to the extra 4kg, better mounting alignment or just better engineering, but they definitely bounce around less at idle.
As soon as I moved off I could notice a difference. The engine is just sooo smooth now and so keen and controlled on the smallest of throttle openings. I putt putt'd off down the road and the car felt really good. There's no doubt that the G56 pipes are quieter than the factory Nois-ies and I suspect similar to the OEM versions, but no factory pipe has been this controlled and mellow on a small to medium throttle. So far so good. Let the car warm up and just enjoy the torque that feels so much fatter and wholesome in the 2000-3000rpm range. In fact I now noticed how much better the car is at 2000rpm when asking for a little pull - no more jerking and general rumpousness, just clean, straight and grunty pull. More excellent news.
I find a clear piece of road and then give the car more throttle - the sort of stab I'd do to demonstrate the previous pinking problem to someone, so say 2/3rds throttle from about 4000rpm. Flippin' 'eck - so much quicker, my word! The rate of increase in revs is a real surprise and it whipped round to 5700rpm in 3rd before I started laughing. The pull just keeps coming and in 4th and 5th it still feels stronger then before on full throttle, when only on about 2/3rds.
OK, here comes a straight, lets try full gas this time. Hmmm, OK, this thing is a complete hoot. Love it! Let's try pulling a little too briskly out of my favourite junction, just enough to break traction typically. This time I get waaay more spin but so much more controllable for some daft reason. Probably because I'm having such a laugh, but I'd swear the car has become more of a hooligan!
So, where does that leave me. I reckon the car is nicer to drive now than it's ever been, certainly quicker by what feels like a good 25-30% (which by looking at the dyno graph, might be about right), the new Centa remains a very good thing, Empire gives me the stability and feedback I want and the Blockleys are just about scrubbed in now.
I am completely back in love with the car and can't want to exercise it more this coming summer.
Massive thanks to the Garage-56 guys for all their hard efforts to get the kit developed (I think the final design may have been No.4 in the evolution) and for ensuring top quality manufacture. It really has transformed the car. Outstanding stuff. Keep an eye out for their website which I think is nearing completion - they are bound to have some new and exciting things in hand I reckon!
Go on people, you won't regret it
