The owner’s one condition
The guy who owns this Z NISMO wanted more sound out of the VR30. Fair enough. But he’d already been through it with a mate’s car that had a straight-through system, droning the whole way down the Hume. His terms were simple: if it drones on the highway, it comes back off.
Why two mufflers
Most catbacks run a single muffler or a straight-through design. They sound great in a car park. On the freeway at 2,500 RPM, they fill the cabin with a low hum that gets old fast.
The HKS Full Dual runs two separate silencer boxes. The twin chambers cancel out the frequencies that cause drone at cruise while still flowing enough for the turbos to do their thing. Everything from the mid-pipe flange back gets replaced. Stainless, bolt-on, no welding.
The install
Factory catback off the hangers, HKS on in its place. Every mount lines up with the factory path, nothing needs persuading. We ran it through a full warm-up cycle and checked every join for leaks before dropping it back down.
The tips
Titanium, heat-treated so they’ve got that burnt blue colour. They sit inside the NISMO diffuser without poking out too far or looking recessed. On a car where the rear end is half the point, they need to look right. They do.
On the road
At idle it’s barely louder than stock. A bit deeper, that’s it. On the highway, no drone. The owner’s one condition, sorted.
Get into the throttle and the VR30 wakes up properly. You hear the turbos spool, the exhaust drops into a growl through the mid-range, and it pulls clean to redline. It doesn’t sound louder. It sounds like the car should have sounded.
Factory cats stay, no engine lights. The owner dailies this car and doesn’t think about the exhaust anymore, which is probably the best thing you can say about one.
