Soliditude

Exactly so! I will add on to that. My Fast Intentions mufflers are also just slightly uneven. It's more the car's own design--as it wasn't even made for these kinds of mufflers, originally--that makes them somewhat uneven.

ARKperformance

iTrader: (3)

Yea. We did understand the frustration that he went through and wanted to make it up to him in any way possible. We would take care of all our our customers to way we did with him. I want the community to know that we will stand behind our product in any case.

Thank you for your time and concern in making our products better.

We have a very good relationship with SP Engineering and the location is a factor as well. EAS and Church is a good drive. I rather not have anyone pay anything out of their pockets for a dyno. We will do whatever we can to eliminate as much inconsistencies as we can. Initially we opt'd for independent dynos from customers that have our exhausts so there is no doubt that we were trying to manipulate the results. We will keep EAS and Church in mind when we have a car ready to go.

Once again thank you for your time in trying to be apart of a solution to this issue.

We really want to take this time and show the community that we can take customer service to another level. I myself am an enthusiast. I am a fan of high quality systems and have always given credit to where it is most deserved (AKRAPOVIC FTW). I love everything about fixing up my own car. I do the research, I want to get what I paid for, and I want what I bought to be perfect with no suprises. I realize that customers are paying good money for an exhaust system and want every single one of them to be completely satisfied from start to finish.

OP I commend you for bringing this to our attention and will do our best to make you satisfied as a potential buyer.

ARK PERFORMANCE INC
Director
Alex

Soliditude

For me, almost all the top exhausts available for our cars end up being almost the same. At best, there are minor differences in performance. If you had a stock car, and then driven it with, say--a Stillen, an Ark, an HKS and an FI--on different days, I don't think you'd notice a real difference. There's only so far a simple catback exhaust can take you!

Main reasons how I chose my exhaust: Quality, sound, look, then performance. For me, what set apart Fast Int. from my other considerations was the fact that it was made all in one shop, overlooked by one same team, and built right here in Cali. I agreed with Tony when he said that the only way so insure maximum quality was to make the exhaust yourself, in your own shop. Therefore, I passed on my other considerations of Korean-made exhausts; it's neither JDM- nor US-made.

Because of this, we have yet to see a customer complain about FI quality here on the forum. Period.

On the other hand for Ark and, even, HKS, I've seen threads in the G community of people not being happy with the quality. That is not to say that Ark or HKS make bad exhaust systems, though. It's just that they probably can't claim to be the best.

I don't remember Tony saying, "we make the best, we make the best, we make this best!!!" All he told me was how they themselves do it, and that I can choose from there. Win.

Even after all, we still mostly choose according to sound. I hate how some systems sound, I love others. The choice, in this case, is almost entirely subjective and based on a person's own preferences and taste. Our taste, however, doesn't deem something to be the worst or best. It's more like "bestly-liked," or "mostly-bought."

ARKperformance

iTrader: (3)

I respect Tony and F.I for his outstanding work. To manage sales, Manufacturing and Customer service is no easy task. We will strive to get to his level of respect in this community.

Soliditude

To this:

Chi-City-G

iTrader: (6)

Thank you so much Ark for continuing to be an option for our community and for continuing to grow your product line with items that we have been asking for and looking for in this very community and others have not come through with yet such as the no rasp, no hiss HFC that seem very promising. I am not sure why the few seem to find the need to bash your products when there are so little options for us as it is. Again thank you and please continue to provide the best that you can for us.

I am not saying that the OP is wrong for his inquiry though as it make sense to want to know why someone should buy your product, but I do feel he came with the intent to argue instead of the intent to purchase.

I do want to add that I do not own an Ark product so I speak merely from the way I see things. I considered their exhaust mostly based on sound as stated before that performance is not going to play too much of a roll with anything bolted on to our cars and should only be under major technical scrutiny if considering a TT setup and needing the larger piping into a stage II. (I decided to go with Berk Technology's Exhaust instead for the record). I may consider Ark's new HFC as an option though. Either way, thank you for continuing to support our community and coming up with products that we have expressed deisres for.

Soliditude

Wait, what?! Berk already released their exhaust? I couldn't find it anywhere. Links, links, links, please.

Conn

iTrader: (1)

BERK Cat Back Exhaust System - JEB Performance, Inc. - Thousands of after market tuning parts for less

rks

iTrader: (6)

Caveat Emptor, and since most advertising contains some puffery, do your research. I am more than happy with my ARK exhaust. The welds are nice, as is the sound, fit, finish, and looks. The exhaust tips are even level.

ipitythefoo

iTrader: (8)

lol .

Beer Magazine

This thread is dumb, most exhaust..with the exception of FI, is just for sound and looks. Most modern engines are high HP per liter and therefore there is no power to be gained in exhaust.

My welds are better, and I have +900hp with my seat belt.

dednock

iTrader: (1)

Beer Magazine, are you still woking with ARK to get the convertible an exhaust system? Even with all the back and forth of this thread, I still think ARK is the way to go for our cars.

Beer Magazine

There is always going to be one person that is unhappy with every company.

I don't know if they are still using me, or got another. My last email mentioned that I wanted some signed papers of damage liability and since they needed my car for a few days questions about the exhaust on the car staying on. I never heard back and since I don't really care about putting exhaust on this car I'm am not going to pursue them aggressively.

My guess is they were looking for a free car to borrow, and the 4 hours I donated before is all my charity gives

ARKperformance

iTrader: (3)

We have been trying to contact you directly. I need the car for at least 48 hours. Once you do agree, we will make out a damage and liability claim and have it signed once we review the condition of your vehicle. We also have been talking to rick at OC Infiniti to see if they can work something out with us on the VERTS.

Alex

xlack

iTrader: (3)

don't really care about whether options are given by manufacturers or vendors for our cars because the only thing that matter is the quality of product. If quality is bad, would you buy it?

I agree with buying bolt-on catbacks for our cars is mainly looks, sound, quality. I've seen ARK exhausts in person and...

Looks: I don't know if they fixed the one-side-significantly-lower-than-other-side problem but that was one of the prominent things I noticed on my friend's G. Key word: SIGNIFICANT.

Sound: ARK is one of the best sounding systems I've heard in person, hands-down. Very deep and throaty, very aggressive, loud too.

Quality: though I didn't crawl under the car to look at the welds and piping, I noticed that the burnt tips on my friend's G slowly turned into a sh!tty bronze/yellow color. DO NOT WANT. I have had my HKS for about 2 years now and my burnt tips never changed colors or faded away. Of course I can't say that ARK quality is bad because of that but it does say a lot about craftsmanship don't u agree?

This is just my opinion and my personal experience and I'm in no way bashing ARK or anyone else. That being said, I doubt I'll ever get ARK. P.S: I did considered at one point to trade my HKS for ARK because ARK's sound is just so exotic/heavenly. But later, I figured that sound alone couldn't justify the switch and I decided to keep the HKS.

another P.S: HKS sounds.. mehh.. so-so. But I do have MXP double resonated TPs now, and have definitely made HKS sound 10x better