Its been 6+ years of owning my car (or it owning me, who knows) and the modding has never stopped. I figured since progress threads are the newest rage I thought I may as well play along and continually update one thread.

So my most recent mod is ATLP quads. However my car being anthracite I had to order a Type-S rear and have it painted. Thanks for the ATLP group buy as this was getting expensive.

Old shots of my car before. With my old A-Spec wheels before I sold them.



Installing the new lip.




Dremelling the cut outs... I had fun doing this.

Nice fit.

Sweet.




And after three months after I placed my order with Heel Toe these monsters finally came in! I was so happy.










I had them installed that afternoon which was Thursday, August 9th. Friday to Saturday I drove 1300km's through British Columbia because my younger brother found a mint 2004 STi so we went to pick it up. I'll be posting pictures of that journey. Probably some of the nicest roads in Canada.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?saddr=Cal...mra=ls&t=m&z=8

I would say the exhaust has broken in now and it sounds amazing. The car does have more pull according to the butt dyno.

Well enjoy! Stay tuned for the pictures from the long journey!

 

I see you're from Alberta too! Looking good so far. All I have to say is I'm not impressed on the quality of the spot welding on the exhaust. Looks like they hired a 4th grader to do the job.

 

Congrats on the exhaust. Anxious for after-install shots.

 

ya those welds look kinda shotty. my xlr8 quads had perfect welds on them

 

Yeah mostly just the welding where the pipes merge... most everything else is welded okay. I personally would have liked to see some better welds on an exhaust I paid 1200 + dollars on and waited 3 MONTHS for it to arrive. Could have done one weld each day for that damn amount of time. Oh well no going back now. It does sound/look nice installed.

 

I have a friend who bought the latest batch of the ATLP exhausts and I know how much he paid and waited too. It would be a lot lot better if the welding is seamless. I've got XLR8 quads and RV6 V3 Jpipe and I can tell you, the welding is perfect. Companies should know that people invest in their products because of quality and workmanship. If I bought a 1200$ catback, waited 3-4 months, and find out the welder did a crappy job, I would be very very upset.

 

I haven't heard from anyone else from the group buy if they also had shitty welding done on their exhausts. The more I think about it the more it disappoints me. I doubt Marcus would do anything about it at this point. I'll post a picture of them in that thread to see if anyone else had that issue.

 

I noted that the welds were not the best in my review of the exhaust in the group by thread.

Marcus sounded surprised because he said aside from a few welds, most were done by hand, which should have ensured more quality.

 

Well all that aside they still look and sound great. Here are some photos from the weekend cruise to British Columbia to pick up my brothers STi.

Drove south through the Crowsnest pass.


His "new to him" bone stock 2004 STi

I've had a nice red cast on for three weeks from a crack in my tibia, still able to drive fine with my clutch.










Anyone elses quads discolor their lip?


The road home.
































1300 km's in a day was fun. Thanks for watching!

 

Nice pics and it looks like a great trip!

Regarding the welds and wait and such...I can see where you might feel like this. I think you might not be totally clear on where all the time in these kits is. There are like 8 different processes involved in making the tips alone. The first think we have made is the tips and they are the last to be done, and typically there are unforesee delays. The weld-up only takes a couple days believe it or not. MIG welding is not always pretty, no. And compared to TIG, they are ugly. But, they are extremely effective and faster to bust out. There is no real difference in integrity. We generally feel the look and sound of the system is first and foremost, then the longevity. The appearance of the quality (not shitty man, come on) welds is not our main focus.

That being said, we do hear your comments on the welds. We have looked into doing an all TIG system, such as XLR8 does, but the added time seemed like it was something we didn't want to get into. Certainly we can revisit this idea though.

For the wait, I think you don't want to confuse the reason WHY you waited. It was because you go a discount in a limited run sale. We had systems in stock and selling for full price while we were taking orders for the discounted run. So, this is really just to help you know all the facts.

Anyway I am glad the kit looks and sounds great and we are honored to have had one see such awesome sights

 

By hand does not mean perfect. It means in many cases it is not perfect but more care taken and good quality. But quality may not mean looks. For a lot people it does. We look at the total fabrication. We have seen XLR8 systems and while the are shiny and TIG welded, have some areas where we don't prefer the fabrication.

I would like to see a pic of the muffler area that you had and issue with. It is pretty important for us actually, when you say there is an issue we see it and try to fix it if there is a problem.

 

None the less, very nice shots, Spec. The exhaust looks great on the car.

 

Thanks for the reply Marcus. I sent you an email to followup. Heeltoe always will get good reviews from me and I will always continue to order from you as I have in the past.

Thanks!

 

your car look awesome bro. im waiting for my type s rear lip , i'm installing it soon. try to get type s tail light and your rear will look a lot better.

 

beautiful shots

 

Wow, beautiful pictures and progress I'd love to take a road trip like that!

 

That's some seriously beautiful scenery. Thanks for sharing and congrats on the exhaust.

 

man you car is making awesome progress already

 

Thanks! I prefer the red tails, I like the contrast.

Thank you!

I was a gorgeous drive. Some sections were really twisty and others straight and flat with absolutely no traffic.

Thanks man.

Already?! HAHA. I bought it brand new 6 years ago in July of 2006. But thanks anyways its been a fun money sink. Acurazine is a great crew.
I think I'll be keeping this thing forever until it dies (hopefully never as I'm only at 81000KMS) as my daily driver.

 

busted....

 

Some new pics comparing ATLP v1 and v2 quads. Friend of mine got his quads in 2009 in the original set.

Also he has the RV6 v1 J-pipe and his exhaust is a bit louder and more aggressive than mine. I was surprised how much more pronounced the j-pipe is with the catback.