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any body actually know for fact if a side exit exhaust is legal or not.
really want one but dont know whether they are legal.

could someone also tell me the advantages and disadvantages of having one. cheers

i think it probably depends how far out it sticks

same way as youre not supposed to have any part of the wheel or tyre protruding out of the arch when pointing in a straight line

good common sense really... thats what always makes me wary around ford ka's, because they have a couple inches of exposed tailpipe sticking out from the bumper. sharp, hot, dirty metal, around legs (and other people's bumpers & paintwork). Nice.

advantage - um... shorter path for the gas (by a few inches, probably not noticable), one less silencer, bigger sound and different effect from it (seems closer to driver), and biggest effect is probably the look.

disadvantage - cost, bending it to fit places it was never meant to go (there's a channel cast into the chassis for it after all), getting it to hang right, and probably a hundred and one other things.

havent a clue what it would look like, got a terrible feeling it might be a bit chavvy, but worth a shot if you think it can be done?

does any body know if it is legal

I've only ever seen vans, trucks and AC Cobras with side exit exhausts. I don't THINK there are any legal issues with side exits, providing they meet emissions standards for your year of car. If you were to go ahead, best thing would be to check if your insurance company will allow this modification too. I DID hear that when the first Dodge Viper came to the UK, it's side exits had to be modified to rear exit before sales could commence - not sure what the reason for that was. But as far as I know, there's no legal issues with them. Might be best to check with a test centre first.

Hope that helped out.

I have a feeling that some of the old LWB landrovers used to have side exit exhaust for ground clearance reasons.. I've never heard anything about it being illegal, and I can't see why it would be as long as it's not pumping fumes into the car. As DelGT said though, an MoT test centre would be the place to find out for sure.

Like this??

from memory there isnt anything illegal with them, unless the extend beyond the bodywork, in which case you need to have a shield arround the pipe....

... but thats for car like lotus 7 copies that have the silencer running down the outside of the car.


... gotta say though that on that piccy, its does look like a pipe thats been stuck on.....

I did read about a car and they did a side exit exhaust, but the interior was stripped out and the the exhaust pipe ran under the drivers seat, and exited though a hole cut in the inner and out sills.

Steve_O wrote:Like this??

...

Steve, by any chance is that picture from Malvern - air cooled show (or something like that)?

Yes it is!!

I forget the exact name of the show - something like VW/AUDI Indoor Watercooled Event or something... Catchy!!

Steve_O wrote:Yes it is!!

I forget the exact name of the show - something like VW/AUDI Indoor Watercooled Event or something... Catchy!!

sounds like it... this years show? I'm sure it was there last year too, think it was and BVF last year too, So I'm guessin it's a local.

Never saw that side exit exaust!

When you get up close to it, that cars got some really neat little touches.

just thought i would clear this one up with every one as i was going to get one sorted on my MkII

You can have an exhaust anywhere from the car, aslong as it can't cause injury to anyone and it doesn't stick out too far from the car body work.

Thats all it says in the law and MoT rules about exhausts.

So as long as its not too loud their shouldn' t be a problem with mr plod