I was curious how many of us have Supertrapp exhausts installed on our MCS.

Also do you have any other engine mods with your Supertrapp, i.e. intake (which one) SC Pulley, ECU, etc. And have any of you used a G-Tech or Dyno to see how things helped?

Garfield on MINI2 has given us a lot of info on the Supertrapp by itself, but I am wondering if by adding an intake would adding disc further improve performance.

Thanks,

John

 

I guess not too many people have or are interested in the Supertrapp. I would agree that it is not the prettiest system out there. But after reading about the disappointment in the sound of the Magnaflow, the only system that produces more power than the Supertrapp, but only by a little bit, I have to say, I wish you guys/gals would have given the 'trapp a try.

Anyone that is near Olympia Washington and wants to meet to hear the Supertrapp and go for a spin to see the power, let me know, I would be happy to meet with you.

I believe the 'trapp has the capability to be the best system out there if someone has the time and desire to play on the dyno. But I am trying to fund a G-TECH to be able to provide some objective data for you all. If I get one, I will let you know.

I am still hoping to hook up with other 'trapp users here, S or Non-S owners.

John

 

hey,
i thoght that super trap muflers were just used to alter sound. I mean horse power is generated by smoothong bends and altering piping diameter.
could be wrong thogh.

 

Hp is made by moving more air, i.e. reducing restrictions. That is done like you said smoothing bends, pipe diameter, and restrictive mufflers. The Supertrapp does that, it removes restriction. Matter of fact it is the only tuneable muffer that is available for the Mini. You can reduce or increase restriction based on what you want to do. Peak power, less low and midrange power, or increase your midrange. Also adjust your exhaust to get the most out of your intake, ECU upgrade, etc. Not to mention it is the lightest and least expensive system out there. The only real negative to the 'trapp is the appearance. Although not totally ugly, it is definitely the ugly ducklling of the group. Sound quality is as good, and perhaps better than most of the exhausts as well.

Like I said, if you want to see one installed look at my pics, and if you want to hear and feel the differance and are within a reasonable distance to my home, I will meet you. Then you can decide if you like it.

 

ghillie - Nice choice in MCS colors, I have the same. We also seem to live in the same bit of the country as I see you got yours from Northwest MINI! I live in Redmond.

Here is a pic of mine with SSR Comps; it is getting H&R installed today at Speedware in Redmond.

 

Do you have any "droning/resonance" in the cabin with the supertrapp? I have Magnaflow on my 1988 M3 and it is annoying at 3 -4500 rpm. Power is good but I worry about hearing loss. My MCS on order ("enroute&quot has HK and I'm thinking a droning exhaust will spoil sound too much. (Though mostly I listen to public radio!).

I guess it's cheap enough that I can find out. I wonder, though about a dual supertrap - one out each side? Any thoughts?

 

Anyone in SoCal (Orange County) with one installed that I can listen to?

 

>>ghillie - Nice choice in MCS colors, I have the same. We also seem to live in the same bit of the country as I see you got yours from Northwest MINI! I live in Redmond.
>>
>>Here is a pic of mine with SSR Comps; it is getting H&R installed today at Speedware in Redmond.
>>
>>
>>
>>

Nice Yellow Viper!!! I'm jealous!

Ok...here is my thought process on SuperTrapp's....They used to be a big idea on motorcycles, they have totally lost the industry and now the expansion pipe system more than beat the sound and horsepower. I had one on my old Banshee 4wheeler, it took forever to "tune" with those discs and the sound was to bumble bee and raspy.

 

>>Nice Yellow Viper!!! I'm jealous!
>>

It's a Boxster S; I like cars that have an "S" in the name :smile:

 

Sleepless,

I agree, we got some mighty good looking Minis!

Steve S,

Very minimal droning, not intrusive at all. But that is because the Supertrapp has more of a medium tone to it, no real deep bass tones, and it's the bass that is so intrusive. With 8 discs the sound in the cab is not bad at all, just a little more than stock, but outside it sounds way better than stock.

Sleepless,

Yes, Supertrapp was big in the motorcycle industry, and I would agree they no longer have the market share that they once did. But I would disagree it is due the the power they produce. They can and do produce some of the biggest power in motorcycle applications. Their problems are they aren't very pretty, and like you said they can be a pain to get tuned for max power. On the Mini the tone is not bumble bee, but it is a little higher note than the Magnaflow. But it is still a good sound, just differant, and enough differant than the Japanese Import sound, which is a good thing in my book.

