New 2011 Mustang GT Headers From Bassani
Recommended Reading: 2011 Mustang GT Headers
Headers are one of the most important components in your exhaust system. If you have a boring, run-of-the-mill set of exhaust manifolds on your car, going with a set of after-market headers can boost power. This is because:
- Headers are designed to increase cylinder “scavenging,” boosting combustion efficiency and therefore power.
- Headers are often less restrictive than stock exhaust manifolds.
- Headers eliminate or reduce the possibility of exhaust gases from one cylinder polluting another
HOWEVER, after-market headers can also impact your torque curve. Read more
Torque Converters Explained: High Stall is a GOOD Thing
Recommended Reading: Torque Converter Selection – CHP How It Works
Do you know what a torque converter is? If you have an automatic transmission and you’re looking for more performance, you should. Chevy High Performance magazine has a great article about torque converters that beginners and non-beginners will find interesting.
Nice diagram of torque converter from Banks - click to see the original image
First, what’s a torque converter? Read more
VW Golf GTi Mk6 Race Exhaust System – Video / Movie
Recommended Reading: VW Golf GTi Mk6 Race Exhaust System – Video / Movie
There’s no doubt that small cars are gaining in popularity in North America. While the explanations for this phenomenon are interesting – some say it’s because younger car buyers aren’t nearly into “cars” as much as previous generations, others say it’s due to the fact that fuel economy rules force consumers to buy smaller vehicles.
Of course, it could be that Americans are falling in love all over again with the turbocharger.
Back in the day, turbochargers were notoriously unreliable. Turbos spin very fast (150k RPM in some models), and this fast fan blade speed (and subsequent bearing wear) is what caused so many problems. Partially, these problems on older turbo-charged vehicles were due to cheap and/or inadequate design (see Chrysler turbos from any year). However, it’s fair to say that there were some technological challenges with building a turbo bearing housing that was durable.
Recently, turbo manufacturers have switched from housings using journal bearings (which need a lot of oil for lubrication and cooling) to more reliable housings that use cartridge ball bearings. These require less oil, less cooling, and because they have less friction they reduce turbo lag (read a great write-up on turbocharger design from Garret). Long story short – turbochargers are as reliable as any other engine component (provided you don’t boost them up, but that’s another discussion).
Which brings us to this VW Golf GTI 2.0T Mk6:
Problem retrieving videos from provider: Not FoundThe exhaust system sounds OK – I’d like something a little more raspy – but you can’t argue with the results. Tossing a 3″ single-to-dual cat-back Milltek Race Exhaust onto this thing and doing some computer programming has created a Golf that does burn outs.
One 3" diameter tube split into a faux dual looks good but keeps the backpressure where it should be (you need a little to facilitate scavenging)
Not bad.
From The Milltek Sport Blog
This video shows the 210bhp VW Golf GTi fitted with the Milltek Race exhaust system and an ECU remap – taking the power to a staggering 282bhp and 427nm of torque!
Rally-Prep Fiesta Wears Upgraded Ford Racing Exhaust
Recommended Reading: Ford Announces Rally-Prep Kit, Race Series for Fiesta
Euro-style Rally Racing is one of the most exciting motorsports in the world. A combination of race driving skill, technology, planning, strategy, and good luck, a rally race is a lot like piloting an attack helicopter at tree-top level.
Part of the reason that rally racing is incredibly popular worldwide is that the cars seem more like regular old passenger cars than most race vehicles. Trophy trucks are really custom-built racers wearing a fiberglass body that’s sort of disguised to look like a production truck. The same can be said for NASCAR vehicles, but the resemblance between a Nascar racer and a real car are even smaller. Of course, open-wheel racing (off which I am a fan), bears no resemblance to production cars.
Rally Racing, on the other hand, features production-based Subaru’s, Fords, Fiats, Renault’s, and more. While these vehicles are heavily modified (suspension, powertrain, and frame), they’re more like a “real” car than most.
It’s no surprise that Ford is going to leverage the popularity of Rally Racing to promote the new Fiesta, especially considering that the Fiesta is a Euro-spec car. They’ve announced plans to start selling an R2 Kit that will include, among many other things, a T304 stainless steel exhaust designed to increase power and make the Fiesta sound a heck of a lot meaner…kind of like this:
Problem retrieving videos from provider: Not FoundFrom Car and Driver Blog
Rallying and hatchback cars have never been as popular in the U.S. as in Europe, but Ford hopes to change that with the Fiesta R2 rally package unveiled at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The R2 kit lets owners convert their factory Fiesta five-door into a rally-ready machine. It was developed by U.K.-based M-Sport, Ford’s official rallying partner since 1997, and debuted in Europe in March 2009.
