F-150 5.0 sounds like a badass after getting voice lessons from Borla.
Forty thousand miles. Those can take quite a while to rack up on a vehicle. Depending on the length of your commute and how often you go on long road trips, it might be a few years before your odometer shows 40000. No matter what, the time it takes until you hit that mark gives you plenty of chances to think about changing things on your vehicle. That’s what Mike from the Youtube channel “AutoVlog” ended up doing after his F-150 FX4 hit 40K.
He has a lot of mods in mind, including a more aggressive grille and more upscale headlights, but in the video above, he decides to make his truck sound better. In stock form, the V8 has plenty of power and sounds pretty good starting up cold, but its exhaust doesn’t let out much sound at idle and especially during a high-speed fly-by.
Mike buys a Borla ATAK cat-back exhaust system to unlock the 5.0’s inner beauty. Before he can rip the old setup out from under his rig and bolt in the new one, he has to wait until a certain time to make sure his buddy Brian is off of work and ready to help with the installation. Once they meet up, they throw the F-150 on a lift and yank out its factory exhaust. Putting in the Borla piping seems easy and straightforward, although it does require bolting on two additional hangers to keep the pipes in place.
It takes about an hour to put the Borla system in and it’s more than worth the wait. The black tips coordinate with the truck’s black paint and the sound that comes out of them is angry and loud. The 5.0 is more vocal at idle and at speed, from the outside and the inside of the cabin. The best part about it is that it doesn’t boom or drone inside the truck. Looks as if Mike’s next 40,000 miles in this F-150 are going to have one helluva soundtrack.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
