2006 Vantage exhaust noise levels

[JohnnyFive]

Hello all, I picked up my '06 Vantage about 6 weeks ago now and am really enjoying it.

One question that I keep getting asked is if the exhaust is standard because it is really loud once the exhaust flaps are open.

I was initially fine with this, it sounds excellent and you only get the glorious noise when you're trying to, but I had hoped to do a few track days in the car and I'm recording about 104dB on drive by which is pretty much ruling out every track in the country.

The silencer looks to be the standard Aston item so I'm wondering if people commonly fit decats or there are any other possible mods a previous owner could have done to make it louder or if this is sound level is totally normal?

[JohnnyFive]

Thanks! I'll have a look and report back.

[JohnnyFive]

Doesnt look like the standard cat!

[JohnnyFive]

Mansfield said:

Is there a way to temporarily close the exhaust valves for the full rev range (for the likes of a track day)....or is this dangerous to the engine?

I also have sports cats, I think they sound great btw but also have the remote valve switch

I am doing a bit of research into this at the moment. Whilst it is within the realms of possibility to actually do what you're suggesting with some additional electronics, I need to look into the knock on effect to engine calibration.

It'll undoubtedly rob some power because the pipes inside the silencer are smaller diameter than the main pipes also unsure how restrictive the silencer baffles themselves are too. I can handle this part, the issue would be if there are any problems with fuelling under wide open throttle in the open loop section of the map. My guess is air flow will be reduced but the engine will still be getting the same amount of fuel thrown in as before - possibly running richer. I'm going to see if I can get to a dyno and have a bit of a play around with some wideband O2 sensors installed temporarily to compare.

[JohnnyFive]

Cerberaherts, the purpose of the switch we are discussing is to keep the valves closed all the time. With fuse 22 or any of the various fuse 22 related options you can have always loud or Aston's quiet until 4k then loud, I needed always quiet.

Mansfield, I have made a remote control unit that plugs into the harness in the wheelarch to control the solenoid valve on the vac chamber. It works well with three different options: quiet/loud/OEM.

I had the car on the Dyno, at which time I was pleased to discover I have the performance upgrade installed. I got around 425bhp valves open and 408bhp valves closed. AFR was spot on for both configurations.

[JohnnyFive]

It was a bit fiddly, parts were cheap but required a bit of programming and wiring. I used a generic 4-way wireless switch available off eBay/Amazon for about a tenner and programmed it to switch each channel off as another one is activated. PM me and I will dig out the diagram I made and send you over some instructions.