In between jobs we’ve been working on some new manifolds for our Capri Race car. Proper exhaust manifolds take a long time to make but there’s a lot of calculations to make before the welding begins. Race manifolds need to take into account all sorts of details about the design of the engine, head, valves, cams and even the gear ratio’s and rolling road power plot. Once all of that is taken into consideration the work can begin. You can see from the picture how much is involved with getting so much tube wrapped around the engine bay. The power gains are well worth it though.
Archive for the ‘Exhausts’ Category
Capri Exhaust manifolds
Friday, October 5th, 2012Mini savings
Friday, October 5th, 2012We’ve done a few Mini’s recently, I suppose they must be of an age where the exhausts are starting to wear out. These supercharged Mini exhausts can be eye wateringly expensive and it turns out it’s cheaper to build a life time guaranteed stainless steel exhaust than buy a standard replacement. The last few we’ve done have been in a larger bore and with better boxes for improved performance. The exhaust gives off a purposeful growl but is remarkably quiet for a free flowing exhaust on a supercharged car. It’s the perfect solution when the time comes for a replacement.
low rider
Friday, October 5th, 2012This classic cortina gets used in the occasional hillclimb and sprint event, which having worked on it is very brave of the owner. These things are worth a bob or two and he’s a brave man throwing it around a track. Especially considering he restored it from a basket case by himself. All we had to do on this one was get him some more ground clearance. The exhaust had been custom built elsewhere but it didn’t really fit his needs. The car is lower than standard and the exhaust scraped in various places. We reused a large amount of what was already there but with a few changes we tucked the exhaust away. There was so much extra clearance that we were able to lower the engine slightly which will help the cars handling. If I had a car this valuable and I was throwing about on a race track I’d want the handling to be perfect!
Puma Project
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012Transporter tail pipes
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012Hard Lux
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012This Hi Lux was dropped off by the owner with a couple of back boxes he wanted fitting. It didn’t look too bad at first but getting the pipework to fit around the axle turned out to be a bit of a headache. There’s remarkably little room under there once you’ve left enough enough room for all that axle movement. We managed to squeeze it in and the end results speak for themselves.
V6 Pinto Capri
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012Back in the 80’s this would have been a common mod. we built a mild steel exhaust for this 2.0 Pinto engined Capri so it looked like the V6 engine version from the rear. Determined not to be all show and no go the owner is bust getting tuning parts together for the engine and we will help him get it all assembled. Next on the list id weber carbs, and maybe cams.
MX5 Hillclimb car
Friday, April 27th, 2012We’ve been building this hillclimb car for Practical Performance Car Magazine. The full details of the build will be available to read over the next few months. PPC mag have an event called the 999 challenge. The idea is to build the best MoT passable car you can for 999 quid and carry out a timed quarter mile and handling course. The fastest car wins. We decided to take the concept a step further and see if we could build a hill climb car for full competition still sticking to the 999 pound budget. The list of modifications is massive. We reduced the weight by about 20% which is hard going on a car that’s so light to start with. With all the weight stripped out we built a cage that not only keeps the driver safe but adds to the shells rigidity. The engine received a turbo and anti lag system including launch control and flat shift. It also features a hydrogen gas system for better combustion and a cold water spray for the intercooler. We carried out a few suspension and brake modifications and thoroughly set the cars geometry to give it perfect handling. The aerodynamics were last to be addressed and are controlled tightly by the regulations. We designed an aero package that other than the allowed rear spoiler didn’t change the cars silhouette. We achieved this with a flat underfloor, undercut splitter and a rear diffuser than uses a cut out into the rear bumper. The rear aero is fed by the exhaust gases between the spoiler and the diffuser which aid flow attachment. There’s still some fine tuning to be done but it should be an awesome package on a very tight budget
classic BMW under renovation
Friday, April 27th, 2012After having a mad run on modern BMW’s wanting Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) removals we had this little classic come through the door. The owner was taking the time to bring the car to date as he carried out a rolling restoration. Items such as Poly bushes in the suspension, uprated brakes and an air-conditioning unit are all either done or being done. This type of gentle modernisation is a speciality of ours and is the ultimate in recycling. You can drive around in a beautiful car which can keep up with modern traffic whilst knowing you’ve saved the planet by avoiding another car going on the scrap heap. Our part was a simple stainless steel exhaust build. The customer wanted a little more noise but nothing excessive. We kept the number of boxes to a minimum as this helps reduce the cost too. We look forward to seeing the cara again when it’s completed.
Lomax exhaust
Friday, April 27th, 2012Based around a Citroen 2CV, this little Lomax 3 wheeler kit car must be the most fun you can have at 30MPH. We love cars like this because they’re so full of character and you can have so much fun enjoying the driving experience without the need to be at breakneck speeds. This was a simple case of moving the exhaust from the nearside to the drivers side. The exhausts are normally placed on the passenger side to avoid deafening the driver but in this case the owner had bigger problems. The exhaust was irritating his girlfriend at that’s never a good idea!. We rebuilt the front pipes and fitted a stainless steel silencer supplied by the customer. Once the summer comes around this little car should bring it’s owner many happy journeys to work in the sunshine.