Originally I hadn't planned on purchasing the N1 system but since GReddy was backordered and the guy at Apex-R Motorsports took 100 bucks off the price of this to accomodate me I figured why pass up a good thing. This system seems to be of very good quality. No rust after 1-1/2 months so far and the pipes have some sort of ceramic style coating applied. The sound, however, is LOUD. Not exactly like a beehive but along the lines of a deep superbike style sound. The muffler hangs at a slight angle so it points up and out towards the passenger side which in my opinion looks really cocky. Another thing is that the pipe starts opening up even before the tip with a nice smooth taper which is probably part of the reason the muffler's so lound.
Here's the muffler ready to be installed. Packing quality
was very good and the system came in a much bigger box than I'd expected.
I had to take the components out in order to get it home, especially since
I bought it in Phoenix and installed it at my house in CA when I went home
for Graduation.
Installation is pretty straightforward as all that is required is unbolting the stock exhaust and pulling it out of the hangers and replacing it with the APEX'i system. However, installation is much easier if you wait a couple of hours for the exhaust to cool after getting home and liberally spray WD-40 or other lubricant on all the bolts and hangers. The most difficult part of the install was getting the stock exhaust off the rubber hangers. I finally resorted to using a heat gun and lots of WD-40 to soften the rubber mounts.
You can see
the increased pipe size over stock and the reduction in bends with the
APEX'i system. Also pictured is the stock "Beer Keg" muffler.
Performance gains with the N1 system were quite noticable. I alread had the header and intake installed and adding the exhaust made a nice difference. The car felt a lot less restricted and gained rev's much faster than before. With just the header I would beat my friend's 200 SX by 1 car length in the 1/4 mi. and after the intake and exhaust I increased the gap to 2-1/2 car lengths.
APEX included
their Super Silencer with the exhaust that fits inside the 115mm tip of
both the N1 and DUNK mufflers to reduce the sound output by a claimed 7dB.
It works really well and actaully adds a deeper note, but at the cost of
having a 2" outlet and looking pretty odd. This device also adds
some low-end torque but not enough to make up for the high end power without
it.
For more info visit APEX'i
's US website