As far as power, Brian Garfield at MINI2 has done a fair amount of dynoing with the 'trapp and settled on 8 discs for the S. With 8 discs, it is second only to the Magnaflow in power and only by a couple hp. Brian stopped with 8 discs as with more discs he did get more hp, but the power started moving up the rpms, and since he Autocrosses, he wanted more midrange. So in reality the Supertrapp can and will make more power than anything currently out there for the Mini.

Post a pic of your car when you get the lowering done, I am curious to see how it looks.

I'm putting my sway bar on next week, and then H&R's or KW's not sure which yet.

 

>>As far as power, Brian Garfield at MINI2 has done a fair amount of dynoing with the 'trapp and settled on 8 discs for the S. With 8 discs, it is second only to the Magnaflow in power and only by a couple hp. Brian stopped with 8 discs as with more discs he did get more hp, but the power started moving up the rpms, and since he Autocrosses, he wanted more midrange. So in reality the Supertrapp can and will make more power than anything currently out there for the Mini.
>>

I believe that Brian is running the Supertrapp off his factory 2.25" midpipe. The Magnaflow uses 2.5" piping throughout. It would be interesting to see how much power the supertrapp will make with a larger 2.5" pipe.

 

Anybody running a dual Supertrapp? I started looking at exhausts as I would like to install a trailer hitch. I like the look of the Rogue dual exhaust and the Birds Hartge quad exhaust, but I've heard some negative things about the fitment of the Rogue system and the Birds system doesn't seem to be available in the US. Anyway, I was thinking a pretty nice looking option would be to build a cat-back 2.25" system that feeds into a Y and then twin Supertrapps. I figure if 8 discs works in a single setup, 3-4 on each side should work on a dual setup. With the tuneable nature of the Supertrapp, it ought to work out.

What do you think?

Sean

 

Sean,

That seems logical, but you may not like the sound quality of the Supertrapp with only 4 discs. Brian Garfield said the 'trapp has a air blowing sound to it with 3-4 discs. I haven't heard it with 8 discs but the way he described it didn't sound too appealing. But dual 'trapps would look better than one like I have.

John

 

not trying to argue but ar'nt we talking about plugging a mufler with little discs. It seems to me to be a very "universl mufler" not realy meant to go on any specific car. I just don't see the benifit between a supertrap and a meinikie perfroamence muffler. I'm sure that they increase power a bit but ar'nt we going over board?

 

Sometimes the beauty of a design can lie in it's simplicity. A Meineke and a Supertrapp may both be somewhat universal in their application, but the Supertrapp can be adapted to many different applications by adding/removing discs. I'm certainly not plugging it, I am simply considering it as an option.

There are a lot of people that don't like Supertrapps and claim that they actually rob horsepower. Someone recently posed the question on another list "Where can I find a Supertrapp locally?" to which someone replied "Check the dumpster behind any reputable dyno shop.". Although they didn't offer any evidence that Supertrapps rob HP, it did remind me that everyone is not convinced that Supertrapps are all that great.

Sean

 

Like I said before, Brian Garfield backs his claims with the Supertrapp increase with dyno testing, see this url(http://www.mcshp.org/parts/exhaust/Supertrapp/). Obviously if we aren't putting all the differant exhausts on the same dyno with the same car, the data isn't directly transferable. But clearly the Supertrapp kicks *** over stock.

I can't provide objective data, i.e. dyno/G-TECH, but I can tell that it provides a significant increase seat of the pants feel.

As for the comment where to find a Supertrapp, I find the humor in that comment, it is a funny line, but whom ever said that showed their ignorance.

I know not everyone will want the Supertrapp. Probably not even a fraction of the people that are looking to upgrade their exhaust. I just wanted to add another option to the equation. I am sure Randy will test the Supertrapp against the other exhausts out there when he gets time. And hopefully he does as good a job at that as he has with everything else.

Also my post was find others out there that did choose the Supertrapp, and we could pool our knowledge and experiance to find out what combo of intake/exhaust discs works the best.

 

1) Is it possible to route pipes so the Supertrapp can be center mounted?
2) How many disks to produce the best sound/power combination?

 

>>1) Is it possible to route pipes so the Supertrapp can be center mounted?
>>2) How many disks to produce the best sound/power combination?


