yes agreed. torque is not the problem, too much torque too early is the problem.. well, a "problem"

 

you wouldn't lose your torque, you'd make more for longer with a flatter torque curve.. so with a free flow exhaust, you'd lose nothing, you'd gain tons

please read what Sharif is talking about here , it will help understand:

 

well i have a 3" exhaust bolted up to a stock muffler. i don't want a loud exhaust so what muffler is good and that bolts up to the stock location?

 

do you have single or twin turbo?

do you have a resonator between the downpipe(s) and the stock muffler?

Free flow exhaust can be louder than an otherwise setup but with a nice big muffler and resonator, you can reduce the noise quite a bit. Also, remember that turbo itself reduces the noise quite a bit already (compared to NA of course). So you could get around that, depending on your setup. If you're going custom, I suggest you look at Vibrant Performance and what exhaust parts they offer. I'd go with a nice large diameter resonator and single straight through muffler. There is plenty of people with similar setups so if you're worried about droning or in-cabin noise, I'd first go for a ride to see for myself if I were you, then you can decide.

Also, your current setup is not really "hurting" anything. But your engine could always run cooler (longetivity) and you could always make a bit more power

 

i have a single turbo set up. 3" exhaust, magna flow hi flow cat, all running to the stock muffler. i do realize that the turbo does quiet the sound down a bit but, like you said i don't want to deal with interior drone. as far as temp. goes, i don't usually see any temps higher than 1400 degress at full boost reading from my zeitronix egt.

 

that doesn't sound too bad at all.. where is your egt probe located?

 

You could either retard the timing in the midrange to lower the torque as you build boost or get a gear dependant boost controller. I would do the latter because in the upper gears you would need the torque that you are "giving away". Another thing that people forget is the amount of negative camber the car has stock that gets even worse when lowered. This takes away from our contact patch and overall straightline traction. Dial this closer to zero and you will be amazed the amount of traction you gain.

 

If you want that, why not get a truck? You could put a trailer hitch on it, a winch, a 5" lift kit, even pull out tree stumps for fun! Yeehah!! (...just had to say that...)

 

Yeah theres nothing like a 4500 lb truck with 800 lbs of torque and 380 hp killing everything on the street.