Introduction:

I currently use the TTE exhaust because it looks great, sounds good, and performs pretty well.  But it still is a bear to take in and out of the car - mostly because of the rubber hangers.  Well, since I will be swapping out the Cyclops 98 exhaust at autocrosses and at track events, I wanted a minimalist exhaust that was easy to remove but could still be used on the highway.  Thus the birth of the Tofuti exhaust.  Don't ask me to explain the name - it just is called that because it is.

The Tofuti is basically a straight pipe that connects to the cat and exits on the opposite side from stock.  The original design used a glass pack in the upper horizontal section, but turned out to be too long to make the turn back down to exit on the right side.  So I did away with the glass pack altogether and made a straight pipe.  Surprisingly, the sound level was not that different between when the glass pack was on and the straight pipe completed.

The left side of the exhaust is a flame cut flange made from 1/4" steel plate.  The flange mates onto a header collector - 3" to 2 1/4" collector.  The 3" end fits perfectly over the stock gasket and the 2 1/4" end mates to the 2 1/4" tubing I used for the rest of the exhaust.

The tip is a combination of a 2 1/4" black chrome tip with the rolled end cut off and then an oval chrome tip clamped onto that.  Nothing special, but the parts were available at the local auto parts store so that's why I used that combination.

You can see the one hanger welded to the right side of the pipe - just a 3/8" steel rod bent at the appropriate places.

The Finished Product:

Like I said before, this is definitely a compromise from the original design, which I may pursue again at a later date.  The sound level is a bit loud - 94 decibels max at 5500 RPM at full load and 85 decibels at cruising speed.  The max level is only 5 dB lower than the Cyclops 98, but the cruising volume is the same - go figure.  The primary design of this exhaust is to be able to be removed and installed in the shortest amount of time.  It takes about 5 minutes to do either with only a 14mm socket and a ratchet.  Two bolts hold it to the cat and the hanger has no nipple on it so it just slides right off the rubber hanger in seconds.  A welcome change from the typical exhaust with three or four hangers that are a bear to remove.

Performance and Testing:

So just how well does it perform?  Well, it weights in at a mere 8lbs.  It replaces the 27 lb stock muffler.  So that's a cool 37 lbs saved from the rear of the car.  That's a pretty darned good start.

As mentioned before, it was recorded at 94 decibels under power and 85 decibels at cruise  That's above the OSHA limit for sustained exposure to noise.  Hearing loss can occur in as little as one hour at those levels.  Now add a radio on top of that and you can see why I want to incoporate the glass pack back into the design.

Power wise, there is a noticeable gain across the whole RPM range.  It doesn't have that extra power above 6000 RPM like the Cyclops 98 does, but it is still noticeable.