The Phantom Expander

**Tank** · 21st February 2009, 14:51

Originally Posted by saltydog

I remember when I was a wee tacker, holidaying at Mangawai heads Motorcamp, Mr Wippy would turn up everyday and park up outside our tentsite and sit there for an hour selling his ice creams.
After a couple of days the old man, sick of the fumes and noise promptly marched out onto the road and shoved (read 'grind') a spud into the poor guys exhaust pipe.
It stalled the truck and Mr Whippy never parked next to us again.

Dude - Nobody, but nobody fucks with Mr Whippy on KB.

Last time it happened it went International. Its that serious.

**saxet** · 27th February 2009, 09:51

Misguided legend. Good idea in some ways but not legal, He needs to make sure he's actualy picking on noisey exhausts not just anything that looks loud.
Speaking for myself, I live on a hill and people have to accelerate to get up it and hence they make some noise. How much varies but the main noise makers are jap cars with big exhuasts, V8's driven by slightly wealthier and older people, but the worst is a Ulysses guy on a Harley look alike that shakes the f...ing windows. Funnily enough he complains about boy racers???
I support noise testing on commuter vehicles if a sane noise level is agreed upon...but theres the problem..who decides and how. So many vehicles are freakin loud for no reason and alot of them can be bikes. Seems we all want to blame other people without looking at ourselves.

**vifferman** · 27th February 2009, 10:04

I can understand the Phantom Expander, because for a long time I was seriously considering doing it myself. There's a houseful of boys with noisy Jap cars just up the road from us - it's not so much the loudness, as the tone; they sound crappy and farty - just noise for noise's sake, like bloody automatic Jap import cars with loud zorsts, that fart along but get nowhere fast. My son has a Peugeot 205 Gti that has a stock exhaust that's nearly as loud, but it's tuned like that, not set up to say, "look at me!" Similarly, there's a DeTomaso Pantera across the road - we can tell when it's started, as the walls and windows rattle. Doesn't bother us - it's just the way it is, like the Porsches and other exotic cars that visit the owner, or his racing 911. They're performance cars, and to sound the way they do is appropriate. What isn't appropriate is vehicles - bikes, cars, scooters, whatever - that are loud just for the sake of being loud.

**pzkpfw** · 27th February 2009, 15:21

You mean like when I was a teenager, and the back half of my exhaust system used to fall off, and I'd drive all over town at night playing "race cars"?

**peasea** · 27th February 2009, 15:55

Originally Posted by vifferman

I can understand the Phantom Expander, because for a long time I was seriously considering doing it myself. There's a houseful of boys with noisy Jap cars just up the road from us - it's not so much the loudness, as the tone; they sound crappy and farty - just noise for noise's sake, like bloody automatic Jap import cars with loud zorsts, that fart along but get nowhere fast. My son has a Peugeot 205 Gti that has a stock exhaust that's nearly as loud, but it's tuned like that, not set up to say, "look at me!" Similarly, there's a DeTomaso Pantera across the road - we can tell when it's started, as the walls and windows rattle. Doesn't bother us - it's just the way it is, like the Porsches and other exotic cars that visit the owner, or his racing 911. They're performance cars, and to sound the way they do is appropriate. What isn't appropriate is vehicles - bikes, cars, scooters, whatever - that are loud just for the sake of being loud.

Agreed. Although I like the sound of a well-tuned engine it doesn't have to rattle the windows to sound great. I hate V-twins that are too loud just as much as a rotary that's too loud. I can recall the uproar with racers at Western Springs when mufflers were made mandatory but it didn't take long for the racers to realise that their cars/bikes could make just as much and sometimes more power with good mufflers installed.

It would be interesting to take your basic turbo'd Nissan Skyline (for example) to a reputable dyno shop and run it in stock form, then again with a big bore, noisy muffler and for a third time with a big bore quiet muffler. I'm willing to bet the difference in net output at the back wheels between the b/b quiet and the b/b noisy would be SFA.

**vifferman** · 27th February 2009, 16:03

Originally Posted by peasea

I'm willing to bet the difference in net output at the back wheels between the b/b quiet and the b/b noisy would be SFA.

... and I'm willing to bet that in many cases the noisy mufflers would make less power at some revs.

**peasea** · 27th February 2009, 16:09

Originally Posted by vifferman

... and I'm willing to bet that in many cases the noisy mufflers would make less power at some revs.

Yes, probably in the lower (read-torque band) range, just where you need it. IMHO some of the problem is that these whizz-bang screamers don't make any torque, you have to buzz the nuts off them to make them move. By the time anything interesting is happening the rpms have climbed to half a zillion and so has the decibel level.

**Delerium** · 27th February 2009, 16:22

People need to understand the principle of big bore exhausts. It can give significant power gains if doing it for performance (ie people like me), or it can be done to sound like a mouse farting in a milo tin (not people like me). Either way if anybody is prepared to carry out some vigilantie acts on my car like that, then they better be damn prepared for some vigilantie retribution, cause you gonna get owned one day when you damage somebodies pride and joy. How would you feel if somebody did it to your bike? the guy needs a kick in the ass.