How much should a new exhaust actually cost supplied & fitted?

[EspritMiltonKeynes]

I know you can go totally mad with exhaust systems and get cat-bypass pipes etc, etc.. But let's say you wanted to stay fairly traditional and just get something that looks pretty standard - and get someone to fit it? How much should it cost?

And what should I really be getting, I'm not wanting to sound or look like a boy racer, but is it worth going for a fully stainless steel option for corrosion resistance? Or is the sound actually better from more corrodable mild steel options?

[Kimbers]

Yes James, I would recommend a stainless steel one. As OwenGT3 has proved you can get one tht sounds better but not "Bibs Blow your ear drums off" loud. We have a place down here who builds and fits to order. So no messing around with trying to get a stock aftermarket to fit.

As Owen GT3 for the tel number.

I hope everything else is ok.

Regards

TK

[Jonathan]

You'd be mad not to get a stainless system - most are much lighter than standard too.

The Larini one I and a few others have on here is pefect wrt sound and power increase.

That was....umm

[fightingtorque]

I have just installed the SJ Sportscars 'supersport' exhaust. Initial impressions were that the sound wasn't much changed because I have bypassed the inlet silencer some time ago and most of what you hear is whooshing and ch chchch chchc ch noises from the intake, but on closer analysis the exhaust note is significantly improved without being much louder than before. Especially at idle and light loads, it's ok for the small village I live in.

It was about 250gbp plus vat, I must admit it wasn't as beautiful as I had hoped with heavy looking mig welds where you would like to see TIG artwork, but the custom fabrication man we use for our work stuff would have cost double that.

It fitted perfectly.

I also put new mounts on, as one of them was boxoled.

Edited May 29, 2009 by fightingtorque

[Mark Blanchard]

I've just had a stainless steel Janspeed exhaust fitted at a cost of

[Gasman GT3]

I had a Blue Flame custom stainless system fitted 4 years ago

[OwenGT3]

Hi,

As Tony said, Power and Performance is the place in Honingham, genuine guys, they won't sell you what you don't want or need and have loads of options for your system. Mine was

[pitstoppete]

I also had a stainless "sporty" one from a major supplier and was dischuffed at the poor quality small diameter pipework/bending, crap welds and boring sound.

all the proper stainless ones mentioned seemed an awful lot of money to me so I made my own,

mk1 was started with a 3" to turbo tapered fitting I made myself, then welded onto a shortened 90 deg bend with a freely available lambda boss in it. on to that i tried the shortest possible length (as Jon has by the sounds of it) exiting out of the left hand side, all 3" for the flow and migged together along the slots and round the diameters with jetex standard bends from Merlin Motorsport.

that mk1 attempt was akin to a Hawker Hurricane at idle but on full chat sounded utterly awesome, not really sunday am neighbour friendly though, (stuff them nuggets, Ive moved now!) but my ears were also complaining, so -

mk2 turned across the car with another 90 deg bend under the back of the gearbox picking up on the std rubber mounts straight onto 3" clamps, then out of the right hand side and that was a bit less awesome but still gave a definite benefit helping breathing, but/and also still set off car alarms as i drove past parked cars, which was nice,

at this point i couldnt choose/decide on an after market tailpipe trim i liked, so I rolled up a piece of ex De-lorean stainless steel i had left over from my kit car build years ago to 3.25", hidden rivets and seam under the tailpipe, then all cut at a taper to basically follow the shape of the rear bumper, then brushed so it looked nice. shows the flame marks nicely.

mk3 and as it stands at the moment has a short std Merlin Motorsport "Simons" 3" "silencer (loose term there)" nearest the tailpipe, mk4 will be another short straight through silencer on the left hand side as I like my new neighbour nearest the garage....

they do do a long one that would just fit and will fill the centre valance part nicely if people preferred.

mk3 still lobs huge flames if need be, ok, is a bit raw at idle, but on the go its very mild up to 80ish and under 3000 revs ish, as i have the taller 5th gear. drop it two though and it does a jekyll/hyde and howls beautifully round to 7400 and 1.25 bar all the way, and just the proper supercar noise I thought the car should make but never did, but in turn so its not waring at normal speeds.

After talking to Dermot, doing the cross sectional area calcs and talking to other turbo nutters, its apparent that using 3" pipes helps flow no end and on mine has helped the boost build easier and its way nicer to drive than with the old std rusty original one/or the aftermarket rubbish. I can replace bits easily, boxes are 30

[EspritMiltonKeynes]

Hmmm... sounds interesting Pete,

Unfortunately I'm a bit of lamo with serious mechanics and if I was ever let loose with a mig or tig welder I'd probably either electrocute myself and/or make a right dog's dinner of all the joins etc...

I'm tempted by the blue flame options - it's certainly nice that they let you 'choose' your sound and tailor make everything to suit you. I presume you can just order something like that and get it delivered for

[CarlC]

Yep, SJ Super Sports on my car and I cant fault it. Totally different note to stock. Mine is fitted with Decat from PNM (about

[s4simon]

I've had my SJ Sporty on for 6 years now. Sounds great and was cheapish. No complaints here.

[mangel]

I have a powerflow centre twin exit and the chees grater grill.

Looks good and sounds good, kinda loud but with the roof shut and the windows up its not intrussive at all really.

Was custom made by a place in Stourbridge.

[Bibs]

http://www.thelotusforums.com/wiki/index.p...Exhaust_Options