Top Speed Exhaust Review
 

First off let me tell you a little about myself. I am not as young as most of you, so I speak with experince. I am 63, been fixing and driving exciting cars for over 50 years. I have won 4 "Good Guy" awards with cars I have hand built in the last 10 years. I have owned 1 NSX, 3 Lambo Gallardos, 23 Corvettes, yes 23, I am a senior member of the "Mark ll Forum", a forum of 1956 Continental Mark ll owners, a very rare, handbuilt Continental {Google it}, I have restored 3 1957 Eldorados, 4 1956 Mark ll,s, I own a trucking company outside of Pittsburgh Pa, I can rebuild Cat, Detroit, Cummins engines, 18 speed trans, Rockwell rears, etc. I can fix or fabricate to perfection anything you put in front of me. I know what I am talking about!

I bought a Top Speed Exhaust for my latest toy a 2012 370z in August. I wanted a better sound, as I am use to the Lambo sound. It was the X pipe system, Ebay Item 390433330590. I won,t post a picture, legal reasons, look it up on Ebay.
The system arrived and I took my exhaust of and laid out the new parts to start the new system install. Th Tig welding was not the best ,but passible.
The first pipe I went to install was the X pipe that goes against the Cats.
The drivers side flange was welded on crooked. it was off by a 1/2 inch.
I called Top Speed and spoke to my sales person, George, by the sound of his voice a young man, in his 20,s. He asked me to send him some pics. So I took some pics, made a templet of the flanges from the factory overlayed on top of their flanges. { I will try to up load the pictures}
He asked me if I knew what I was doing and if I could have it backwards. I knew then I was in trouble.
I e-mailed the pics, the same ones I have attached, called him back and he wanted to know which end went against the Cats! I could see where this was going. I had someone selling a product out of the computer with no knowledge of what he was selling.
I was told they would send me a new X pipe and pay for my shipping if they found it to be defected, BUT, first I have to pay a 2nd time for a whole new system, $620, not just for the X pipe, the whole system!
I got he 2nd X pipe and it was also welded wrong, but not by a 1/2 inch, just a little less than a 1/4 inch. We put a chain breaker bar around it and got just enough flex for it to fit over the studs coming out of the Cats, A tight fit.
They got the 1st X pipe back and credit my account the 2nd $620, but no shipping, $55.
After 4 e-mails and no reply I called George at Top Speed. It went like this,
Me- Where is my shipping?
George- We found nothing wrong with that pipe, no shipping.
Me- Give me a manager
George- I am the manager
Me- Did you lay that pipe on top of the templet I sent you with the pipe?
George- There is nothing wrong with that pipe
Me- I never complain, but check your reviews, I will be putting one on every Nissan and Infinity site I can find, have a nice day and I hope you put that $55 shipping to good use.Attachment 54524
If you blow up the picture you can clearly see that the on flang is welded on crooked, compared to the factory pipe. Any questions, feel free to e-mail me. I am always willing to help out you younger guys and girls. Thank You.

wow haven't seen a problem with top speed yet. having a product thats a little off is one thing. it happens. but customer sevice like that is unnacceptable. i like the sound they make, but wouldn't purchase from a company that treats people like that especially after u provided proof of the missalignent

I was thinking about the Ts exhaust,but now will reconsider.

Thanks for the heads up op.

Great write up and review. Sorry for the unpleasant customer service you had to deal with though. It's one thing to have a faulty product, but it's another thing to deny it. Quality control is very important when it comes to exhaust components

im glad i went with fast intentions, top notch in customer service!

A picture tells a story
 

Did the pictures show what I was talking about? I left out one the best exchanges we had before the 2nd X pipe was sent.
George- If you can Tig weld why don,t you just cut off the flange and weld it back on it the right spot?
Me- Do you have X pipe in front of you?
George-Yes
Me- Do you see how the pipe is inserted into the flang and then the flange is Tiged on to the pipe? That is done for a reason, for strenth.
George- Oh

Also, on both pipes I had to porta power the Cat end apart. They had heat shrunk in about 2 1/2 inches from the welding where the X pipes were connected. That in turn had to twist the one pipe making the flange off center. A very simple solution, leave the pipes connected to the jig while you Tig! I did not even try to go there, it was a lost cause.
I am concerened about the twist I had to use to get the X pipe on, it might be damaging my head pipe. I am thinking of making a new X pipe myself or scrapping this one and buying a Stillian or a Borla. I hope I was of some help to all of you. Age has its advantages.

Not many tried running borla on here. what pulls u towards that exhaust?

Sorry to hear about your troubles. There are a lot of quality exhaust manufacturers that make stuff for this car. If your looking for something higher pitched, a Y pipe usually does it, that and a good set of long tubes. If your looking for something deeper, X pipes are the way to go. I can't comment too much on true duals or H pipes. I know my car sounded every bit as exotic as this F430 in front of me, well... damn close. So if you can get a refund on it, find something better.

Borla, Corsa, Stillian
 

I have used Borla, Corsa, and Cobra on a few of my Corvettes. I have used Corsa on 2 VTX1800,s, the quality and build were good on both brands. Corsa does nothing foe the 370z last time I checked. Stillian has a long record with Nissan. I can not imagine them not having a good system.
As far as a refund that is out of the question. I can,t even get my $55 back!

There was one more problem with the system. On top of the tips they spot welt on a little tag that says "Top Speed", they are tacked on **** eyed. That is not from the welding, as that is the 3rd and seperate piece of the system.

You are right about the X pipe giving a deeper tone. They sound great, but if you want a system that bolts right on with no grief, I would go with Borla or Stillan.

as a fair warning, stillens system wont add as much sound to your car as other systems would

Stillian
 

Thank you for the heads up. I think I will pull that X pipe off and make my own. It will be alot cheaper, plus I already have a $620 patern to go by. We should be able to bend 3 inch stainless without cracking it on our machine.

So the moral of the story is, have someone experienced like the op take a look and help you document the issues you've found instead of trying to make it work as is.

Good thing I'm going with the FI CBE, haven't heard anything but good things about the welding of them.

Thanks op.

Never thought about Top Speed, never saw much from them and now this kind of ices it over.

Fast Intentions, long wait but worth it.

I also had an MXP, Great sound and top not quality on both of these systems

I envy the OP's great history with cars.

On another point, sad to see that TopSpeed was so incompetent in customer service. Obviously, a cheap exhaust means the quality control isn't top notch, but to hassle a customer is another issue altogether.

Seems the current best 'normal' exhausts for the 370 are the FI and Motordyne systems, full quality and sound and most importantly, bend-over-backwards customer service.