One thing that I hadn't even heard of until just very recently is the risk of melting. I've heard that if the exhaust is too close to the plastic on the bumper, that "bad stuff" can happen... This sounds logical, i just never thought of it before. Any signs of this happening, as the exhaust *does* look awfuly close to the plastic surround.

 

I've had the exhaust on now for about 250 miles, and there is no "melting" issue. Good question though. I haven't seen any of the exhausts do this. The tip really isn't the hot part - the mufflers and the cat are. We had one tip that had to be realigned that was actually touching the plastic. The customer drove it like that for the entire Alpine Drive with no problems (it wasn't the Magnaflow by the way).

 

>>One thing that I hadn't even heard of until just very recently is the risk of melting. I've heard that if the exhaust is too close to the plastic on the bumper, that "bad stuff" can happen... This sounds logical, i just never thought of it before. Any signs of this happening, as the exhaust *does* look awfuly close to the plastic surround.

*** My wife & I actually have had "melting" around the exhaust outlet on our Z3 with a Supersprint exhaust, so melting can and does happen. But I have to mention that: 1- we replaced the OE single tip with a Supersprint twin DTM tip, and 2- we no longer use that mechanic for aftermarket upgrades (we have gone to a system of 3 mechanics for our BMWs & MINI-- a dealer tech we ask for by name, the aforementioned shop for regular maintenance but NOT upgrading, and a specialty mechanic that does a lot of fabrication and track stuff for installing our aftermarket bits.

*** We now have another Supersprint exhaust, also with twin DTM tips, on our MINI Cooper S. As it came from Supersprint's North American distributor (BMP), it was touching the bumper-- our "specialty" mechanic did some minor mods and now it doesn't touch.

*** Posted elsewhere, but touching on the issue of exhaust installation and rubbing, is my write-up of our Supersprint MCS experience. Here's a copy:

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Car: 2002 MINI Cooper S (“MCS”)
Owners: Tom & Shannon Wiggins
tom@wigginsassociates.com & anim8@earthlink.net
Location: Pasadena, California
Car info: http://home.earthlink.net/~bmwmini
Exhaust: http://www.supersprintna.com/exhaust...ini_intro.html


"We pretty much decided on a Supersprint exhaust back in April 2001, when we ordered our MCS. We have had great experiences with Supersprint-- on a previous Neuspeed-equipped Jetta and on our current BMW Z3 (4 years with the Supersprint and we still love it). Additionally, we have had a number of other exhausts on other cars (Ansa, B&B, Comptech, Stromung, and custom exhausts) and know what we DON’T like… namely, systems that are embarrassingly loud or whisper quiet and/or have poor build quality (even under warranty, it’s no fun shipping exhaust systems back to the manufacturer). This is why we selected Supersprint on prior cars and again on our MCS.

1)Sound- it's sweet <Supersprint’s MCS ‘Sport’ mufflers require the addition of a resonator…>
2)Loudness- not too loud, not too quiet <Supersprint’s ‘Sport’ is way too loud as shipped- okay w/ resonator >
3)Piping- all mandrel-bent, optimized diameter
4)Quality- plate steel flanges, not stamped; seams welded & rolled, not crimped
5)Tuners- more contracts w/ top BMW tuners than all other exhaust manufacturers combined
6)Fit- Metric OE dimensions and true bolt-on <was definitely NOT bolt-on in the case of this MCS system>
7)Experience- since 1955... older than me
Testing- there's a reason top road & rally teams use Supersprint’s dyno facilities
9)Power- independent tests verify HP increases <waiting to see INDEPENDENT dyno tests of this MCS system>
10)Coolness factor- no explanation needed; Supersprint exhausts are works of art

"When we took delivery of our MCS in May 2002, we knew we wanted the Supersprint, but wanted to evaluate other exhaust systems as well (e.g. AC Schnitzer, Dinan, Hamann, Mini Mania, Rogue Engineering, and UUC Motorwerks). Of course the main problems is that none of these tuners had Cooper S systems available until just recently. We reviewed manufacturers’ information, dealers’ information, write-ups on the regular Cooper systems, information on BMW exhausts made by these folks, and of course lots of talks, emails, and Internet message board lurking. Based on this, we felt comfortable sticking with what had always worked in the past—Supersprint.

"Since our car is going to be a magazine feature car, it has quite a few upgrades (actually, the upgrade costs exceed the cost of the car). Although the majority of these expenses have been taken straight out of the Bank of Tom & Shannon, there are a few thousand dollars of upgrades that were contributed by a few sponsors. We were encouraged to take a free Magnaflow exhaust system by someone with contacts there, but obviously declined it (preferring to pay for our Supersprint and go with the “sure thing”). Evidently Magnaflow is claiming 18 horsepower (seems suspect- Borla claims 6 horsepower <and Magnaflow actually makes mufflers for Borla under contract> and other manufacturers’ claims range from 5 to 8 horsepower, except Supertrapp claims 13). Supersprint’s claim of 18 horsepower for a FULL system (including headers) seems more believable. Only a dyno comparison will tell for sure.

"In early October we laid out the $2,000+ for the Supersprint… the time we actually received it was a little over two months later. We purchased it through Jason Reich, President of Monster Mini (909-351-9566; hands down the BEST aftermarket MINI vendor we’ve worked with). Ara Manoukian, owner of EURasian Autosport installed the exhaust on Dec. 16-17 (626-793-5512; hands down the BEST aftermarket MINI mechanic we’ve worked with)… and did the follow up modification on Dec. 19th. The install was complicated! Since this time, Monster Mini has put a Magnaflow on their MCS and it took a total of 45 minutes, seems to provide a usable increase in power, and has a reasonable sound level (all what I’ve “heard”, not actually experienced). I look forward to comparing the two side-by-side someday.

"We are not mechanically inclined people and we do no work of our own… so I’m just repeating what Ara said. The headers require dropping the sub frame of the car and it is a major job (read: hours of labor expen$e). The factory head shield above the OE exhaust manifold does NOT fit over the headers and Ara modified it to fit (did I mention that Ara also builds Subaru WRX rally cars and race-preps BMWs?). Also the pipes that Supersprint sent and the OE pipes on the car… well, they require cutting and welding to get everything together under the car—not a problem for Ara, but not something to trust to the local Midas Muffler shop. Lastly, the turned-up twin DTM tips look terrific… but they weren’t just touching the bumper opening, they were pressed hard against it (hot metal tips and cool plastic bumpers don’t go well together). Again, Ara was able to modify things to get the DTM tips to clear the opening. And about the sound…

"When our MCS first came back after the Supersprint install the exhaust sounded great… for the track. Since this is a street car and we don’t want to announce our arrival blocks ahead of time, something was wrong. Supersprint neglected to tell their dealer (Monster Mini) that our system is a ‘Sport’ system (something that is NOT listed anywhere on Supersprint’s web site); it’s loud. Back to Ara and a 15” section of the center pipe was cut and a 15” resonator was welded in and now the sound is acceptable—docile at lower RPMs and aggressive as you put your foot into it (still a bit too loud). For any sane person, wait until Feb. for Supersprint’s ‘Street’ system!"

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Sorry the above is long and un-edited, I just tried to get all the info in. To say that we were pissed (as the installer put it, "It sounds like a motorcycle running through the gears&quot and the sound level runs from quiet to quite tolerable. Still eager to see independent dyno testing results, however…