Those side exit exhausts...
Discussion
Hello all,
I don't think I've ever posted in here, let alone started a thread. There is something I love about the Viper, in all it's forms. When I ask myself what my favorite supercars are, the Viper constantly jostles for the top spot, which is ironic because it's so different to the others I like, in that it's front engined and comparitively low revving. I've never had a chance to look at one close up, I've never even seen one - I don't think there are many, or even any owners in the North East.
So I've been on youtube many times watching various Viper videos, when I saw Clarkson reviewing a third gen Viper. At the end of the clip, he talked about build quality issues, and pointed to the side exit exhaust, which was visibly smoking where the hot metal was touching the trim inside. This struck me as a bit dangerous, it's not inconceivable that the car could have met it's end if something had caught fire inside the body panels. Have any Viper owners here ever experienced this "smoking exhaust" effect? If it were my car doing that, I know I'd panic!
I must admit, the exhausts are one of my favorite features about the car, they are a really neat little USP, other than the Mercedes McLaren SLR which has had side exits in recent years. How loud are Vipers as standard? I've owned and ridden in some seriously loud cars, I expect in my head that the Viper would be near deafening when you put your foot down. For anyone who has seen a lot of Vipers, how much louder, if at all, are the side exits compared to the rear exits on some of the earlier cars?
I don't think I've ever posted in here, let alone started a thread. There is something I love about the Viper, in all it's forms. When I ask myself what my favorite supercars are, the Viper constantly jostles for the top spot, which is ironic because it's so different to the others I like, in that it's front engined and comparitively low revving. I've never had a chance to look at one close up, I've never even seen one - I don't think there are many, or even any owners in the North East.
So I've been on youtube many times watching various Viper videos, when I saw Clarkson reviewing a third gen Viper. At the end of the clip, he talked about build quality issues, and pointed to the side exit exhaust, which was visibly smoking where the hot metal was touching the trim inside. This struck me as a bit dangerous, it's not inconceivable that the car could have met it's end if something had caught fire inside the body panels. Have any Viper owners here ever experienced this "smoking exhaust" effect? If it were my car doing that, I know I'd panic!
I must admit, the exhausts are one of my favorite features about the car, they are a really neat little USP, other than the Mercedes McLaren SLR which has had side exits in recent years. How loud are Vipers as standard? I've owned and ridden in some seriously loud cars, I expect in my head that the Viper would be near deafening when you put your foot down. For anyone who has seen a lot of Vipers, how much louder, if at all, are the side exits compared to the rear exits on some of the earlier cars?
Blimey, where to start?
OK the side sills on Vipers are aluminium, inside the aluminium side sill is a large heat shield packing which runs the full length of the side sill.
Some after market side sills are made of fibreglass and you then use the original packed heavy duty foil heat shield from the original side sill. One of the biggest reasons the side sills get hot is because of the large factory cats. If you remove this and put Hi Flow cats in the temperature is dramatically reduced, or remove cats all together
For an original factory fitted exhaust the set up is cast headers, connected to a flexi tube then a angled turnout connected to the factory cat approx 20 inches long then a silencer and side exit tip (Gen 3) cars.
As for noise, I think stock is round about 97db But once you start playing with the system you can easy get it to 128 db (like my car)
problem with that is you then are stuffed on track days as most tracks have a 105 db limit
So you have to have your fun on the road instead Germany is good for this and also driving to Le mans.
Im sure others will chime in if I have any of this wrong
We have had cases of bubbling paint on side sills and inside the door frame due to excessive heat. If the car is stationary with the engine running on a hot day, this does not do the sills any good at all, you need to get airflow to the sills. There are aftermarket parts available to address all these issues.
As for Clarkson, well think about all those wheel spins in a small area with the engine going at full chat, its not surprising he burnt the paint on the sills with the stock set up.
Its not the sort of thing you do everyday with rear tyres costing the best part of £500 quid each!
OK the side sills on Vipers are aluminium, inside the aluminium side sill is a large heat shield packing which runs the full length of the side sill.
