SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/680178
do exhaust testing early on in the engine building process, and come up with the best combination of tubing lengths, collector styles and diameters for each of our engines," says Field. "Then we supply a detailed list of the lengths and diameters that the headers need to built to, so the truck builder can create the best system for that vehicle and engine. A professional custom header builder comes to the shop where the truck is built. He takes the dimensions and fits it to the chassis," Field said. "We use our dyno headers that have slipon extensions, allowing us to lengthen or shorten the collectors to develop the power range we want. Once we come up with a setup for the engine package, we send it to our customers and they get it built." Field also believes racing exhaust systems should be somewhat quiet for the driver and navigator in desert racing vehicles. "Some Trophy Trucks have their exhaust at the rear door side of truck, but the new trend is to exit at front of the rear wheel and pointed at 45 degrees up to sky," said Field. "Pointing away from driver and co-driver quiets the ride. While there is no performance advantage for either configuration, some truck owners out there want people to hear who they are." In desert racing, it's all about the reduction of noise without lowering performance. "Some customers put two mufflers on each side in the same blow through design to quiet the cab so they can think," said Field. Manufacturers of exhaust systems are keenly aware of this, and one who strongly addresses those concerns with their own brand of patented technology is Gibson Performance Exhaust, which makes all of its products in the USA. Gibson offers products for trucks, cars and UTVs. "Nobody wants to lose power to an exhaust system or muffler, and that's why we researched and tested a flutted non-packed muffler," said Danny Adair, marketing director for Gibson. The company uses a welded, flutted X-tube design in all of their mufflers, simply because they believe that muffler packing of any kind can degrade as the high temperatures of racing exit the system. Gibson refers to the flutted X-tube techology as "super flow" with acronyms like FOR UNLIMITED TROPHY TRUCKS, THE EXHAUST SYSTEM IS OFTEN DETERMINED BY THE ENGINE BUILDER, WHO DYNO TUNES EACH ENGINE AND SUGGESTS THE CORRECT LENGTH OF HEADER TUBES AND EXHAUST. 069 SCORE JOURNAL DAN SANCHEZ