I’ve never been a believer of the Harley crowd’s moto “Loud Pipes Save Lives”. All that loud pipes do is get restrictions put in place. Next month I’m going to a track day event at Laguna Seca Raceway in Salinas, CA, just outside Monterey. LSR has a very strict db (decibel) limit due to its proximity to some very wealthy and influential neighborhoods. LSR only has 5 weekend events per year without db limits, races such as MotoGP, Indy, HMSA Historics, and the likes. The rest of the club race weekends and weekday track events have a very strict 92 db limit that is enforced by trackside monitors. By the way, 92 db is the Federal limit for a stock motorcycle exhaust, pretty darn quiet. So I’m making a removable “quiet system” for my race car. My small, straight-through race muffler will be removed for now, and a staggered inlet/outlet Magnaflow street muffler with an adjustable turndown tip will replace it. I’m installing it with large clamps designed for easy on/off applications so I can swap them back and forth. I even broke down and bought a fresh blade for my Sawzall to keep the job clean. The 90 degree turndown tip will be used to point the exhaust noise to the left, away from the trackside monitors. Open intake systems can also be loud enough to set off the 92 db alarms, so I’m hoping my new airbox will also help prevent me from getting black flagged by the sound police. I’ll report back on how successful this noise reduction system works.
Here are some crazy muffler systems built by other drivers so their very loud race cars can pass the Laguna Seca sound restrictions.
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