[ZTWsquared]

(01-31-2013, 09:04 PM)dBlast Wrote: I had basically the same 2.5" setup with SVT headers up front and I must admit that it was extremely loud. I could not hear my supercharger at WOT. It sounded like I was driving in an enclosed tunnel all the time.

One day I was driving on an open stretch of road and I noticed the popo in my rear view mirror. I was trying to be as gentle as possible on my throttle in order to not evoke the monster baaaaah from my exhaust, but to no avail the copper pulled me over. He asked if my exhaust was after market and told me that the point of the exhaust is to muffle the sound and my exhaust was not doing its job. I told him that I had a leaky gasket that I was going to fix.

He took my license and registration and went back to the cruiser to run his checks. He came back and told me that normally there is a $110 fine for that and he let me off with a warning.

I guess it helps that I had my wife and daughter in the car and that I have not had a ticket of any sort since 1987! (yah, I am old.)

Anyways, the loud exhaust was getting to me, so I had a Magnaflow resonator (similar to what they use on the FSWerks Stealth version of their 2.5" exhaust) welded into the straight section of pipe. Now my exhaust has a nice deep mellow tone to it and I can hear my SC when I am in boost.

Good story. I see that you didn't post anything about the officer taking any decibel readings with a machine - which makes his judgement rather subjective. I suppose he may have known all along that he was giving you just a warning, but if not, how would that have gone in court without being able to say exactly how loud your exhaust was, and then be able to prove it.

That's like a cop charging you with speeding, but he didn't know how fast you were actually going. Well judge - it looked like he was going really fast. How fast - well, I don't know exactly but it was for sure over the limit.

If it is about the loudness, there are ways to quantify that (I have a db machine myself - Calabogie has a 93 db max at 20 feet and if you don't meet it, you don't race) but in the absence of any verification of how loud your exhaust is, how can they prevail in court?