![[VIDEO] Did You Make a $2,000 Mistake in Not Ordering a Quad Center Exhaust?](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2026/10/100126_2b.jpg)
Ordering a new Corvette is a rite-of-passage for many owners who have put in the time and effort to ensure their build is the perfect one for them. On those new builds, every option is analyzed and determined if you can live without it, and that justification becomes easier as the option prices go up.
New Grand Sport (and Stingray) owners are now facing that dilemma of just how important the Quad Center Exhaust will be, and several have already come forward saying they made a $2,000 mistake by ordering the standard side-exit exhaust instead of the optional Quad Center-exit system.
Korey from Paragon Performance recently took delivery of the shop’s new 2027 Corvette Grand Sport X and now he discusses that decision knowing what he now knows. His original plan was to pick the side exhaust to create content for owners who might not have the budget for a center-exit system or end up buying a car straight off the showroom floor. Not everyone gets the chance to configure their Corvette, and he wanted to represent that group.
But once he got seat time in both exhaust configurations, the difference was impossible to ignore.
![[VIDEO] Did You Make a $2,000 Mistake in Not Ordering a Quad Center Exhaust?](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2026/10/100126_4b.jpg)
Sitting behind the Grand Sport X, Korey explains the Center-Exit 6.7L LS6 delivers the soundtrack you expect from a next‑gen Corvette — deep, aggressive, and unmistakably modern. The side‑exit, on the other hand, sounds much closer to the outgoing 6.2L, and in Weather or Tour mode, it can get downright quiet. His words? The side‑exit can sound “like a Prius” compared to the center‑exit’s full‑throated bark.
It was a surprise even to him. After so much time behind the wheel of center‑exit cars, he assumed the new 6.7L would shine regardless of where the pipes exit. It didn’t.
Korey does make some points on why the side‑exit still makes sense for certain Corvette owners. For example, owners upgrading from a previous Stingray can reuse their existing aftermarket exhaust — a big savings when trading up.
![[VIDEO] Did You Make a $2,000 Mistake in Not Ordering a Quad Center Exhaust?](https://www.corvetteblogger.com/images/content/2026/10/100126_3b.jpg)
He explains the next plans for the car which is getting the Atlanta Custom Wraps treatment, and then a full lineup of aftermarket systems — Borla Attack, Paragon, Kooks, and more — to compare side‑exit vs. center‑exit setups and see just how big the differences really are.
It sounds like there is definitely some FOMO when it its comes to ordering the new exhaust system, and that pain may be felt more when it comes to resale values. This will be something to watch. In the mean time, check out Korey’s video below.
Source:
Paragon Performance / YouTube
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i’m taking delivery of my 2027 next week.
I am lucky that I am in the Employee discount ( GMS) program as a direct decendant of an employee.
I had a 2023 Z51 Stingray purchaassed at sticker from Criswell.
I originally ordereed my 2027 with a nice discount of 7% vs. the deal that Criswell offered.
When the Stingrays and Z51s as well as ZO6s were put in the program at 9/1 I lucked out – my dealer honored the GMS price.
The downside was my agreement with my wife that I would spec a ’27 so it would cost less than my ’23 that was a sticker deal.
I worked hard at building and specing it.
With 7% off I could get the center exhaust and FE2 on a base Stignray but not the Z51 and FE4. The base also came with all seasons so I did not have the winter restrictions here in Virginia.
Otherwise its the same car with all the other updates vs. my 2023. Just not a Z51.
Then the GMS program kicked in at 9/1. I got another 3.5% off my cost.
Do I reneg on my almost built car and spec a Z51 – which I will never track – or stay the course?
I stayed the course and will pick up my new one next week…with center exhaust
Overblown. 2 grand is nothing for the same demographic who clamor for the sounds from the LT6; the audiophiles. It is 100% not worth it for me–even if there was a $2,000 DISCOUNT.
I happen to want a grand tourer; I do NOT want the “full-throated bark”. Sport mode on the E-Ray was perfectly acceptable to me, for the times I wanted “more”. I want refined. Demure. Not aggressive. And that’s not to mention that I would be $5 that the center exhaust heats up the trunk even more than the side-exhaust. Then there’s also the massively wide rear end on the C8 widebody–and nothing to fill it out when there’s a center-exhaust.
Now if only we could get a 1:1 comparison of ER and side-exhaust GSX side-by-side, unmodified, with the same tires….
I’ve always liked a Vette’s push better than it’s noise. Loud cars are for the strip. But, hey, make your Vette yourd?
Free on my C7 Grand Sport.
Once again I am in agreement with IPD and not a fan of driving noisemakers for noise sake. A lot of noisy aftermarket exhaust systems release insignificant amounts of horsepower and at the same time kill torque and reduce fuel economy while costing quite a bit. Sport setting on a Stingray is enough noise. But some people feel that they have to be the center of attention. Not every mile that you drive is a race. Low noise in low speed and stop and go traffic is desirable. They put nice radios in these cars after all.
I’m glad to see I’m not alone. I used to want loud but after having a loud aftermarket exhaust on my Grand National, Ford F 350, and mild to wild exhaust control on my ’07 Z06, quieter sounds better to me (no pun intended). Honestly, the side exhaust on this video sounded great. I’m just hoping that they did a good job with blocking out road noise in the new Vettes.
I love my center trumpet performance exhaust on my Z51
2015 C7. It sounds great in track mode.
BOS just put out a video comparing his stock side exhaust against an aftermarket center exhaust. I have the same impression as I do about the stock center-exhaust. The sides are great. In fact, not just great–better. Throatier. Deeper. More subtle.
BOS’s exhaust is raspy. Frenetic. Loud. Obnoxious. You could not pay me to swap.
BOS was going for: raspy. Frenetic. Loud. Obnoxious. I’ll take the stick center. I heard mine today for the first time.
I had sides in my 2023 z51.
The new engine sounds very good.
PDI is next. Delivery Tuesday.
Leaving the sound and hypothetical performance benefit to the side, I think the center exhaust looks much nicer than the side one. However, selecting the center exhaust for just the look and not caring about sound and performance and paying $2K more is debatable at best.
There is no performance benefit. The sound is modestly different. I don’t need BOS type sound. I went for as many key changes as I could afford over my ‘23. Interior, engine, exhaust. Three major updates and the other nuances.
GM has already established that the Corvette customer base will pay small fortunes for “sound”. LT6 has proved that in spades. It would be silly for GM not to offer something that probably has negligible cost difference–for a 2k premium.
It IS the GS we’re talking about. The same GS whose acolytes blathered on for years about how the E-Ray was too expensive (despite a well justified price), and they wanted a cheaper car. And then the first/only thing that people do when ordering the GS–is up-option it every which way until the car practically has the same price as a 2LZ ER HTC would have had. Just so that they can LARP at Cars & Coffee.