AWE Unleashes C8 Corvette Touring & Track Exhaust Systems (Exclusive Interview!)
Pre-orders start today for both the AWE Touring as well as the AWE Track C8 Corvette catback exhaust systems.
Founded in 1991, AWE has been producing high-level, yet attainable exhausts, intakes, and intercoolers for nearly three decades. While the Pennsylvania-based company start as a Euro-focused company, they’ve made a big splash producing gear for GM, Ford, and MOPAR since 2017. Much of this comes, I think, from their handcrafted engineering, lifetime warranty, no check-engine light guarantee, and, of course, menacing exhaust tones with optional drone-canceling technology.
Today AWE unleashed two C8 Corvette catback systems, a Touring edition and a Track edition. Both feature 3” CNC mandrel-bent, U.S.-made .065” wall T304L stainless steel, bolt-on installation, and a straight-through design to add max gains of 19 hp and 15 ft-lbs of torque at the wheels. The Touring system also adds AWE’s patented drone-canceling 180 Technology® for quiet highway cruising. That said, both systems absolutely RIP at WOT (clips below) and AWE’s drone-canceling tech is bolt-on should anyone find the Track system too drony and want to upgrade after the fact.
Both systems are available for pre-order today right HERE. Track Edition options will start at $2,104.21 and Touring Editions featuring AWE’s patented drone-canceling solution, 180 Technology® will start at $2,836.84.
Make sure to hop on over to THIS THREAD here on the forums where you can add your thoughts and ask the AWE team questions directly.
AWE Touring & Track Exhaust Features
- Bespoke, asymmetric exhaust design unlocks unprecedented tone and performance
- Max gains of 19 hp and 15 ft-lbs of torque at the wheels
- Available as Touring Edition or rowdy Track Edition, both with straight-through designs for maximum performance
- Patented drone-canceling 180 Technology® (Touring Edition)
- Handcrafted from 3” CNC mandrel-bent, U.S.-made .065” wall T304L stainless steel
- Robust 8″ flex sections to isolate engine movement and increase durability
- Engineered with V4 mode in mind
- Weight savings of 31 lbs (Touring Edition) and 39 lbs (Track Edition) compared to stock
- Tip options include quad 4.5” double-walled slash cut tips in chrome silver or diamond black
- Includes AWE AFM Valve Simulators and aluminum heat shield
- Rigorously tested in a drag-environment, road-course environment and via long term street testing
- Direct bolt-on, no cutting -Track and long-term street tested
- AWE Perfect fitment Guarantee
- AWE No CEL Guarantee
- AWE Lifetime warranty
- Proudly engineered, designed, and manufactured in-house at AWE
AWE Exclusive Interview
Last, but not least, we sat down with Josh Davis, Creative Manager of AWE, this week for an exclusive interview about the new AWE C8 Corvette Track and Touring catback exhaust systems. Here’s what we learned.
CorvetteForum: Let’s start with pricing and availability, then go back to development and the sound. When can we buy the AWE C8 exhausts systems, what’s included, and how much do they cost?
AWE: The AWE Track and Touring Edition Exhausts will be available for pre-order 7/30. Given the handcrafted-to-order nature of our exhausts, there’s typically a lead time when ordering. Those who pre-order will have an exhaust freshly-built just for them to enable immediate fulfillment when the product line officially launches.
Each Track and Touring Edition Exhaust comes complete with quad 4.5″ double-walled, slash-cut tips in either chrome silver or diamond black, a pair of AWE AFM Valve Simulators, necessary installation hardware, and a stealthy aluminum heat shield with AWE logo that shows through the rear mesh — ya know, to let everyone know what team you’re on.
Track Edition options will start at $2,104.21 and Touring Editions featuring AWE’s patented drone-canceling solution, 180 Technology® will start at $2,836.84.
How long have you been working on this new system and what goes into developing a catback exhaust system?
We began development back in April, right after the whole COVID ordeal began. Luckily we were able to keep the pedal to the metal and create this fantastic exhaust suite.
