I ended up going with the VRSF pipes with the Ceramic coating. Removing the BMW down pipes with the CAT was not fun, the hardest part was removing them after everything was unbolted. they have to be turned and twisted to get them up through the engine compartment. Would have been easier with a helper I'm sure.
I've had the new pipes in for about 3 weeks now. There was a little performance difference but since I had already done the Stage 2 Bootmod, the change was minimally noticeable. The sound, however totally changed. You can really hear the turbo's spool up but then the exhaust overpowers the sound (Stock behind the down pipes). I am sure there was a performance boost but I didn't do any kind of timing tests with it.
My friends all call my X5 "The Beast"
, when you drive it, it's no wonder why...it's a beast.
