Hey guys, just wanted to post up some pics of the work I recently had completed by a local shop: Taliaferro Imports. Within the Saab community, they're extremely well known. They're a family owned operation that's been around since '86, and a few years ago built the fastest street legal Saab in the United States. Locally, they're mainly known for fabrication expertise. At any given time you could walk in there and see anything from engine swaps, resto-mods, turbo fabrication, CNC work, you name it. After having seen plenty of their work, I decided to take the plunge and have them build a set of downpipes and a cat-back to my specifications. While there are options for off-the-shelf exhaust, I just didn't like what was available for the price. Granted, this is highly subjective and there are plenty of people that have great results with LMS, Stainless Works, PPE, but they just weren't what I personally wanted. So this post is in no way meant to discount the off the shelf options currently available. I've always just preferred custom work by skilled hands made specifically for my car.
My goal for the system was to be a true 2.5" stainless setup with cat's, an x-pipe, and v-band's. I hate 2 bolt flanges with a passion. This is also my daily driver, so decibel level and drone control was definitely a concern of mine. I walked through everything with my fabricator, Marshall, and he knew exactly what I was shooting for. I dropped the car off with a pair of Borla mufflers/tips in the trunk, and a pair of OEM downpipe gaskets to use as a template to make new downpipe flanges. In just a few days, I got the call that it was ready to go!
They kept it on the lift, so that I could see the system in its entirety. What I saw completely exceeded my expectations. The entire exhaust is comprised of Sanitube sanitary-grade stainless steel. (Fun fact: there's an interesting video on YouTube showing how Sanitube is made). It fit better and tucked closer than even the OEM exhaust did. The sound was exactly what I was looking for. A deep growl without any harsh buzzing or resonance. Completely manageable on the street. I couldn't believe how much heavier the OEM setup was as well. I think we can all agree that any weight saved is appreciated in our boats. I went ahead and uploaded the new tune from Livernois, and I was all set.
I'll let the pictures do the rest of talking. Apologies in advance for the quality, as the only camera I own is my phone. Anyway, I hope they do the setup some justice. The whole team over there did a great job.