Vince,

A center exit is not possible without significant difficulty because of the battery box, and the Supertrapp silencer is 17" long.

The best power without an intake upgrade is 8 discs, which also gives a good sound. With an intake upgrade, don't know yet.

John

 

Nice cooper S, I'm considering a supertrapp setup as well, but just curios why didn't put 2 Trapps in the center stock location? I would want 2 there on mine, is it hard to install that way?

 

Gunmetal,

Welcome to MCO .

Hope that helps!

Randy

 

I will be putting a SuperTrapp on my MCS. I would like to point out that muffled Trapp's come in a variety of lenght's starting at 8". The 4" dia. trapp's are rated for cars up to 250hp. I am considering a system that would Y at the end of the factory straight pipe, possibly using the Super Sprint Y pipe, then lead to a 14" WaveTech, SuperTrapp on each side of the car. I think this this would look great and I'd call it a 3ST exhaust system. The 3ST system may not produce as much power though as a single Trapp because of the Y pipe and the sharper bends that would probably be needed to reach the Trapp at the left rear. Garfield's Trapp exits the rear at an angle because it pretty much comes off the factory center pipe at a 45 deg. angle. Some would question the looks of this for several reasons, including the angle of the exit and the exposed disc look but as far as power delivery goes it's probably the best setup. A shorter WaveTech, either 8" or 14", could address both of the looks issues and minimalize power loss relative to his setup by allowing the Trapp to exit straight out the right rear with two turns of less than 90 degrees and the Wavetech's disc's are not exposed. As far as sound goes with the 3ST systems probable need for less disc's per Trapp, remember each trapp would be getting less air flow, so until someone tries it, it wouldn't be fair to compare it to Garfields setup with less disc's. Also, Garfield NEVER tested his car with either 7 or 9 disc's, only even numbers, so who's to say what produces the most power and where in the rpm band. We only know that for Garfield's stock car in Washington D.C. on a hot day that 8 disc's worked better for him than 6 or 10. Other considerations are; Is the car stock or have mods been made? What are the atmospheric conditions? Altitude? The advantage of the SuperTrapp is that it can be tuned to your, possible changing, needs! And it's cheap and light!

Does anyone know the diameter of the Super Sprint Y pipe after it y's. 2.5" in but what's the out?

 

Let me know how that turns out. I do want to test this set up, at least the single trapp, but I just haven't had the time - where does it go?!?

Instead of spending the money on the Supersprint, check out your local muffler shop. They can probably make just about anything you want, in any diameter.

Just thinking out loud here, but in STS can you move the battery from the stock location? I know you want the side exits for hitch reasons (we talked about this on the phone, right?), but for those of you who don't need a hitch, it could actually be done with a center exit if the battery is moved into the rear hacth and the box was cut out and replcaed with plate steel welded into the unibody. The batery box is what restricts the straight back pipe.

Hmmmm....

 

>>Let me know how that turns out. I do want to test this set up, at least the single trapp, but I just haven't had the time - where does it go?!?
>>
>>Just thinking out loud here, but in STS can you move the battery from the stock location? I know you want the side exits for hitch reasons (we talked about this on the phone, right?), but for those of you who don't need a hitch, it could actually be done with a center exit if the battery is moved into the rear hacth and the box was cut out and replcaed with plate steel welded into the unibody. The batery box is what restricts the straight back pipe.
>>
>>Hmmmm....

Randy, yes we talked. While you can move the battery, I believe you can't move the box! You can and must install a new box if the battery is in the passenger compartment, which is what the back of a hatchback is considered.

I don't have the know how to move pictures around to show you Garfield's set up. I guess I could post a link later but maybe someone else can post a pic of his SuperTrapp for us.

I'm pretty much waiting for you to test both sets of Headers and then buy them from you!

 

I'm thinking about the Supertrapp as well mostly for the weight savings.

Here's the link to a picture of Brian's exhaust under the car



And from the rear



Another view

 

>>Just thinking out loud here, but in STS can you move the battery from the stock location? I know you want the side exits for hitch reasons (we talked about this on the phone, right?), but for those of you who don't need a hitch, it could actually be done with a center exit if the battery is moved into the rear hacth and the box was cut out and replcaed with plate steel welded into the unibody. The batery box is what restricts the straight back pipe.
>>
>>Hmmmm....

Well if you were going to cut out the battery box for a straight pipe, why not just cut it and move it to one side of the hatch by just enough to clear center?