balefire

iTrader: (2)

I know that the exhaust must exit behind the driver.

But is it legal to remove the exhaust completely for scca autox events, and then reattach it with some type of flange after (since my car is a daily driver)? Has anyone ever done this and is it possible?

Just trying to get down my budget racing car to race weight as much as possible without coughing up the cash for a ti exhaust. Thanks.

Cooper47

It's legal as long as it meets sound requirements........Give it a shot

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Both Geoke and Davis had a flange installed right at the muffler, they can just pull the exhaust and bolt on a turn down at the track.

balefire

iTrader: (2)

So is a turn down necessary to keep it legal? Or is it just for sound purposes? Does anyone know how loud (db) our car is without the muffler or with a straight pipe?

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Heat and sound. The turn down will knock the sound down a tiny bit, mostly what you hear in the car because it is aimed at the ground. Also if you just leave the exhaust open under the trunk area it can get hot enough to melt your bumper, mp5 had part of his melt and fall off at the Wendover Prosolo.

WRXtoRX8

^^^^ +1 on that.

If you don't care about the sound you could do what I did and picked up another cat to muffler section (i got one from teamrx8) took my stock peices off and hung them on the wall. All i did was just cut the part that pointed up towards the muffler/undertray and turned it down towards the ground and welded it there.

Cooper47

I can only imagine it's not real quiet.....Previous rotaries were almost unbearable without any muffling.....I cannot say that about the Renesis but I wouldn't bet on it.

In the end, it's probably easier to just fab up a light weight exhaust for the summer season that you can leave on.....Putting parts on and off your car before and after events gets to be a real pain and I doubt you'll notice the extra 15-20lbs.

Michael

I don't have a db figure for you, but I can compare the FD to the RX-8.

A kid running his FD (no cat, dump pipe) got kicked out for being to loud in a Houston-area SCCA event I attended about a year ago, and as a rule of thumb, turbo'd engines are generally quieter than N/A.

Imagine putting your ear next to a chainsaw, that's about what standing next to a catless//exhaustless rotary should sound like.

In addition, if you really must know - search for a thread that discusses a e-cutout or manual cutout - if there's a video in one of them you'll at least be able to hear something that would sound similar to what you want to do.

Edit - not sure if you'd be leaving the cat on...

mwood

I've heard a few RX8's run in BS with no muffler, but with the stock cat and mid pipe and they aren't all that much louder than the Isley set up which many of us now use...louder, for sure, and with no redirection of the exhaust outlet probably not going to pass sound, but not ohmygod loud.

Anything is better than the hybrid Evinrude/electric motor stock sound, though

WRXtoRX8

+1 on that mwood had brandon at one of our local events get in to take a run in my car and he tried to start it again not realizing it was running because it was so quiet. Had a lot of people at events ask me at times if it is running. There is no mistakening that it is running now though


If i remember right isley told me his setup comes in just under the SD legal limit of 91 so I am guessing it would be 92-94 maybe.

ULLLOSE

iTrader: (1)

Mine comes in at 89-91 @ 50'. NO WAY you will meet sound in SD, limit is 93 @ 50', with just a turn down. Barbara's car with a single exhaust and 12" Borla, mine is 16", was 91-93 @ 50' so with no muffler I would expect you will be in the 95 db range.

WRXtoRX8

:D good thing I don't run there very often

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

fwiw, we were recording 91 - 93 dB @ 50 ft with an open catback pipe

to play it safe for San Diego we installed a Supertrapp disc-set only with enough discs to equal an open pipe and were below 89 dB ...

understand there are a lot of factors on what any given reading will be; wind direction, atmospheric conditions, etc. etc.

WRXtoRX8

or you could play the directional coffee can game like the evos where doing

By the way mark where can I pick up a supertrapp disc setup?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

and you'll need another disc set too

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

I recommend running the pipe all the way out the back shroud with the disc muffler on the end, it will be waaaaaaay quieter inside the car and the extra pipe weight is worth it for a street driven car

balefire

iTrader: (2)

thanks everyone. I'm gonna look for a muffler or welding shop around here and see what I can do about cutting off my muffler... no noise limits around here that I know of...

I would love to have a more pemanent solution like ULLLOSE's or Team's setup since my stock exhaust is way too quiet anyway...

but the cheapest method (and more painful) is simply to take the muffler on and off for each event.

balefire

iTrader: (2)

Thanks to Team, my supertrapp is coming in tommorow, and I'll get it installed either this week or next. I'll be running a single exhaust supertrapp though... so we'll see how it sounds compared to Team's...

Depending on how it sounds, I'm actually considering just forgetting the flange, and having the shop weld the straight pipe and supertrapp together. Do you guys think the supertrapp with a few discs (which makes it quieter) is daily driveable? I would obviously put on all 18 discs for autox purposes...

Cooper47

It's probably going to be pretty loud.......My issue with running a single supertrapp on a rotary has always been the amount of heat involved. Make sure you use lots of anti-seize on the bolts before installing them or you'll end up with warped and stripped out threads. Obviously the fewer discs you use the more heat you're going to trap. Don't under estimate this, just for grins go out and put your hand on one side of your factory muffler after you've been on the highway......

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

^you probably don't have enough experience to say for sure ...

Cooper47

You're right, I've only had them installed on three previous RX7's........That's the beauty of this forum. I can act like an engineer without actually doing any of the work..

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

"loud" is a personal preference

some people think anything other than OE is loud

other people don't think a catback straight pipe is loud

only the owner can say what's acceptable ...

Cooper47

You're right....."Loud" is a personal preference and on a stock car with a stock cat it might not be so bad. I had this setup on my 82 RX7 and really enjoyed it. Of course, I was in high school at the time so anything that made the car more loud and obnoxious was okay in my book....

Still, I think the bigger issue is trapping all the heat into a very small space.....But then again, I probably do not have enough experience to comment on this.....

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

lol, me either

https://www.rx8club.com/showpost.php...&postcount=517

but my recommendation was for a disc-only setup

the disc set gets hot, but there is no buildup per se as you get quite a bit of airflow through the shroud, my use is mainly WOT only and other than the disc cap turning a fluorescent purple color there hasn't been any heat issue at all

mwood

You DO know how much power you're giving up with the disc muffler, right?

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

or gained , as always it just depends on the specifics