[Rogue One]

You do you! Do what makes you happy, and be happy doing it!

 

[nevil]

Welcome to the forum! One of the best first posts in a while.

 

[Ganjulama]

Yes, missing the PASM is only gripe... But Macan will not be my only Porsche. Keep the Macan Base for daily and add Panamera 4S Sport Turismo to the garage in few years.

View attachment 268488

Why NOT daily drive this? I still keep my eye on Macans but at the time I was ready to purchase (and I needed a car right then) none were there so I ended up with Audi A6 Allroad. It's a great car, no regrets. But this is on another level, better than the RS6 IMHO.

 

[BMinSFL]

I like it and probably would have gone a similar route performance-wise had I purchased an older example without a warranty. Nice to surpass "S" power and still have the lighter nose of the 4cyl. Very brave of you to toss out the drivetrain warranty!

I have the same wheels and its interesting to see them at those various ride heights. They are more of an SUV wheel to me and think a bit of wheel gap fits them better, but post some photos once you have the new wheels on.

I guess the exhaust tips should be pushed in a bit more to be flush with the rear but would like to see a rear photo of your exhaust tips and how they interact with the diffuser.

Any plans for water injection? On some prior projects I have done larger turbo upgrades and for simplicity just added water injection versus a new intercooler. WI on top of the new IC should be super nice in the Summer.

 

[threeOh]

👎

 

[Mehttugi]

I like it and probably would have gone a similar route performance-wise had I purchased an older example without a warranty. Nice to surpass "S" power and still have the lighter nose of the 4cyl. Very brave of you to toss out the drivetrain warranty!

I have the same wheels and its interesting to see them at those various ride heights. They are more of an SUV wheel to me and think a bit of wheel gap fits them better, but post some photos once you have the new wheels on.

I guess the exhaust tips should be pushed in a bit more to be flush with the rear but would like to see a rear photo of your exhaust tips and how they interact with the diffuser.

Any plans for water injection? On some prior projects I have done larger turbo upgrades and for simplicity just added water injection versus a new intercooler. WI on top of the new IC should be super nice in the Summer.

Armytrix exhaust is now off from the car and I'm doing new setup with APR mufflers.

Will post new exhaust/wheel setup next week.

I thought about water/meth 50:50 but not worth it on my setup. If I want more boost at safe levels, I'll probably go E85 setup.

 

[rasetsu]

You mentioned you live in California. What are you going to do when you are up for SMOG? Or do you "know a guy"?

 

[Mehttugi]

My Macan will pass smog. No cats are removed.

 

[rasetsu]

My Macan will pass smog. No cats are removed.

Back almost 20 years ago, I had trouble with getting my Honda Accord SMOG inspected because of my intake that had a CARB EO sticker. Was able to find a small independent shop who didn't care so long as it passed the sniffer which of course it did. What I've read is that CA has gotten stricter and stricter with the visual inspection.

 

[ilumo]

I like it! Do you have more pics all around?

 

[Mehttugi]

Back almost 20 years ago, I had trouble with getting my Honda Accord SMOG inspected because of my intake that had a CARB EO sticker. Was able to find a small independent shop who didn't care so long as it passed the sniffer which of course it did. What I've read is that CA has gotten stricter and stricter with the visual inspection.

That is true. What I also heard was even tho I have high flow cat, since its not "OEM", it will not pass visual but will pass the sniffer. Maybe I should weld OEM CAT HEATSHIELD to pass visual.
Or like you said find an independent shop who will only to the sniffer.

 

[Mehttugi]

I like it! Do you have more pics all around?

Once my car is washed, will post few more pictures.

 

[rasetsu]

That is true. What I also heard was even tho I have high flow cat, since its not "OEM", it will not pass visual but will pass the sniffer. Maybe I should weld OEM CAT HEATSHIELD to pass visual.
Or like you said find an independent shop who will only to the sniffer.

