Side exhaust/ road car

[MIGHTY 8]

Hello,

Anyone running side pipes on a street not race car? Have pictures or comments to share?

[chrisg]

Like actual side pipes or just a side exit?

I had a side exit on my 74 124 Spider briefly, mostly because it was simple to “fabricate” to get on the road at the time. I think for a proper fit/clearance, someone would want to modify the floor pans a bit on the passenger side...that is unless there is no muffler at all.

[MIGHTY 8]

Hi Chris;

I guess more like a simple side-exhaust. Read recently some article on a classic Mercedes I believe it was and it had one. I guess the idea stems also from reading about these resto-modded cars, or in the Porsche community, “Outlaws,” that in some cases are quite tastefully done.
Also, from the performance perspective of avoiding the significant bends in the current system to clear the rear axle.

[baltobernie]

Check with your state DMV. Many prohibit non-O.E. side exhausts.

[chrisg]

It's true that the pipe routing over the rear axle can be a pain to get right without it doing something annoying when you drive. In true '60s sports car tradition, these cars were mostly designed with exhaust routing as an afterthought.

I could imagine it being done nicely enough. Space, especially once the car is lowered a bit, is the hassle of an issue. I suppose in some places, the law may be a concern, but in many I would not expect that to be a solid reason to do or not do this. I think on my '74, I had a short 4-1 Kirk header that elbowed into a 2" pipe. I ran the 2" pipe back to a small "turbo" type muffler roughly where you might expect the cat or first resonator on a stock exhaust & then elbowed out via a 45 angle roughly under the right side Pininfarina emblem. It could have been made nicer/clean/etc., but it was a temporary thing in my case.