This Classic Capri needed a bit of TLC on the exhaust. The owner wanted something a bit more special from the sound and the look. We settled on a mild steel exhaust build as the car doesn’t get much use. We used a simple stainless steel exhaust tip to finish off the look.
We’ve done loads of these V6 signums now, and pound for pound they must be the best exhaust to do. The car should have 2 huge boxes at the back but without them the exhaust isn’t loud, it just has a nice growl to it. The back boxes go in the bin and we build some simple pipework with the customers choice of tips. Good looking, great sound and really cheap as there’s not much involved. Everyone’s a winner.
If you’ve never driven a Roller you won’t be able to appreciate how effortlessly luxurious they are. This one was in need of some exhaust work and the owner wanted a full copy of the original exhaust in stainless steel. There are a lot of exhaust boxes in the twin system to keep it silent and the owner couldn’t stretch to having it all replaced, especially as a lot of it was still in remarkably good condition. Instead we built the required parts in mild steel and repaired other parts where required. The final bill was a fraction that of what he’d expected and he wafted off into the sunset, another happy customer.
This Ferrari P6 kit came to us for an exhaust build. The engine is from a 355 so I think it’s fair to say it’ll be loud. The problem is the car needs to meet the IVA compliance of 99db and have catalytic converters. the engine needs to breath freely though matched length primary headers and have it’s secondary air system, temperature sensors and lambdas included. The customer also wanted quad tips and a cross over adding, all in the space of about 3 feet and without fouling the closely fitting body. That’ll all add up to a challenge then. We just about squeezed it all in there, the pictures speak for themselves. The finished article looks beautiful but as the car is incomplete we couldn’t check the noise levels. we’ll continue to work with the customer though until his creation is on the road.
Particulate filters are the latest emissions control idea for Diesels. The only major problem is that they have a life span as short as 30,000 miles if a car only gets local town use and the dealers consider their £2000 replacement costs to be an acceptable service charge. Personally we feel that’s a more reasonable cost for a new engine, never mind a wearing component that you’ll need to change again. because of this we do a lot of DPF removals. We bypass the filter assembly and the car then gets sent to have the ECU decoded. the whole lot costs around £200 to £500 and you’ll never need another DPF. You’ll also gain a bit of power as an added extra. This BMW had a full stainless system built for better performance and had the car remapped while he was at it. It produced driveshaft snapping torque figures once finished.
We had a highly strung new shape imprezza in recently that had modified and tweaked to within an inch of it’s life. The only problem was that it’s very expensive stainless exhaust was now a bit too loud. Rather than build a complete new system we designed and built a special slim line box with high temperature wadding to sit in the centre of the exhaust. The performance remains the same but the owner can get off his drive in the morning without the neighbours complaining.
This signum came in with the back boxes blowing on it. The replacements were expensive to say the least and the owners fancied something a little sportier so we decided to build him the rear section in mild steel. the car comes with a large centre box and 2 massive back boxes. To our surprise with the rear boxes removed the car sounded a bit more aggressive but the noise was hardly any louder. We had expected to need to replace the rear boxes to keep the volume sensible but Vauxhall had obviously been pretty cautious with the number of boxes fitted. With some simple pipework and a couple of nice tips the job was cheap and sounded great.
we always say that just about anything is possible when it comes to building exhausts. that is assuming you’ve got enough space to fit in big enough boxes. The owner of this Porsche wanted to keep it pretty quiet but also had a limit to his budget, so fancy designs or even large silencer boxes were out of the question. the problem is that with the engine hanging right out of the back there isn’t much room to play with. that’s a problem if the exhaust needs to be quiet as less noise means more exhaust boxes. In the end we twisted the pipework around a couple of standard pattern boxes and slipped in a decibel insert to keep the reverberation down. 
This Astra GTE is a full on race car kicking out over 250Bhp. The tired old exhaust was neither big enough nor up to the job of meeting the noise regulations. We designed and built a system using 2.5 inch mandrel bent mild steel pipe and boxes big enough to keep the noise within the regulations. the object is to get maximum flow which normally means just scraping in on the noise test. This one had 4db to spare. On race cars it’s important to get the whole thing tucked well up so it doesn’t get pulled off if the car runs wide on a corner. Extra hangers ensure this race car sees the chequered flag every time.
If you’ve ever wondered what the first part down the production line is on a V6 mondeo, the answer is ‘The Exhaust Manifolds’. Our very good and regular customer of ours found himself in trouble when yet again no local garages or exhaust specialists would help him. Despite the drive he wound up back at our door hoping we could fit his tubular exhaust manifolds for him. Unfortunately there were several stubborn nuts and bolts in awkward places making the task a struggle. After several hours we had the manifolds off, or more specifically the car off the manifolds. Once back together the car sounded awesome. Check it out on you tube on- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3ZkGTZJTnI