We do it all here in-house — design, engineer, and manufacture — at our headquarters outside of Philadelphia, PA. Our engineering team analyzes the characteristics of the vehicle’s exhaust in stock form, then tears the car down to scan the exhaust envelope. Once the real estate is digitized, they design initial configurations to allow them to uncork the raw sound of the vehicle. Once that’s established, the science begins. Unique elements are added, subtracted, and modified until our sound standards are met while achieving maximum performance gains. Once engineering is done, processes are finalized and they’re released to our production floor to make fresh for customers.
Can you tell us a little bit about how the Touring and Track systems compare, and how your drone canceling tech works?
The Touring and Track Editions are siblings. The Touring Edition features our patented drone-canceling solution, 180 Technology®, that prevents drone at cruising speed (and V4 mode!). It allows for a very sophisticated in-cabin experience, making it extremely easy to hold a Bluetooth phone call or talk to your passenger at a normal volume. The magic of 180 Technology® is it allows for such characteristic while still providing straight-pipe performance, and that’s due to the 180 Technology® resonators having a straight-through design (literally — if you look inside one of the cans, it resembles the inside of a straight length of stainless steel. Further, we do not utilize any acoustic packing material in our 180 Technology® resonators, and as a result, you get a true, full-bodied exhaust note that will not change over time!
The Track Edition shares all of the same precision engineering as the Touring Edition, minus the 180 Technology®. In its place are raw straight-pipe sections. This allows us to offer a lower-priced option for drivers who want the lightest and loudest of the lot. While the Touring and Track Edition sound very similar from outside of the car — since the Touring Edition is a straight-through design, just like a straight-pipe — the Track Edition ends up being a few dB louder on the outside. The primary difference occurs within the cabin as it is much more pronounced throughout the rev range
You also mentioned that a fair number of them upgrade after the fact. That’s a great bonus feature. For so many brands, if you pick the wrong axelback loudness factor, you’re stuck.
Correct. We always try to provide an upgrade path of sorts for customer because we know being “stuck”… sucks. Our designs make it easy to convert between the two offerings. So say someone bought a Track Edition and ended up learning they want the interior refinement provided via the Touring Edition, they can get a Track-to-Touring Conversion Kit, and bolt it on. If a customer equipped a Touring Edition and wanted to shed weight for a track day, for example, they can unbolt the Touring Edition sections and apply the Track Edition straight-pipe sections.
We’ll obviously have clips in this article for comparison, but how did the transition from the front-engine C7 to the mid-engine C8 change the characteristics of your Touring and Track exhausts? Did this surprise the AWE team?
The two generations are totally different beasts in their own respects, and we design our 180 Technology® configurations specific to the platform they’re going on. The transition from front-engine to mid changed… well…everything (LOL). It was a ground-up development process, as to be expected. Luckily, we have a lot of mid-engine model experience from our relationships with the various McLaren models we offer exhausts for, so we went into the development phase well-armed with proper techniques for this welcomed mid-engine layout.
You said you took an unusual approach to your x-pipe design. Can you talk about how it’s different and why you made this choice from an engineering perspective?
We definitely went against the grain with our offerings compared to the common theme in the market. We took an asymmetric approach to our designs, minimizing the amount of necessary bends, thus removing the unwanted restriction in flow while facilitating impressive gains across the entire powerband. Paired with robust internally-lined stainless steel flex sections upstream, engine movement is significantly isolated, enabling life-long durability for peace of mind. Going the asymmetric approach also allowed us the opportunity of creating a bespoke cross-over section with entries from both the top and the bottom. Doing this we’re able to achieve a rich, aggressive, exotic exhaust note out of the LT2 whether it be at idle, rev, or WOT. In my personal opinion, it neighbors the McLaren 720S.
How does installation work, overall, and how do installers integrate the C8’s adjustable active exhaust features?
Installation is very straight forward, and achievable within a few hours. Obviously the rear bumper will need to come off, and rear wheels removed for ease of access to some pesky fasteners, but all in — it’s pretty painless.
We include AWE AFM Valve Simulators with each exhaust to house the factory AFM valve motors. Once you bolt the motors to the simulators, they’re tucked away safely, and they’re able to operate the same as if they were still attached to an exhaust thus making the ECU happy.
As for the NPP connectors, they don’t require any sort of simulator attachment, so they’re simply tucked away.
Photos: AWE
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