Some after market side sills are made of fibreglass and you then use the original packed heavy duty foil heat shield from the original side sill. One of the biggest reasons the side sills get hot is because of the large factory cats. If you remove this and put Hi Flow cats in the temperature is dramatically reduced, or remove cats all together
For an original factory fitted exhaust the set up is cast headers, connected to a flexi tube then a angled turnout connected to the factory cat approx 20 inches long then a silencer and side exit tip (Gen 3) cars.
As for noise, I think stock is round about 97db But once you start playing with the system you can easy get it to 128 db (like my car)
problem with that is you then are stuffed on track days as most tracks have a 105 db limit
So you have to have your fun on the road instead Germany is good for this and also driving to Le mans.Im sure others will chime in if I have any of this wrong
We have had cases of bubbling paint on side sills and inside the door frame due to excessive heat. If the car is stationary with the engine running on a hot day, this does not do the sills any good at all, you need to get airflow to the sills. There are aftermarket parts available to address all these issues.
As for Clarkson, well think about all those wheel spins in a small area with the engine going at full chat, its not surprising he burnt the paint on the sills with the stock set up.
Its not the sort of thing you do everyday with rear tyres costing the best part of £500 quid each!
fatboy - cheers for answering my questions. Shame the picture of the Viper in your profile does not work, the car sounds ace.
I'm always on the lookout for Clarkson hyperbole, but having felt how hot exhausts can get, it did strike me that even when taking it relatively easy a bit of loose material touching the pipework could end up igniting, but it's obviously not as big an issue as I perhaps thought.
As for loud cars, my current car, while considerably more humble than a Viper, is 105db at idle, and despite having a good quality, annually calibrated environmental monitor available, I have not been able to get a reading at revs as my car just flips the meter into over-read mode
£500 a tyre at the rear, jesus. What size are they? Are they an unusual size (hence the price) or just expensive because they are absolutely huge? I remember thinking a matched set for an E46 M3 at £1000 was steep.
I'm always on the lookout for Clarkson hyperbole, but having felt how hot exhausts can get, it did strike me that even when taking it relatively easy a bit of loose material touching the pipework could end up igniting, but it's obviously not as big an issue as I perhaps thought.
As for loud cars, my current car, while considerably more humble than a Viper, is 105db at idle, and despite having a good quality, annually calibrated environmental monitor available, I have not been able to get a reading at revs as my car just flips the meter into over-read mode
£500 a tyre at the rear, jesus. What size are they? Are they an unusual size (hence the price) or just expensive because they are absolutely huge? I remember thinking a matched set for an E46 M3 at £1000 was steep.
Tyres on my 18 inch rear wheels are 335 x30! Michelin PS2s, Approximate price £450.00 + fitting (if you can find a decent tyre dealer that has a balancing machine big enough to balance the wheels
Some Pirellis are even more!
http://www.blackcircles.com/order/tyres/search
and on the later gen 3 and 4 cars their running 19 inch wheels!
This is without doubt the biggest drawback of owing a Viper Needless to say we get a bit hacked off when people ask constantly for wheel spins
As for my car...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jc_RJ9kNlA&li...
Oh I have rear exit exhausts
Some Pirellis are even more!
http://www.blackcircles.com/order/tyres/search
and on the later gen 3 and 4 cars their running 19 inch wheels!
This is without doubt the biggest drawback of owing a Viper
Needless to say we get a bit hacked off when people ask constantly for wheel spins As for my car...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jc_RJ9kNlA&li...
Oh I have rear exit exhausts
Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 30th December 19:20
I really am not sure what clarkson did to that viper to make it catch fire like that and dave never had any problems with it when he owned it, i suspect the addition of some flammable liquid was what went on judging by the flame colour on the film, Yes the side sills get hot and will give you a start if you brush a bare leg against them and will provably hurt if you held it there. But i cant recall a stock viper actually catching fire from just the exhaust heat the same as the one on TG. Might not be the case if you start tuning and don't have things set up as well as it should be.
As for side sill bubbling as mentioned by fatty, more to do with Galvanic corrosion of the ali sill with the frame and screws holding them on, in and area that collects water well and is difficult to clear after washing the car and putting it away. Granted though the white GT2 vipers were prone to slight yellowing of the paint on the sills. Every other case of paint problems i have heard of has been on a tuned car.