The R2 treatment includes new pistons, connecting rods, valve springs, camshafts, fuel injectors, a louder exhaust, and a new air intake to bump the 1.6-liter engine’s output to 168 hp and 134 lb-ft of torque, versus 120 hp and 112 lb-ft in stock trim. Other components include larger brakes with AP four-piston calipers, Eibach and Reiger suspension components, a roll cage, race seats and harnesses, a limited-slip differential, a five-speed sequential transmission that permits full-throttle upshifts, and sundry other components needed for off-road racing. Read the full article…
What Smaller Engines Mean For Exhaust Systems – Clio 200 with Milltek Sport Exhaust
Recommended Reading: Renault Clio 200 with Milltek Sport Exhaust
There’s no denying that engine displacements are getting smaller. Ford’s new V6 EcoBoost F150 is proof-positive that automakers are going to focus on getting the same amounts of power they’ve always gotten out of smaller and smaller engines.
Depending on your viewpoint, that can be a good thing.
Regardless, smaller engines and more fuel efficient cars are the future. When it comes to exhaust systems, this means there will be a few changes: Read more
2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost V6 Exhaust Review
Recommended Reading: 2011 Ford F-150 EcoBoost V6 – First Drive Review
I smell trouble for the EcoBoost V6:
“If you overlook its rather flat exhaust note, it would be easy to mistake the EcoBoost V-6 for a burly V-8”
FLAT EXHAUST NOTE?! Come on, Ford! This is a twin-turbo V6 with direct injection…it should sound like a jet engine. While it’s definitely not going to sound like a big V8, it definitely shouldn’t sound “flat.” Fortunately, “there’s an app for that.” Read more
TRD Brings Back Their Tundra Exhaust System
Recommended Reading: Tundra TRD Dual Exhaust Is Back
TRD – short for Toyota Racing Development – is Toyota’s in-house performance division. It’s sort of the same thing as Ford Racing, AMG, MOPAR, and the other performance divisions of major automakers, although to be fair, TRD is more off-road focused than most of the others listed.
In any case, when Toyota brought out the 2nd gen Tundra in 2007, they offered a TRD exhaust system with a throatier exhaust note and a slight bump in performance over the stock Toyota Tundra exhaust system for about $1000. That’s a lot of money for an after market exhaust system considering Flowmaster and Magnaflow offer systems for about $600 for the same truck. Read more
Whining 2011 WRX STI Review From Car and Driver
Recommended Reading: 2011 Subaru Impreza WRX STI Limited Sedan – Short Take Road Test
There aren’t too many things more finicky than a Car and Driver vehicle editor…except for maybe one of the women on those housewives shows. Maybe. It’s close.
I’m not a huge fan of test drive reviews from C&D because they’re not really based in reality. They take a car that any normal person would find little or no fault with (say a simple, run-of-the-mill Ford Focus), test it in a series of unrealistic scenarios, and then lambast the engineers/designers because the “rear end lifts a little when taking a hard right at 52 mph.” Silly. Read more
Runaway-Truck Ramps – Sand Traps For Trucks
Recommended Reading: Runaway-Truck Ramps Explained – Feature
As a long-time Colorado resident, I’ve become accustomed to seeing runaway truck ramps…they’re all over the place in the mountains. However, there are a lot of people in the rest of the USA (these people are often called “flat-landers”) that don’t know what a runaway truck ramp is or what it’s supposed to do. They see a picture of a ramp like the one below and say “What the heck is that thing?”
If you’re one of these people that doesn’t know about these ramps, Car and Driver has answered your question in great detail.
If you already know about this sort of thing like I do, you might find the following tidbits interesting: Read more
Does Your Air Conditioning or Heater Smell Bad?
Recommended Reading: Stinky Air Conditioning and A/C Misting Services
Does your air conditioner and/or heater smell like a dead cat? Are you wondering why this happens and what you can do about it? TundraHeadquarters published some information about the cause and solution of the stinky A/C problem, which goes a little something like this: Read more