Yeah, even back then, inspectors wouldn't put your car on the sniffer if they don't pass you on visual first. That's really why I was wondering if you have more recent experience with your previous cars. I owned a STi when I lived there and did no engine mods to it until I moved out of the state after my Honda experience. I didn't have time to mess with converting everything back and forth annually. Of course there are tricks to visually make the aftermarket parts look OEM. Just wondering how sophisticated inspectors have gotten as they are under more stringent regulation from the state.

 

[Mehttugi]

Yeah, even back then, inspectors wouldn't put your car on the sniffer if they don't pass you on visual first. That's really why I was wondering if you have more recent experience with your previous cars. I owned a STi when I lived there and did no engine mods to it until I moved out of the state after my Honda experience. I didn't have time to mess with converting everything back and forth annually. Of course there are tricks to visually make the aftermarket parts look OEM. Just wondering how sophisticated inspectors have gotten as they are under more stringent regulation from the state.

My WRX Wagon was sold to a guy in MT so never did smog my wagon after Ver7 motor + 20G turbo upgrade/tune. All my previous cars did not require smog because they were all new.
But "back in the day" , smog shops I went to, did not do the visual, only did the sniffer.

 

[rasetsu]

My WRX Wagon was sold to a guy in MT so never did smog my wagon after Ver7 motor + 20G turbo upgrade/tune. All my previous cars did not require smog because they were all new.
But "back in the day" , smog shops I went to, did not do the visual, only did the sniffer.

They were all still supposed to do a visual. It was just what their eyes saw that varied. LOL! The shop I eventually went do didn't care so long as I wasn't running an open header and had a filter attached to the intake. My silly Honda had a full exhaust with header, high flow cat, and cat back.

So is this why you insisted on buying a new Macan? So you could mod it and not have to worry about SMOG for a few years?

 

[Mehttugi]

They were all still supposed to do a visual. It was just what their eyes saw that varied. LOL! The shop I eventually went do didn't care so long as I wasn't running an open header and had a filter attached to the intake. My silly Honda had a full exhaust with header, high flow cat, and cat back.

So is this why you insisted on buying a new Macan? So you could mod it and not have to worry about SMOG for a few years?

I didn't want my 1st Porsche to be used even if that meant getting the Base model. Only had the car for 1 year and I already put up 20K miles on it, LOL. And yes, if I had to mod it, I would not have to worry about smog for few years.

 

[Sweetness34]

You mentioned you live in California. What are you going to do when you are up for SMOG? Or do you "know a guy"?

I don’t believe newer cars need SMOG checks until they are 8 years old (something like that). I recently lived there for 12 years and the only SMOG check I had to do was when I first moved to LA and brought my car from out of state. The other 5 cars I owned never needed one. This was in LA county so it could vary in other parts of the state.

 

[Mehttugi]

I don’t believe newer cars need SMOG checks until they are 8 years old (something like that). I recently lived there for 12 years and the only SMOG check I had to do was when I first moved to LA and brought my car from out of state. The other 5 cars I owned never needed one. This was in LA county so it could vary in other parts of the state.

Yeah, unless there is change of ownership and etc, newer cars don't need smog.

 

[Dark_Side_GTS]

I’ll bite: Not a fan.

A lot of money spent on performance when a higher trim could have been purchased. Also, I don’t understand why it’s that low. Makes the wheels look like they are broken. There’s a balance to be achieved between eliminating wheel gap and going too far. In my opinion this is too far, even for “show mode”.

Just my opinion since you specifically asked for: Hate or Love it

I agree with your POV. While I do like the performance upgrades (hope you didn't spend over $10K on all the upgrades, otherwise I agree you should have just gotten a S or GTS), I don't like the over/under cambered look of the wheels. Looks cartoonish, IMO. While I do like lowered Macan's (I lowered my 21' GTS with lowering links) I think this is too low. In driving mode its too high - so what's the point?

The color is very nice, props on that! The wheels also look good on the base and the chrome tips (probably would have gone with black ones to match the darker aesthetics better). Again all of this is my personal opinion. IF YOU LOVE IT, that's all that matters.

 

[Revolagoy]

Which IS20 hybrid turbo did you use? I love it. Especially the engine mods. I would take the 4 cylinder with mods over the 6 cylinder with heavier front and known maintenance issues.