We’ve all heard the jokes about owning a V-6 Camaro. In fact, a lot of us have made them over the years, too. But the V-6 fifth-gen Camaro is a far cry above its V-8 deprived ancestors. The LFX 3.6L V-6 found in 2012-’15 Camaros cranks out 323 horsepower—more than a lot of the previous generation V-8 models had—and delivers a good performance punch that equates to around a 14-second elapsed time in the quarter-mile in bone stock form, that while gear-slamming through a horsepower-sapping automatic transmission.
While offering great performance at a relatively economical price, one thing the fifth-gen V-6 Camaro lacks is some always welcome noise coming out of the tailpipes that lets everyone know this is a sports car and not your mother’s Malibu. Thankfully, this is something that any V-6 Camaro owner can rectify, whether you have the earlier 3.4L V-6 or the current 3.6L version.
Corsa Performance offers a cat-back, cross-pipe system for the V-6 Camaro that offers improved performance, sound, and a reduction in weight over the factory system. At the heart of this design is Corsa’s Reflective Sound Cancellation (RSC) technology. RSC takes low frequency soundwaves and runs them through specially designed chambers in the muffler that turn the direction of the soundwaves around 180 degrees to eliminate unwanted sound frequencies that cause droning and other unwanted exhaust noises. This technology, combined with special acoustic tuning, creates a much sportier and aggressive exhaust note when the car is under acceleration. At the same time, the design also allows for less restrictive flow of the exhaust gasses through the system, reducing backpressure and creating gains in horsepower and torque.
Curious as to what the real world results would be, we kidnapped a friend’s stock ’14 V-6 Camaro and called up Corsa to get one of these kits (PN 14953). It came with everything needed to install it so it took us less than 2 hours from start to finish. While we couldn’t do any chassis dyno testing to see before and after results power wise, our seat-of-the-pants dyno told us that the car definitely felt like it had more pep in it, and the mileage computer was even showing an increase of 2-3 mpg, even with a heavier foot being used so we could get the full experience of the new system’s sound. And on that front, most importantly, our V-6 test subject finally had some voice to it, especially under acceleration. It sounded more like a sports car should, without any drone or other unwanted acoustics.
01. The kit we’re using for our install is Corsa’s 2.5-inch cat-back system, (PN 14953). It is a cross-pipe design, with full stainless steel construction, high-flow performance resonators, and polished 4-inch tips. We didn’t get a chance to dyno test our car before and after the install, but Corsa claims gains of 6 hp and 7 lb-ft of torque, along with a 44 percent increase in exhaust flow and a weight reduction of 11 pounds over the factory system.
02. At the heart of the system is Corsa’s straight-through design muffler with Reflective Sound Cancellation (RSC) technology that eliminates drone while at the same time reducing backpressure and providing a robust exhaust note.
03. The nice thing about working on a fairly new car is you don’t have to deal with rusted or stuck bolts. The first step in removing the factory exhaust is loosening the band clamps directly behind the catalytic converters.
04. The factory exhaust system on V-6 Camaros has virtually no exhaust note or sound, and often leaves you wondering if the engine is even running. Even spinning the high-winding V-6 up into the high rpm range where it’s happy doesn’t provide much satisfaction noise wise.
05. The factory system is an H-pipe design, which does help flow and performance, but isn’t as good as the cross-pipe style crossover of our Corsa system.
06. Removing the factory system is made easier if you shoot some WD-40 or similar lubricant on the rubber hangers on the exhaust system. It makes prying the rubber isolators off the hangers a breeze.
07. With the system off the body hangers and the forward band clamps loose, the factory system comes out of the car as a whole unit. This part is definitely easier with a second set of hands.
08. Loosely attach the forward connector pipes to the resonator assembly, then slip it into place on the pipes behind the cats. Follow that by installing the rear pipes that go under the rearend assembly to the mufflers. Don’t tighten any clamps until you have the whole system in place, as you’ll need to move things around to adjust the position of the pipes and the mufflers so the tips line up correctly in the rear valance.
09. The new Corsa mufflers are polished like the exhaust tips, and definitely provide some much preferred eye candy over the clunky looking factory mufflers. They also take up considerably less space.
10. Once you’ve got the tips and mufflers aligned properly, you can tighten up the band clamps on the system to secure everything in place.
11. The Corsa exhaust kit comes with all the necessary clamps and hardware you need for installation, including a set of extenders for the rear body brace so it won’t rub against the new, larger exhaust pipe.
12-13. Here’s how everything looked once we were done. A straightforward install that could be done in a driveway with jackstands and handtools, Not only do the new mufflers look ten times better, but now our V-6 Camaro has a much healthier sound, more of a European sports car note without any drone or otherwise obnoxious noises at idle, cruise, or under acceleration. Under hard acceleration the note really asserts itself in an extremely pleasing way, enticing the driver to wind up the V-6 for the fully symphony of enjoyment.
