Lotus v8 Sports Silencer
Discussion
I had one on MY99 V8GT for a while. Its not stainless and the welds were very poor so they only lasted for a year or so if you used it hard (LEW says that this should now have been addressed with new factory supplied ones).
It sounds good, gives the car a nice throaty growl.
I moved to the final US design as the major problem areas on the sports and standard exhaust were the length of the arms of the exhaust from the box to the end of the pipes coupled with vibration. The US design has very short stubby pipes from the box coming straight back. Seems OK so far.
As I recall the new box and the aluminium cheese holed grille was about £750 which wasn't vastly more than buying a new sports exhaust and waiting for it to fail again.
Jim
It sounds good, gives the car a nice throaty growl.
I moved to the final US design as the major problem areas on the sports and standard exhaust were the length of the arms of the exhaust from the box to the end of the pipes coupled with vibration. The US design has very short stubby pipes from the box coming straight back. Seems OK so far.
As I recall the new box and the aluminium cheese holed grille was about £750 which wasn't vastly more than buying a new sports exhaust and waiting for it to fail again.
Jim
Hi there.
there may be some confusion between the genuine Lotus sports exhaust and SJ version on the V8 sports exhaust. I have the genuine one fitted to mine and it sounds like a beast. Not harsh just really nice deep note. Now and again I'll get a pop. start up is amazing as it sounds like a true supercar.
A general rule of thumb on Sj part numbers, if it has SJ in front of the part number then they have sourced the part alternatively. I cannot say what their exausts are like so won't comment. The Lotus one is stainless steel. It's been on my car since 2001/2002. I've owned my car since June this year but park it outside. I can say that it's not rusty which is a pretty good claim considering the elements in the UK!
The genuine Lotus one was £450+VAT. Not sure if you have to pay VAt as your in a non EUC country.
Hope this helps,
Dave Walters
there may be some confusion between the genuine Lotus sports exhaust and SJ version on the V8 sports exhaust. I have the genuine one fitted to mine and it sounds like a beast. Not harsh just really nice deep note. Now and again I'll get a pop. start up is amazing as it sounds like a true supercar.
A general rule of thumb on Sj part numbers, if it has SJ in front of the part number then they have sourced the part alternatively. I cannot say what their exausts are like so won't comment. The Lotus one is stainless steel. It's been on my car since 2001/2002. I've owned my car since June this year but park it outside. I can say that it's not rusty which is a pretty good claim considering the elements in the UK!
The genuine Lotus one was £450+VAT. Not sure if you have to pay VAt as your in a non EUC country.
Hope this helps,
Dave Walters
Thanks for your input guys, my exhaust has fallen to bits in quite a few places and required welding, one of the tail pipes was VERY close to droppping off 
so if it aint Stainless I aint buying 
I've spoken to Steve {SJ} this morning who tells me that they are the genuine Stainless Steel Lotus jobby.
www.sjsportscars.co.uk/partsandaccessories/srchRes.asp?Car_ID=13&Type1_ID=%25&srch=A082S4227F&Submit=search
So, based on your glowing review Dave I've ordered one
- So you're to blame 
so if it aint Stainless I aint buying I've spoken to Steve {SJ} this morning who tells me that they are the genuine Stainless Steel Lotus jobby.
www.sjsportscars.co.uk/partsandaccessories/srchRes.asp?Car_ID=13&Type1_ID=%25&srch=A082S4227F&Submit=search
So, based on your glowing review Dave I've ordered one
- So you're to blame Well, I've had four exhausts on the car... all warranty replacements including a Sport Exhaust on the first go around. In short, all have cracked and/or fallen apart. My current one is limited to the right tailpipe cracking only, but I think it was the Sport exhaust where the entire left tailpipe fell off. Yet, there have been some good ones which have not cracked and are still on the cars... go figure. Seems more like gambling than shopping for parts. Do note that I actually drive the car... now over 57K miles.
Regards, KM
2000 V8
Regards, KM
2000 V8
kmaier said:
Do note that I actually drive the car... now over 57K miles.
Yeah, mine's a daily driver also - though I haven't done anything like the miles you have. Still the way I see it it cannot possibly be worse than the standard zorst - about 6 months ago I got followed back to work by a Porsche driver {of all people} to tell me that it was about to drop off
Thanx guys, look you're gonna have to shut up telling me how good they sound now - I'm impatient enough about getting it as it is.
>> Edited by zhastaph on Tuesday 20th September 09:12
Hi All,
I´m currently testing a new PUK stainless V8 sports exhaust on my own V8.
The exhaust is very well made from fully polished stainless material and it sounds great !!! I love it !
If you like to have a look: www.freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/products/exhaust/index.htm
Its the one with the independend left and right absorber sections.
Marcus
www.PUKesprit.de
I´m currently testing a new PUK stainless V8 sports exhaust on my own V8.
The exhaust is very well made from fully polished stainless material and it sounds great !!! I love it !
If you like to have a look: www.freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/products/exhaust/index.htm
Its the one with the independend left and right absorber sections.
Marcus
www.PUKesprit.de
feffman said:
I run straight pipes from the catalytic converters back. Not only does it sound a LOT better, but it seems to run smoother as well. I drive mine reguarly albeit not every day.
