G'day guys after living in the Holden camp my whole life I got sick of how s**t LS motors sound and went to look at some XR8s. I ended up with a 2005 BA MKII XR8 6spd with 80,000ks and wow it's leagues above the VY SS I was driving it actually feels closer to driving the VE Clubsport my mate has than the VY. Wow its just a whole better car than it over all looks and feels way more modern than VY/VZ. It has way more useful power and sounds better stock than the LS did with a full system.

Anyway has anyone tried the pacemaker 2.5inch stainless catback that's going around? There is one on ebay for $1,300 which makes it pretty expensive but I really want that 70s & 80s V8 sound so don't mind forking out for a good system.

Last edited by Converted1 on Tue Apr 11, 2017 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I had a twin x force and thought it sounded great on my mk2 ba xr8,cost less than half what the pacie system costs.
Stainless will sound tinnier than mild steel, and imo very overpriced,ive never even seen an aftermarket mild steel exhaust rust out anyway unless you like it shiny and pretty?
In saying that,i would go for the venom twin catback,i got one for my g6et and it was the best quality mild steel catback ive seen yet for the price.
Theres one going for 450 on ebay at the moment,it doesn't come with the y pipe but I know for a fact the stock xr8 ford y pipe is great quality and not restrictive at all.

True. I just learnt on my Holden that cheaper systems weren't worth it. Does the Boss just need straight throughs so you can hear it? Does having two mufflers on a Boss ruin the note? On a LS two mufflers typically make it sound like a generic sports car and not an 8 at all. I would prefer cheapest and don't mind mild I'm scared of wasting my money on two systems rather than one good one.

The cross pipe is one of the things i wanted with the Pacie kit because it has the H pipe.

The y pipe on the boss flows quite good and has a small elongated balance hole to equalise the sounds between both banks,in the part where the pipes join.
The quality of the cheaper systems is no different to the expensive ones from what ive seen,the venom system would be easily the best quality for the price.
Keep in mind cat choice changes the sound a lot,i had 100 cell metal cats on my boss,at normal cruising it was fine and not too noticeable but open it up and it barked like an angry dog with a nice crackle on deceleration.
Always get 2 straight through mufflers if its a twin system on the same side,one in the centre and one at the back,i think holden has one per side.
Was the best sounding v8 ive ever owned,if it hadn't have burnt so much oil I never would have sold it,ended up with 4.1 diff gears cai and the catback,100 cell cats with a mail order tune,6 speed manual,awesome car.
Im getting older and I like my exhausts nice sounding but not too loud these days.
At the end of the day what I like the sound of and what you like may be worlds apart lol
I will say venom and x force have been good exhausts on my cars.
Take all advice on any forum with a pinch of salt and do what you want,you are forking over the dollars

Oath, well its good to know you had success with that setup. Could you find a youtube vid of what a good V8 should sound to you lol? It really would be silly to pay the extra and i believe the only quality difference would be in the mufflers i guess.

Videos never sound any good,they always make it sound rubbish.
Maybe get a cheaper system and get some cheap high flow metal cats on ebay,youll still be miles ahead,cant go wrong with metal cats,even the cheap ones last forever.
My ba xr8 only had universal 100 cell metal cats off ebay and they were great quality.
I would get the venom system,i couldn't even find the cheap x force system I put on my car,only cost around 5-550 delivered a few years ago.

I'm guessing you need to change extractors for bolt on cats?

Bolt on type cats usually say what they are made to suit,either aftermarket specific type extractors or stock headers.