Thursday, May 22, 2014

A Rally Nice Exhaust Note.

Can't afford a proper rally car? Wait for your muffler to fall off! It worked for me a few years back. Come on, admit it, all we really want is the sound of a rumbly, grumbly engine! It can make any car seem like the coolest rally car, ready for hitting jumps and taking tight corners. It somehow adds 50 or 60 extra km/hour to the feel of your boring daily commute.
A short video I had recorded reminded me of the time a few years back when the exhaust pipe of my Peugeot 104 broke off, right at the header. I knew that I had to get it replaced quickly, as such a noisy car attracts the police (not to mention the extra pollution it creates), but I did manage to get a few runs in with the full sound of the engine blasting towards the firewall.
This engine I speak of was Peugeot's well-loved 'X' engine. It earned the nickname of 'suitcase engine', as it laid nearly flat in the engine bay of the cars that used it, and separated into two halves when disassembled. It was eventually available in multiple displacements and power levels, though mine was the original small 1.0 litre, 45 hp version.

45 hp, not really the power of your typical rally car. With the exhaust in place, the 104 sounded, well, like it might have 45 hp. But yank off that exhaust and you got this:
Pretty impressive if you ask me! The backfires when decelerating were a nice plus! Shortly after I took this video I removed the header and had the pipe welded back on, and I went back to being a mild-mannered commuter. But I kept in mind the knowledge that a roaring beast was lurking under the hood...

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