big exhausts

[anonymous-user]

Is there any reason why the size of the exhaust pipe on a car is used to judge how powerful it is?

My thinking is that an engine with a large cc with have more gas to get rid of and the exhaust would need to be bigger to avoid a restriction.

Thing is though this line of thinking tends to get abused. Lots of new cars are incorporating a wide chrome aperture(s) into the rear bumper to give the look of meaty twin exhausts, but look closely and you can see piddly pipes inside

Is it a male phallic thing where we need to feel that we have a big pipe and therefore a fast car (reference connotations to penis size and ability to satisfy etc)

Has anyone upgraded their exhaust purely on the grounds of the OE items looking a bit weedy?

Also why do we need to see exhausts? They can easily be hidden and provide clean lines at the rear end.

[JDMDrifter]

Having a huge zorst makes everything look powerful. Just ask your local yoofs in their 1.0 corsas

[TheTurbonator]

Sounds like you're suffering from exhaust envy.

[jamieduff1981]

I downsized my tailpipes. They were fairly big but you could see where they flared outwards to a bigger bore. I replaced the exhaust with the original style where the tailpipes matched the bore size of the rest of the system.

[Mastodon2]

Aren't the large exit apertures an emissions testing thing? Something to do with being able to do the type approval emissions test "inside" the exhaust, when really it's more of a mixing chamber post-exhaust to make the meter read higher air concentrations and minimise the read of the harmful stuff?

I've had a big exhaust on one of my cars, but only then because it was a Japanese hot hatch, and the big Jap cannon style exhausts only look good on Japanese cars. It sounded amazing on the VTEC too, though it was silly loud. My Cupra R had a massive oval exhaust tip, and that was a Milltek, but the OEM SEAT exhaust was a massive stylised oval too.