I've read what other info I could find on side exhaust. vBulletin forums have the crappiest search engine in the world... Grr....

However, so far, I have not seen any cars with a finished side exhaust, other than the wide-bodied Mini... and I'm just not well off enough to go that route.

Recently the left muffler bracket broke, and I welded it together. All was well until I nailed a deer on the way home... No thanks to the repair shop (Classic Collision Center, or whatever it's called). I noticed a rattle in the exhaust on the way back from the shop, but I was heading for work and didn't have time to get back until the next day. They said the heat shields were corroding and that was the problem. Riiight. I have gone through those several times when I replaced my handbrake cables, and I know that none of them were touching.

The noise got louder, until finally, the muffler starting becoming absoluely deafening. I looked under the car, and the pipe leading from the resonator to the muffler had broken in two, due to the re-welded bracket breaking from the impact with the deer. I brought it back to the repair place and they said "not our problem". Right. It was fine when I brought it in, but not fine when I left.

Oh well. When I was called for a followup, I gave them a 1, and said I won't be coming back. Either way, I'm currently running on just the resonator, with the exhaust coming out under the back seat. Before someone goes off telling me I'll melt wiring, etc, I've already looked at it and it's got a good bit of shielding, and the worst thing it does is cover the left rim with soot.

I have a few options.

1) I'd like to put it back together, or install a new muffler from someone that's upgraded. I'm flat broke at the moment, so I won't be able to buy new brackets or hangers for a few weeks, but that sounds like the most likely route.

2) I've always liked the side exhaust ports most of the GT cars have... and really would like to do so with the Mini, but I'm not going to hack the underside up unless someone already has and can prove it is not going to hamper the structural integrity. Being a unibody, it may not have frame rails, but I am still not sure what would be kosher and what wouldn't be.

Any ideas?

3) Lastly, I'm also considering ditching both the muffler and the resonator and using two seperate mufflers splitting off where it curves off to the resonator. I've been building a Lotus Seven knockoff, and currently am running a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 muffler, and not only does it run well, but it sounds phenominal. I'm really tempted to see if I can find a pair of single-pipe Hayabusa mufflers and rig them up to replace the resonator and muffler. The only problem is that most of the single pipe mufflers for the 'Busa are 500-1500 dollar aftermarket setups. So, for now, that probably will have to wait.

So basically what I'm asking is this: Is a side exhaust feasable?

Here's Sport Compact Car's (now defunct, sadly) Project SRT-4 with side exhaust, just about what I'd like to do:

http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...t_5/index.html

Nate
SteyrTMP

 

Not sure if you've seen this thread yet, but figure I'd post it here in case you haven't:

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t-exhaust.html

GotMINI

 

Damn search engine! That's exactly what I'm looking for, just on the driver's side rather than the passenger's.

They mentioned it'd be harder on the driver's side... any idea why?

 

I saw a Mini race car at the stealership who had a driver side exit exhaust..