I think the sound has been covered but a stock viper is disappointingly quiet.
As for side sill bubbling as mentioned by fatty, more to do with Galvanic corrosion of the ali sill with the frame and screws holding them on, in and area that collects water well and is difficult to clear after washing the car and putting it away. Granted though the white GT2 vipers were prone to slight yellowing of the paint on the sills. Every other case of paint problems i have heard of has been on a tuned car.
I think the sound has been covered but a stock viper is disappointingly quiet.
ViperDave said:
I really am not sure what clarkson did to that viper to make it catch fire like that and dave never had any problems with it when he owned it,
I think the sound has been covered but a stock viper is disappointingly quiet.
You know the owner of the car? That is pretty cool. I've always wondered what Top Gear must have been bunging owners of private cars they used. I know EVO magazine (the swines) used to give your car a valet when it was done and you got the "pride" of having your car in the mag and not much else. I think the sound has been covered but a stock viper is disappointingly quiet.
As for "disappointingly quiet", I suppose that is the case for so many cars now, though I thought perhaps given the low production volume and the raw image Dodge have used to market the car, they might have given it the voice it deserved from the factory.
Fatboy's Viper sounds wild in that clip, makes the Lamborghini that follows it sound a bit meek and apologetic.
With regard to getting hacked off when people ask for burnouts, does it not put a bit of strain on the clutch too? Given it's such an overtly sporty car, I'm not surprised people want to see burnouts, launches etc, and no doubt a few dreamers in Corsa Bs trying it on for a race
it was a press car at the time, Dave (V10 BAT on here) brought it after Chrysler were done with it, and i never heard him complain that i caught fire at every traffic light, it was always a very tidy car when i saw it. He has sold it now thought and got something with a bull on it but still hangs around here so we know its only a matter of time before he sees sense lol.
Had one of mine in a mag this summer, got my petrol paid for and a petrol station sarny and packet of crisps for my trouble lol. You should ask fishboy his experience of clarkson when his viper was on, the way he describes clarksons reaction to him checking his shoes for lead is priceless.
noisewise Vipers are still on the edges of whats allowed and will only just get through the IVA in stock form, and that test is higher than the type approval requirement. Put a proper exhaust on it though and you will hear it a mile away. It was once commented to me that when i left the office they could tell where i had got to leaving the trading estate from the noise i made at each roundabout followed by a long drag uphill onto a 70MPH duel carriageway a mile away.
Had one of mine in a mag this summer, got my petrol paid for and a petrol station sarny and packet of crisps for my trouble lol. You should ask fishboy his experience of clarkson when his viper was on, the way he describes clarksons reaction to him checking his shoes for lead is priceless.
noisewise Vipers are still on the edges of whats allowed and will only just get through the IVA in stock form, and that test is higher than the type approval requirement. Put a proper exhaust on it though and you will hear it a mile away. It was once commented to me that when i left the office they could tell where i had got to leaving the trading estate from the noise i made at each roundabout followed by a long drag uphill onto a 70MPH duel carriageway a mile away.
MADMAX-UK said:
That is a pretty terminal case of over-heating, I wonder what went wrong. It must be heartbreaking watching your car going up in smoke at the side of the road.MADMAX-UK said:
But how many vipers spit flames at start up like that, yeah with a decat on a down shift over run you can give the guy behind a fright in a GTS or toast the neighbours in a Gen 1,3,4, but spitting flames like that is either adding fuel to the exhausts or a very bad tune so not surprising it went up in flames. There are a few that burnt down from lose PS caps though.
my old gts which now lives up in Newcastle , which was measured at 133 db
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoOrnMDkE0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoOrnMDkE0
fishboy said:
my old gts which now lives up in Newcastle , which was measured at 133 db
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoOrnMDkE0
That sounds brilliant, shame I've not seen it on the road. Supercars are a rare sight in the toon, and other than football players in their Astons and a couple of Aventadors there is not much to be seen. I'd probably hurt my neck to look at that Viper if it went past. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoOrnMDkE0
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