There are very few reviews of the Borla S-Type on this site, and people always tell you to get the ATAK.

I am here to set the record straight - the S-Type costs more because it is a lot better.

Couple of points of context. I am familiar with great sounding exhausts. I used to have a 2015 F-Type R, and I also had a 991 Turbo S with the Europipe (high flow cats, and one of the best sounding exhausts you can buy for a 911). The other point of context is that I ordered an ATAK from Josh at Meraki. When the ATAK arrived, I installed it and I hated it. Now it turns out there was a muffler defect causing drone. Borla's amazing customer service stepped in and replaced it under warranty - and per my request they sent me an S-type instead of an ATAK. So my experience with the ATAK may not be representative because the Borla rep did say that my ATAK was unusually loud because of the muffler defect. Nonetheless I took the S-Type out of caution.

The Review:

Pros:
1) The S-Type has incredible sound range. It is wider than the sound range of the ATAK. In touring mode, it is comparable to track mode on the Z51 exhaust. ATAK owners will say this is true on the ATAK but it is not. On the ATAK it is 10db louder than the S-Type in Touring. If you want a quieter touring mode - you need an S-Type. You can still hear the exhaust in touring mode, but it is quiet enough you can listen to music or take phone calls.
2) The S-Type sounds loud in the same way that the original F-Type R and Porsche GT models exhausts sounds great. It has incredible sound character, at all RPMs, you can hear it throughout your drive providing an auditory sports car experience. But it also sounds OEM in a high-end way. It doesn't sound like an overdone distasteful aftermarket job. TBH I am blown away with how good it is. It is what I would expect of I was buying a top-line performance trim of an OEM Corvette. It's the way the car should have sounded from the factory if they hadn't optimized for Octogenarians playing golf.
3) Incredible pops and burbles - when driving in manual mode, you get lots of pops and burbles. It really sounds incredible. My son love's riding in the car when i drive it in the manual mode.
4) The car sounds exotic with the S-Type.
5) You get plenty of sound under normal driving - you don't need to go to high RPMs. Most driving is conducted in the 2000-4000 rpm range. You don't normally redline the car all the time. One concern I had about the S-Type over the ATAK was whether I would get enough sound at these lower RPMs. The answer is YES. You get plenty of sound effect in normal driving and you would not be wanting for a louder exhaust.

Cons:
1) The exhaust is only quiet in 8th gear. In every other gear and above 2500 rpms you can hear the sound. It is noticeably louder than the Z51 exhaust at most times.


Bottom line: I LOVE IT. I think an ATAK would have been a really bad choice in comparison.

Also having heard the S-Type, I can understand the market for the even quieter GM Borla. The S-Type is still pretty loud. I think a lot of people would find even this too loud and would prefer the GM Borla or the Z51 exhaust.

 

Great review and thank you! Been considering that and a Ti or two. I have high flow cats and love the sound of it with the NPP but hate the stock tips.

Have had this setup for almost 3 years so ready for a change but worried with the cats I have even the s type may be a tad too loud. In hindsight stock cats and s type may have been a better choice for me, idk. Hard to know what trigger to pull without hearing the s type and gm Borla with hfc installed.

Love the TI sound but none are valved and I'm a lot like you, I dont want a super loud set up and my cats already have livened the show up, people jump when I rev it up.

Thanks again for the post!

 

Good review. I had the ATAK installed on another vehicle and swapped it out for the S-Type with a similar experience. I found that the S-Type had nearly the same volume w/better overall tone throughout the RPM range.

 

Thanks for the writeup for the S-Type. Glad Borla was able to get you taken care of, thats why I like recommending them over brands sometimes as their customer service is top knotch.

-Josh

 

Great review. I listened to this video and I knew I didn't want the Atak. It sounds like a Silverado with flowmasters....

 

Great review, as I have been waffling between the S-Type & ATAK. Now after my local dealer saying due to warranty that I should wait until I am out of the warranty period. Can't for the life of me think that either of the Borla systems would cause GM to deny a warranty claim, but my dealer stated that could happen!

 

Macmulkin and GM both told me the same thing. Very low likelihood but pay to play

 

Many thousands of people have done a cat-back, and I don't recall reading about any warranty issues as a result. But any performance enhancing modification could give GM a cause for a warranty denial if they wish to do so. I think it's unlikely, but how much risk you're willing to take is up to you.

 

When they say this what they mean is that it would negate the warranty on the cat back portion of the exhaust. I.e GM is not responsible if you have a muffler problem. However that gap in warranty coverage is covered by Borla. And Borla covers both parts and labor on their exhaust.

