[DeTomaso] stainless steel GTS mufflers.
MikeLDrew at aol.com
MikeLDrew at aol.com
Wed Apr 2 23:53:40 EDT 2008
In a message dated 4/2/08 20 15 27, rimov at charter.net writes:
>
> Any one have a pulse on what's available muffler wise? I was talking with a
> guy up in BC today that does only custom mufflers in stainless. He and a
> friend started up Solo Performance
> http://www.solo-performance.com/solstice_kit.html but like many partnerships decided it was better to be friends than
> business partners. Any way to make a long story short he has been very successful
> with a few niche exhaust pieces and was very interested in making up some
> prototype replica GTS cans with tips if I could provide him some specs,
> pictures, a set to copy as well as some feed back on need or want of stainless
> replacement mufflers. Thing is he does not do header fabrication just the exhaust
> pipe, mufflers and tips. He was pretty confident he could make them spot on
> original at a pretty reasonable price. I am going to send him some pics and
> specifications of the cans and see where it leads but if any one is interested
> let me know.
>
Marino Perna of Pantera East, for a very brief while, offered up a complete
exhaust system that was a dead-nuts copy of the factory GTS exhaust, except in
stainless steel. If it was painted black you literally couldn't tell them
apart, I don't think.
I think he only made three or four sets. They were expensive at the time
(ten years ago) at $1895 (that is for a full system, headers and tailpipes).
They were being made by a retired metal guy in southern California, working out
of his house. Each was fabricated from scratch, by hand. The guy started
finding better things to do with his time than make exhaust systems, and
customers balked at the high price.
The quality of these exhausts is simply spectacular. They had a nice,
unexpected benefit in that they totally eliminated the 2000 rpm cabin drone that
virtually every other exhaust I've ever heard, generates. I was involved in
beta-testing the second prototype; they were made by copying a factory GT5
exhaust, and thus the muffler tips had to be cut off and straightened to clear the
L-model bumper on the beta tester (Rick Moseley's '74). But once that was
done, they were just perfect. About as loud on the outside as standard GTS
exhausts but *much* quieter inside the car.
Marino gave up on the whole idea when his fabricator basically flaked out on
him. I'm sure he would still be interested in producing them, if they could
be done on a cost-competitive basis. It would naturally be expected that
they would be more expensive than standard steel exhausts, but they can't be
prohibitively so.
Looking at your guy's website, his mufflers look fairly generic, just simple
flat sheets of stainless steel wrapped around a couple of ends and then seam
welded. He would have to generate stamping dies and stamp out the upper and
lower halves of the muffler can. Would he be willing to do that?
(They don't have to be stamped by machine; they could be done with a simple
fixture in a press, I presume).
And, why doesn't he also do headers?
Mike
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