Id like to do the obvious beginners mod on my 2011 STI by fitting a TBE and taking for a tune. Recommendations? Is it worth getting a cheaper one and upgrading at a later date? Are there any awesome tuners in the northern suburbs (around whitfords/joondalup) area?

Not sure about the northern tuners part of the question but personally I wouldn't bother buying a cheap tbe just to replace it later. Especially with an 11 model you woul need to tune after putting on the exhaust, so replacing the exhaust later would mean having to retune, which will just add to your costs. Hope that helps!

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Now handles like a cat on carpet

All star garage - Malaga for tuning. Do a search and you will find a lot of praise for them

For the cheaper side of the scale of exhaust systems, check out Ultrex. They have some nice systems, full TBEs can be had for just under $1k. I had one on my 08wrx, only reason I changed was because I wanted something a bit louder. My downpipe is still the ultrex one, I just changed my catback.

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MY08 WRX 325hp/456nm/18psi E85

Racetorque Wangara

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Bye bye betty blue. Hello F6.

Yeah good point, I'll just wait I reckon. How much is a tune roughly?

Thanks a lot was actually looking at the ultrex ones. Found a link in here not long after posting this haha. Sounded nice in the video they posted.

Verso tune at all star garage will set you back $1190. That's the initial cost, any retunes will be much less.

Cheers! I'll wait till I can get both at the same time then.

I have an Ultrex full TBE on my MY11 STi and I think it sounds superb.
RaceTorque did my tune and also fitted up the exhaust. No problems.
I'm north of the river mate, so if you want a listen we could meet up.

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2017 Ford Focus RS
MY11 STI - SOLD

If you just want some boxxer sound, get a diff-back made for a few hundred clams. That will give you some noise until you're ready to fork out for a full system and tune.

You could either get a cheaper, mild steel diff-back or for a bit more a 3" mandrel bent, stainless steel diff back which you can keep long term and get the rest (dump pipe and mid section) at a later date.

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