I’ve had warranty claims in the past on cars with aftermarket exhaust and never had an issue. A Porsche dealer even sold me a CPO car with an aftermarket exhaust on it and I had no issues on warranty on that car ever.

 

Agree the tone is vastly superior. And also Touring mode still works as it is supposed to.

 

That's not what they mean. They mean that the performance part and any part impacted by that performance part may not be covered....which is potentially most of the drivetrain. Again that's all in our manuals and GM will also state this as did macmulkin to me. But it's an extremely low likelihood with just a catback. But obviously any of us know when you put on a part that claims to add power or alter performance you may have to pay to play. Not a big deal. If any of us cared so much about the warranty we'd buy the GM approved exhaust.

 

I agree with everything you said about the Borla S-Type. I took delivery of my C8 in February 2022 and already had a Borla S-Type exhaust system waiting in my garage for it. I had it installed by the Chevy dealer who also installed some other mods on my car. I love the exhaust from the first time I drove the car with it. I usually drive in MyMode with the exhaust set to Sport, although sometimes I change that to exhaust Track setting. It sound great with the HTC up or down. When I start the car early in the morning I switch to Tour mode so I don't unduly disturb the neighbors. I have listened to and compared two ATAK systems and I much prefer my S-Type.

 

Here's a scenario as an example of what could happen; Let's say perhaps a valve spring breaks, a burned valve, a bent pushrod, or anything of the like, the owner takes the car in for warranty, the dealer provides GM with a report and awaits approval. Word comes back that based on the stock exhaust being changed out for aftermarket and the potential of the aftermarket exhaust leading or adding to the failure, warranty coverage is denied! Scenario like this is not up to the dealer, it's up to GM's discretionary ruling!

 

Really excellent write up by OP, and bhvrdr's 4-car exhaust at idle and high(er) rpms!! With the exhaust tucked around/in the immediate vicinity of the engine bay, of course there's a chance something will go wrong and possibly attributable to the add on exhaust system.

But you've got three things working for you: first is Borla, the name, the company, the testing. Second is, they went out of their way to get one of their products approved by, and used by GM on the C8. And the last is, Chev really gave the one used on the C8 a close look before putting it on the accessory option list. That says a lot.

My guess is that Borla is not dumb and if I were them, I'd do just a bit more R&D on their other exhausts for the C8 just to make sure one of their own doesn't cause a problem which can "flow-over" in casting doubt on/to the one already approved for, and use on the GM accessory option list. They, at Borla, have been around a long time, making good products. GM has given them worthy recognition IMO. But both did their homework first.

 

I for one (on this thread) am delighted with my ATAK. On par quality wise with the Soul exhaust on my 911GTS with many of the same sound attributes that are in tune with my liking. There is nothing like winding it up in Z Mode to 5k and hit the up shift and get that 44 mag pop (I have a DE chambered in 44m)….and the fuel over run pops/burbs on the way down. The folks at Buttonwillow in the pits were raving about the sound.

But everyone has their own opinion on sound and I respect that…..happy motoring!

 

Yes but the story of what you said lacks a link between the conclusion and the premise about the exhaust being to blame. They need to have a legitimate causal explanation of how the exhaust led to the valve failure. Your scenario doesn’t contain that because that scenario is impossible. Once you are past the cats, the exhaust is not a performance element of the car it is purely an accessory. No different to window tint. And yes window tint could cause you to not get warranty on glass issues, but again not a material risk.

 

Thats not accurate. Try putting a 1" exhaust pipe on just the last 12" of your exhaust. It will alter performance.

Obviously a ridiculous thing to do but it illustrates what the performance exhaust manufacturer states in their own literature. They claim to alter the performance of the engine. Many even claim horsepower gains.

Again not a huge likelihood of issues but it would be almost impossible to fight a powertrain warranty denial if you have on a performance part which the performance exhaust is.

But most of us know you pay to play. It is what it is. It's right in the warranty manual. Really who is going around putting performance parts on the car and expecting full unimpeded warranty coverage? I'd try to get them to cover it but if they didn't I'd pony up.

 

Great review and thank you for sharing!

 

I had the ATAK on the HTC I traded in. I loved it but it was a bit too loud for me. I've considered the GM Borla exhaust but I'm afraid it will be just barely louder than the stock NPP. I'm going to go with the S-type on the 2023 Coupe I purchased yesterday.

 

You'll be glad you did. The S-Type is the sweet spot.