Ben Przekop
Mercer Island, WA 996 40th Model Anniversary 2004 Year January 2018 Acquired
If you are anything like me, the sound emanating from the tailpipes of your Porsche is a very important and emotional part of the 911 experience. Although the original exhaust of my 911 has a very pleasant and genuine flat six sound, it is just a bit too quiet for my tastes, and lacks some of the louder and deeper character I have enjoyed on some of my other 911s with either Porsche Sport Exhaust or other aftermarket systems.
Recently I started asking 996 owners and other trusted advisors what 996 exhaust systems they like best, and a great number of owners, including several on the 40 AE Forum, suggested the Fister exhaust, designed by none other than Darin Fister himself and sold by his FD Motorsports business.
I always tell folks to listen before you buy when it comes to these things, but
when my favourite Porsche mechanic, Hunter at Chris’ Porsche, smiled and said, “Trust me, you’ll love it,” I didn’t need to hear it for myself to know it was going to be a winner.
I also liked the fact that rather than sell you new sports mufflers, Fister modifies your own OE mufflers with a cross pipe between the inlet and outlet pipes. The cross pipe effectively diverts some of the exhaust directly into the tailpipe without passing through the muffler, and the cross-flow design also aids in creating deeper and more interesting sounds. You can send them your own OE mufflers and they will perform this modification.
FD also recommends applying a ceramic coating in a variety of different colour finishes, which helps to prevent corrosion, as well as reducing heat.
Since the mufflers themselves are basically the same size and shape as the OE units, if you use your stock exhaust tips, your car will still look stock, but have a neat surprise in store for anyone who hears you driving by!
All of this made a lot of sense to me, so I told my service advisor to order a ready-made set as soon as Fister could deliver a set with the ceramic coating in titanium. The bad news is that Chris can’t fit me in for a service appointment for two more weeks! But I promise to have a full road test report in the next issue… so, watch this space!