Mark
1999 Esprit V8
Ditto mark's comments, and also KMs. I've had several lotus systems and they all failed eventually. I would not buy another.
My current lotus sports exhaust however is lasting VERY well. This is mainly because its sat at the back of my garage not being used, as i have straight pipes on the car.
I'm keeping it just for use at noise restricted track events where the straight pipes would fail.Paula&Marcus said:
Hi All,
I´m currently testing a new PUK stainless V8 sports exhaust on my own V8.
The exhaust is very well made from fully polished stainless material and it sounds great !!! I love it !
If you like to have a look: www.freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/products/exhaust/index.htm
Its the one with the independend left and right absorber sections.
Marcus
www.PUKesprit.de
Marcus - is there any performance benefit from the two boxes?
I've also seen the exhaust that Marcus is referring to. It's made by Larini Systems.
www.larinisystems.com/catalogue.php
I'm still amazingly disappointed with Hyper-Flow cat pipes and even more with Tubi.
Problem with the Hyper-Flows are 2-fold: First, they don't fit very well and Hyper-Flow is not capable of machining the mating outlet to the standard exhaust system which has a ridge for locking in. As a result, the entire exhaust can be "rocked" vertically and the clamp simply does not have the ability to clamp onto the Hyper-Flow outlet (it's too small). I've talked to Troy at Hyper-Flow about this and he said they can't machine the ridge. Second problem is that they are a good 1/4-inch shorter than the stock cats! Despite Troy's claim they fit the jig perfectly, they are verifiably shorter than the stock units which makes fit a real b***h and always comes loose and starts to rattle at the connection.
Tubi, while very well made, has zero consistency between units. I had two consecutive serial numbered units (first one cracked). There was a 4 pound difference in weight, the forming of the pipes was very different (pics to prove it) and the backpressure was similar to stock on one and amazingly high on the other to the point where the Hyperflow cats made zero difference. The latter is the one is the replacement, hence it's a 36 pound paperweight in my garage now.
As a result, I simply can not recommend either product and at a cost of $4K USD for the setup, it's a huge disappointment and a huge waste of $$. It's become clear that the V8 has no real quality exhausts systems available, from Lotus or anyone else. This has left me with no other choice than to fabricate from scratch... and eat my losses of $4K. The amount of labor time I've wasted between two Tubi exhausts (only to wind up with the stock rattle box) and having had the Hyper-Flows go south in 6K miles leaves me with a poor taste for both companies regardless of their alledged reputations for quality performance products.
Regards, KM
2000 V8
www.larinisystems.com/catalogue.php
I'm still amazingly disappointed with Hyper-Flow cat pipes and even more with Tubi.
Problem with the Hyper-Flows are 2-fold: First, they don't fit very well and Hyper-Flow is not capable of machining the mating outlet to the standard exhaust system which has a ridge for locking in. As a result, the entire exhaust can be "rocked" vertically and the clamp simply does not have the ability to clamp onto the Hyper-Flow outlet (it's too small). I've talked to Troy at Hyper-Flow about this and he said they can't machine the ridge. Second problem is that they are a good 1/4-inch shorter than the stock cats! Despite Troy's claim they fit the jig perfectly, they are verifiably shorter than the stock units which makes fit a real b***h and always comes loose and starts to rattle at the connection.
Tubi, while very well made, has zero consistency between units. I had two consecutive serial numbered units (first one cracked). There was a 4 pound difference in weight, the forming of the pipes was very different (pics to prove it) and the backpressure was similar to stock on one and amazingly high on the other to the point where the Hyperflow cats made zero difference. The latter is the one is the replacement, hence it's a 36 pound paperweight in my garage now.
As a result, I simply can not recommend either product and at a cost of $4K USD for the setup, it's a huge disappointment and a huge waste of $$. It's become clear that the V8 has no real quality exhausts systems available, from Lotus or anyone else. This has left me with no other choice than to fabricate from scratch... and eat my losses of $4K. The amount of labor time I've wasted between two Tubi exhausts (only to wind up with the stock rattle box) and having had the Hyper-Flows go south in 6K miles leaves me with a poor taste for both companies regardless of their alledged reputations for quality performance products.
Regards, KM
2000 V8
rob.e said:
Hi All,
I´m currently testing a new PUK stainless V8 sports exhaust on my own V8.
The exhaust is very well made from fully polished stainless material and it sounds great !!! I love it !
If you like to have a look: <a href="www.freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/products/exhaust/index.htm">www.freudhoefer.de/lotus/esprit/products/exhaust/index.htm</a>
Its the one with the independend left and right absorber sections.
Marcus
<a href="www.PUKesprit.de">www.PUKesprit.de</a>
Marcus - is there any performance benefit from the two boxes?
Hi Rob,
Yes IHMO there are actually some nice benefits:
1. Its lighter that a big one-piece box
2. The gearchange mechanism that is located just on top of the middle of the big box is now less heat-stressed
3. The sound is very different (but not just loud !), because the small boxes are absorber units with one loop inside.
Marcus
www.PUKesprit.de
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