Back box weight

Darius- The aftermarket exhausts and the 575M HGTC exhausts are much, much lighter than the OEM rear 550 or 575M exhausts with their huge cans. I think I put down the weights of my Novitec exhaust vs the OEM exhaust years ago, but the memory fades into oblivion after 6 or 7 years.

Guess I remembered better than I thought. 65 lbs OEM vs 37 lbs Novitec for both sets of mufflers. The Novitecs had 90 mm tailpipes, so some others may be even lighter.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/456-550-575-sponsored-bradan/235459-575m-stock-exhaust-weight.html

 

Darius and Terry, indeed, the aftermarket exhausts are much lighter, just wondering why? Both systems are made out of stainless steel with nearly equal dimensions.

Interestingly, my brother had the same expirience with his De Tomaso Pantera, when he changed back form an aftermarket exhaust system to orignal GTS mufflers.

By the way, the original exhausts and catalytic converters where made in my home town in Germany. I have some inroles there, maybe I'll find some background facts.


Saluti,

Jürgen

 

In the case of the Maranellos, the aftermarket exhausts are usually much smaller. The Novitec mufflers were 3-4" (8-10 cm) shorter, with pipe extensions to fit, and also smaller in diameter. Not as much pipe and baffles on the inside, either. You could look straight through the inside tailpipes on the Novitecs so I doubt any exhaust was going the long way to get out.

 

The original designer likely envisioned a refined grand touring car, not a raucous racing machine. As such the muffler seemed to have been designed to suppress, not create, noise. Construction of the cans is of stainless steel throughout. Cutaways reveal an elaborate system for slowing and consolidating exhaust gases prior to exit. The inner muffler as seen in the attached photos (OEM 550 muffler) is further surrounded by a composite heat shield and then by the thin outer polished cladding which just peels away. The heat shield is partially fried in service and is mostly unusable once removed from the muffler.

The aftermarket mufflers are largely straight through systems with some attempts to create slowing turbulence within the pipework. Many times you can look right through the aftermarket can and see nothing but pipe surrounded by a pretty box. Varying degrees of success are achieved by the aftermarket manufacturers.

However at the factory, the designer's prerogative ruled. It's not that they didn't know how to engineer a lighter system, they didn't want to. After all they went through great lengths to add a heavy, over-engineered central resonator plus these heavy mufflers out back. Since Ferrari is run by race car people you bet they knew how to save weight, just wasn't the prime desire at the time. Furthermore the evolution of muffler systems capable of quiet operation at low engine speed followed by screaming melodies at high revs has really come to the fore in recent years. For instance, if you hear a 599 GTO or Carrera GT at idle you have no indication of the bloodcurdling note it is capable of achieving on the way to redline.

As time went by and the market spoke, the factory responded by designing/specifying ever more racy exhaust notes in "on demand" format. My car's service records indicate that the original owner of my 550 swapped the OEM mufflers for Tubi after just 4 months or so. Some of that type of thing likely found its way back to Maranello.

Having said that, it is not a good idea to cut out sections of the OEM muffler, you will not be happy.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Darius- There is a thread here that shows the guts of the various Maranello exhausts, including the HGTC exhaust.

 

Thanks Terry for the detailed answer and the pics. Looks like a very elaborated and refined system, unlike most of the aftermarket exhausts, like Terry (Taz) described. Can't imagine, that Ferrari/Zeuna Stärker developed the system, only to make the car heavy or quiet....


Saluti,

Jürgen

 

For the 550, they weigh an astonishing 19kg. Each!

 

It is in partucular with the 550 OEM system that the silencers were designed to do exactly what the name says. During occasional trackdays, others "complained" that one does not really hear the 550 .

I personally like it just like that. The "non-dramatic" sound matches low key colors like blu pozzi best .

Shortly after having bought the 550 I had the opportunity to buy a pair of nearly new OEM end silencers for about 200.-- (both). The seller had replaced them by a louder aftermarket system. Since then they are on my shelf, in case that I might need them in distant future . I wonder what they would cost new now ...

 

fatbillybob once weighed the 550 exhaust components: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/138560972-post13.html

 

Barry- 68 lbs for 550 mufflers pretty much matches the 65 pounds I got for the 575M mufflers.