Fluid Motor Union

Beauty in Stainless

Tags: exhaust, flames, flaming exhaust, Gallardo exhaust, lambo, Lamborghini, lamborghini gallardo
Filed under: blog, dyno, projects |

*Edit* Full res photo of the Flaming Lambo here.

Video here.

How much power can a manufacturer like Lamborghini leave untapped in a car like the Gallardo? What does it take to un-tap that power; to allow that V-10 to reach it’s true potential? Well we found a little more of that potential power.

All of the research, engineering, planning, and design have resulted in, what is my opinion, Craig’s best exhaust to date. Indeed, a great deal of engineering went into the original stock exhaust, but it is a result of compromise. The need to make it fit in on public streets around the world severely hampers the potential sensory extravaganza of an exotic like the Lamborghini Gallardo. We’ve taken the desire of the customer, to unleash an F1 sound that we all know is in there somewhere, and combined it with our knowledge, experience, and ear. I think we’ve hit the nail on the head with this one.

I don’t really like to call the result streetable, it simply doesn’t fit. Seeing a Gallardo drive past on the street will certainly grab your attention. However it’s akin to watching a cheetah pace back and forth in its cage at the zoo. Is it there simply for our viewing pleasure? Can we really appreciate something without seeing it pushed to its design limits? If you’ve ever had the opportunity to push anything to its real limits, plane, train, or automobile, you know what I’m talking about. (Although on second thought pushing a train to the limit might be best approximated by running Mike’s 7 down the freeway at 5,000 RPM. Closing your eyes, listening to the click-clack of the engine, and breathing in the burning oil is a pretty good rendition.)

A cheetah racing full tilt across the savannah is a creature that is not even comparable to his disheartened cousin back at the zoo. In the same fashion a Lamborghini idling by on the street cannot be compared to one let loose on a track.

That’s the ability and sound we wanted to give this car. And sound it has. Describing it is nigh impossible to sum up. It makes you instinctively want to assume the fetal position if you are on the outside of the cockpit sans ear plugs. It has an explosiveness that makes it feel like world around you is being shredded to little bits. At the same time, in contrast to the typical American notion of automotive power, it is a wonderfully smooth immersion to hundreds of pieces all producing their own music in perfect symphony and harmony,in no way harsh or astringent to the ears.

Also, in a manner that was not intentionally planned, but rather obvious after observing the resulting fluid dynamics of the system, this bad boy will throw fireballs I’ve never experienced in person before. In a real life rendition of anime chi they exit the pipe emitting a shock wave you can feel throughout your body.

But back to streetabilty in the real world. The fact of the matter is that this car will spend most of its life on public roads. As a countermeasure to the inevitable noise violations we fitted the system with a couple of valves from Hyperflow. These little guys really pull down the volume at idle and cruise loads. At the flick of a switch or pound of the gas pedal however they snap open and let the V-10 sing in the full magnitude of internal combustion glory.

An exhaust system must be designed with attributes of pressure tuning, flow characteristics, and weight savings. Pulling those things together in an aesthetic combination of beauty and art that pleases all the senses is what it’s all about. Making an extra 30 horsepower at the wheels of an all wheel drive car doesn’t hurt either.

M. Eastway