S1 exhaust varieties

[campbell]

OK so my 7 year old Blueflame burble-meister exhaust is now dying. If I can't get it welded I will have to source a new stainless item. It's been a long time since I researched exhausts so I'm looking for some input here.

I'm aware of:

- Janspeed Supersport (original Lotus supplied upgrade, too loud and generally wasp-like)
- Janspeed Roadsport (looks more substantial but no idea of sonic quality / volume vs Supersport?)
- Christopher Neil
- Brooke Kensington
- Blueflame (newer version of mine, smaller "can" therefore louder...have heard Ian's with no cat, ouch!)
- Magnex (long time since I've seen one of these but they did do one)
- Larini (believe loud as feck)
- Eliseparts (believe on the loud side as well)
- Quicksilver Supersport (Hangar 111 sell, for example, sounds OK on the video clips they've got)

So basically looking to see who has what, and find a way (God knows how) to arrive at an assessment of loudness / tone.

I want something a little more attractive than the silent standard affair, but which is just as silent when cruising / on light throttle, but provides a bit of soundtrack under load.

Oh, and I am on a tight (well currently non-existent) budget!

thanks all

Campbell

[edited to add Quicksilver item]

[H8OAG]

Christopher Neil
They are a bit fruity, well made and very light.
(Phone up parts to see if they have any "ex - demo" ones.......much cheapness)

[campbell]

Thanks Iain, could be one of the potentials. I will mention your name

[DaveG]

I replaced the standard exhaust on my old S1 with the Brooke Kensington job. Had a lovely rich, rorty tone and a nice howl when you're 'on it' but was perfectly civilised when just cruising along. I loved it.

D

[philthy]

best sounding on the s1 is the Oval one fitted to the exige (not biased at all) but it is loud with a de cat

[Stewart]

I too have a Brooke Kensignton job. Lee installed it during his "contract hire" of my car. Seems fine to me especially since I put the cat back on. Not particularly loud and perhaps a more sophisticated rounder noise than a Janspeed but I am no expert. Looks to be well enough made. Must be about 3 years old now and 15-20k miles.

[StiflerMR2]

I replaced the standard exhaust on my old S1 with the Brooke Kensington job. Had a lovely rich, rorty tone and a nice howl when you're 'on it' but was perfectly civilised when just cruising along. I loved it.

D

Daves old exhaust did sound good when following his S1

[fd]

Pretty sure mine is a BK . . . it has also fallen apart in multiple places with lots and lots of metal fatigue cracks . . . but it has done almost 80K miles . . . I'm also in the market for a new stainless exhaust but I want as quiet as possible . . . I had looked at the Janspeed roadsport but IIRC Simon Ironside had one and the rear tail pipes didn't stick out enough at the back and it looked terrible . . . anybody else got one and can comment ?

Fd

[campbell]

Pretty sure mine is a BK . . . it has also fallen apart in multiple places with lots and lots of metal fatigue cracks . . . but it has done almost 80K miles . . . I'm also in the market for a new stainless exhaust but I want as quiet as possible . . . I had looked at the Janspeed roadsport but IIRC Simon Ironside had one and the rear tail pipes didn't stick out enough at the back and it looked terrible . . . anybody else got one and can comment ?

Fd

Interestingly the current Blueflame variety suffers a bit like this too (visually).

[offshorematt]

I've got the Larini and decat on my S1 and think it sounds great. Quite deep but not droney at speed. Certainly nothing compared to the Exige's Janspeed with decat. The neighbours hate that one aready

[graeme]

Larini every time. You're a cat-on sort of fella so it won't be too loud for trackdays. Also, it's very much a nicely tuned, 'acoustically engineered' loud, not the sort of loud that seems to be an inconvenient by-product of performance (Eliseparts etc)
At low revs and light throttle it is very civilised - quieter than but similar to the Janspeed supersports. Nice for not being a tit around town. At mid revs/throttle (motorway ish) it sounds similar to others (i.e. nice and no louder) and at high revs and open throttle it fantastic - louder than average with really raspy sort of bike/F1 tones.
It won't disappoint.

The JS RoadSport as fitted to the Shared Shed sounds very nice. Not too loud with a REALLY nice and quite unique burbly style, but as Fd points out it looks sh*t and burns the clam due to short tailpipe length.

Another point is that most twin pipes are 2x2.5". The Larini is 2x3" which fills the clam hole nicely (Shug, you got your ears on, good buddy?) and looks much better IMO.

[campbell]

So you have a Larini then, Graeme?

Good review. Just need to find some prices.

[campbell]

Useful, if slightly out of date, SELOC wiki entry here too:

http://wiki.seloc.org/a/Exhaust_silence ... e_S1,_340R

...and a Brooke Kensington review plus summary of other options courtesy of Southrun:

http://www.southrun.co.uk/elise_exhaust_review.php

[hiscot]

campbell
you have missed the two types of back box baffled and asorbtion , for a tuned engine i would always go for the asorbtion
i use a huge kmotec with a cat its whisper quiet, without it howls

[campbell]

Thanks, a distinction I had no knowledge of whatsoever!!