A $4,000 muffler

What is it with all the aftermarket stainless exhausts? Heck, you can buy a stainless steel muffler for $100 or less. Put it on a Ferrari and make it in Italy, and it's now a $3-$4k proposition. What gives, and what am I missing?

Sure, I'd love the sound, but......

 

That about says it all. The sound is integral to the heart of a Ferrari. G&d's own trumpet!

People will screw with a lot of things on these cars, but you will be hard pressed to find anyone willing to compromise the glorious scream from that flat crank v-8.

If you can make it yourself, great, and if you find a way to make a muffler of equal quality in every manner on the cheap, they will be lining up at your door. But when it comes to Ferrari, generally speaking, its pay to play, and of all the things I get gouged on at the parts counter, the muffler would be the easiest to digest.

 

Still, it's a heck of a price to pay for something that basically creates a different sound. I've never heard of significant performance increases on street cars by installing a Tubi, Larini etc.

If 'sound' is that important, pop for the big bucks!

 

It's when you miss what you need that makes you want *it* more than X dollars.

If you don't miss what you don't have, you're not missing *it* and you can do whatever you please with X dollars.

That said, some things just transform others, and X dollar exhausts on Ferraris are counted amongst them.

 

Is 18HP a significant performance increase?

Thats how much I made on the dyno before and after fitting an XOST.

Here is the link for those interested.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=132911&page=4

But I also agree, $4000 is A LOT of money for a little metal can.

 

$4K? I'll sell ya my like new Capristo bypass delete setup for $3K.....

 

Welcome to the World of Ferrari

As JoeZaff said it, you need to "pay to play"

I called looking for an O2 sensor, and when I told them it was for a 348 Ferrari they gave me a cost of $412. I later found out that a Volvo 850 uses the same sensor (thanks to Ernie), I called them back and this time told them it was for a Volvo 850 and the price suddenly became $319

 

I have a Tubi on my 328, installed by the previous owner. While I would guess the performance benefits are small, the workmanship and appearance are excellent, and it gives the car a bit more voice, in addition to saving weight over the OEM steel piece. Was it worth $3000? Maybe - people take a lot of pride in their Ferraris.

I'm not sure what you can buy for $100. I remember replacing plain steel exhausts on Nissans and VWs for around that figure, years ago. I'm guessing you would be buying low-grade stainless steel, welded by a high school shop class.

It's probably analogous to the $5,000 or $15,000 watch. You don't really have pay that much, but there is something about an Omega, Panerai or Rolex that's more elegant than a quartz Seiko.

 

I just got back from a drive with a buddy that just put a Capristo on his 355, matching mine. Worth the purchase price of both cars. 355+Cappy=priceless!!!!!

 

I PM'd you a couple of days ago to get a handle on the price of the Capristo, so now I know.

I know, I know about the "F-factor' when buying parts, and it's expected when it's a factory part. But exhausts are aftermarket, and we're talking about a can and some pipes. What? $300 worth of materials....at best?

 

Pap dyno'd his and got a 18hp increase. throttle response is greatly improve. still a high price to pay. the sound makes it "almost" worth it.

 

Yeah..........*almost*!

 

But not quite, eh?

 

Nope!

 

Here is the muffler I built out of 304 stainless steel. It is very light, sounds great and is under $350 to build.

The car pulls better with this muffler and there is less heat buildup in the engin bay.

The next version will be tuned to the engine and I hope to gain some additional HP.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Nice work---Looks great!!

 

Tells more about how you made this muffler ...

 

There you go! That is a really nice piece of work! Why not crank-up and build more? Charge $1,000 for it and folks will beat a path to your door. I'm your first customer.

The point here is that this exhaust was made for under $350, and it's a one-off. Let's call it $500 for polished stainless steel. Manufacturers have jigs that enable them to produce products quickly. If they charged $1,500 for the unit, they would making an impressive margin. But how do you justify $4g, other than saying it is for a Ferrari and part of the owner experience is that we expect to get hosed. Huh?

As I offered when this started, it's a stinkin' muffler, for crying out loud.

 

While I'm ranting here...

I'm a big road cyclist (just love the technology, and if you're a gearhead and want to exercise, we're going to do it on something made out of carbon, aluminum and titanium...); a good friend went to the far east last year, and while there, visited a couple of companies that manufacture carbon fiber monocoque frames. Retail, you can expect to pay $2,800 all the way up to $8,000 depending on the manufacturer.

Wanna know what it costs to manufacture a full-carbon frame? How does $350 sound? You can land them here for under $500 all day long. And it's marked-up by 500-600% by the time we open our wallets....or not.

You get enough people believing that a polished stainless muffler is worth $4g, and you have a market.

 

+1....looks VERY nice

 

These are fairly easy to make. I took me about 3 nights to build. The only special tools one needs is a MIG or TIG welder with Argon, a chop saw or metal band saw. A drill and Dremel tool are used for the flange.
Since this was an experiment, I bought two cheep 14"x 5" round stainless steal with 2.5" inlet/outlet mufflers ($120 for both). I also bought two "U" shape pre-bent 2.5" tubing ($45 for both), 4' of straight 2.5" tubing ($40), 2' of 3" tubing for the resonators ($30), and 2' of 2.75" tubing for the tips ($35), 8"x4"x3/8". You also need two stainless steal plates for the flange ($15). Stainless steel Oxygen nuts ($5 for both), and two rubber muffler mounting adaptors are also required.
I started by building the tips, then welding the two cans together. I then cut the "U" pipe and straight pipe to connect the cans to the headers.
I spent most of my time ensuring that the cans are leveled, the inlet lines up with the headers, and the tips are angled correctly, and fit correctly.
For the next version, I plan to build a small jig first. Sorry I have no pictures of the build. next one I build will include pictures.

 

There ya go! Nice work!

3 months after I bought my 348 I trucked it 1000 km away to Townsville to cruise it around and visit some mates. I was there for 7 days.

While I was there, I visited one of the BEST exhaust shops in North QLD. I talked to them about building me an exhaust for my 348. Could easily be done, but they had to get the muffler with 3 outlets per side made at their factory in Brisbane. That was going to take a week or so. So I didnt get it done because they didnt have the muffler there on the day.

But, they told me it would be less than $1000 for the job. Id say around $300 in parts like this exhaust and a days labour to put it all together.

I never got one made, I bought an XOST from Ricambi 2 years later!

 

3x8 Mondial guys are building mufflers using the universal stainless steel Magnflow. Maybe this is an option for you

 

Looks great, can you take pictures of system situated in the engine bay? Did you use the original heat shield? How about a sound clip!!