WHY side pipes?

[Ozzy]

I do not understand the reason for side pipes.

It appears to me the header type side pipes have excessively long primary tubes, and ingress egresss is more difficult.

what are the advantages I am unaware of?
Thanks.

 

[mrvette]

If you do a web search for Mako Shark show car, from the early/mid 60's you find that basic C3 shape with the individual pipes coming out of the side vents and going into a collector....down the side of the rockers....

one of the coolest concepts ever....

and without the individual pipes coming out the gills, I think the effect is lost....

so I have to agree....

:gurney:

 

[Twin_Turbo]

If you look at side pipes specifically designed for racing and thus performance (like the stahl ones) you will find that they do not have excessively long primaries like the hookers.

 

[Ozzy]

If you look at side pipes specifically designed for racing and thus performance (like the stahl ones) you will find that they do not have excessively long primaries like the hookers.

And what is the benefit of the side exit header?

 

[vette8121]

If you look at side pipes specifically designed for racing and thus performance (like the stahl ones) you will find that they do not have excessively long primaries like the hookers.

And what is the benefit of the side exit header?

Besides looks, the only benefit would be heat transfer....tm

 

[big2bird]

If you look at side pipes specifically designed for racing and thus performance (like the stahl ones) you will find that they do not have excessively long primaries like the hookers.

And what is the benefit of the side exit header?

Besides looks, the only benefit would be heat transfer....tm

How about ground clearance?

 

[lars]

I do not understand the reason for side pipes. What are the advantages I am unaware of?

What's the advantage of a fake hood scoop?
What's the advantage of the fender emblem?
What's the advantage of a chrome exhaust tip?

What's the advantage of a Corvette at all? It's impractical. I don't understand why they are built. Why doesn't everyone buy a minivan? All Vettes should be crushed, and all sidepipes should be recycled and made into Hondas.

 

[Ozzy]

I do not understand the reason for side pipes. What are the advantages I am unaware of?

What's the advantage of a fake hood scoop?
What's the advantage of the fender emblem?
What's the advantage of a chrome exhaust tip?

What's the advantage of a Corvette at all? It's impractical. I don't understand why they are built. Why doesn't everyone buy a minivan? All Vettes should be crushed, and all sidepipes should be recycled and made into Hondas.

Geesh, sorry to have hit a nerve! all I ask is why, because I do not know. do they give additional ground clearance? Or easier access to trans and clutch work?There must be some reason that many C3 race cars run them.


I will now go set in the corner and say: I will not question , I will not question.. . .

 

[Ozzy]

And by the way, I built side pipes for my 1964 GTO when I was in high school.
I routed the head pipes of the oem manifolds under the frame rails just behind the front frame kick ups connecting to a gutted out pair of Mitchell glass packs which mounted in the lower front of the rockers, with turned out tips in in front of the rear wheels.
I have no bitch about side pipes, just wonder why they exist to start with. Most fashion statements in the auto world start out as a performance fitment.


back to the corner I go: do not ask question why, do not ask question why. . ..

 

[Cj_]

I added (Hooker) side pipes to my car for a few reasons...

1) Ease of install... I dont know a good muffler shop here, so getting a system installed properly is questionable
2) Clearance... My last exhaust system had so many dents in the drop tubes that I am sure there was 50% restriction in one of the cylinders. The side pipes gained me 1-2in in the middle of the car.
3) My wife likes the looks.

A couple of notes...
I prefer the sound of the rear exhaust over the side pipes, the sound is aimed to each side rather than all out the back. The car seems quieter.

The car (interior) does seems cooler since switching over.

to quote someone from this summer: "The car looks fast standing still". They do add a lot of attitude to the car.

Yes, they burn legs all the time. But you learn FAST to not wear shorts.

My 2¢
Cj

 

[Jclgodale3]

And by the way, I built side pipes for my 1964 GTO when I was in high school.

But why???

 

[big2bird]

And by the way, I built side pipes for my 1964 GTO when I was in high school.

But why???

Because minivans wern't out yet?:devil:

 

[big2bird]

What's the advantage of a fake hood scoop?
What's the advantage of the fender emblem?
What's the advantage of a chrome exhaust tip?

Are these real questions? There ARE answers for each.

I.E., Why were white side wall tires invented?
Originally, tires were white. Yes, natural rubber was white(off-white). Model T Fords came with white gum rubber tires untill 1914 or so.
People complained they looked dirty, and were a PITA to clean. SO, they started adding carbon black to make them black. THEN, people later complained they liked/missed the look of white tires. Ergo, the "white side wall option" was introduced.
Smaller white side walls, then redlines, then raised white letters were a natural progression of style.
People that could afford early cars were "people of wealth."
SO, white side walls became synonomous with wealth/success. That is why Packards, Pierce Arrows and such had the wide white sidewalls.:trumpet:

And now you know.
Most all items on cars can be traced back to early form/function.

I will check further, but lakester type cars are the earliest form of "sidepipes" I know of. Ground clearence was a main cause. Cabin heat another, and perhaps reduced backpressure. Since lakester type racers were synonomous with speed, I would imagine sidepipes on Vettes were a natural throwback/statement/ illusion of speed/performance.

 

[Jclgodale3]

And by the way, I built side pipes for my 1964 GTO when I was in high school.

But why???

Because minivans wern't out yet?:devil:

That there splains it:harhar:

 

[Ozzy]

And by the way, I built side pipes for my 1964 GTO when I was in high school.

But why???

WHY NOT ? race cars had them and they looked cool so I emulated them with what I had. I lost ground clearence, burnt my leg, put up with the noise, and had most the adults in town hating me for the racket it made -PERFECT.

 

[BangkokDean]

I do not understand the reason for side pipes. What are the advantages I am unaware of?

What's the advantage of a fake hood scoop?
What's the advantage of the fender emblem?
What's the advantage of a chrome exhaust tip?

If they did not exist there would not be a SEMA show.........

 

[MYBAD79]

I agree it's not the best for a SB, the primaries are huge... BUT..... IMO...they look awesome, they sound great - unless you use the Hooker reverse flow mufflers

sidepipes are simply

 

[lars]

I will now go set in the corner and say: I will not question , I will not question.. . .

That's not the point. The point is that sidepipes, and Corvettes in general, serve no purpose at all, other than as marketing gimmicks. GM doesn't stay in business by building Vettes and Ram Air GTO Judges: They build these cars as eye-catching gimmicks to draw people into the showrooms so they can sell them C-10 trucks and high profit-margin minivans. There is no reason for anyone to own and drive a Vette, other than that it's cool, and it's fun. Every feature of the car reflects this. The people who don't understand that are the ones driving the minivans. The rest of us proudly show off our sidepipe burns on our shins, and we think that's cool, too.

In my interviews with design engineers at GM for various articles I've written, the concept of marketing gimmicks came up frequently: Marketing drove design engineering (and here you thought that marketing "sold" what engineering designed). For instance, the engine design guys told me that "dual overhead cams" and 4 valves per cylinder was a request from marketing. A street tuned factory DOHC engine does not make more power than an optimized single cam, 2-valve engine, and actually has higher parasitic losses and less flow than a single cam 2-valve with maximized valve sizes. But race cars have DOHC systems, so the concept sells cars, because it must be high performance (even though the operating range of a racecar is so far outside that of a factory street car that the two applications cannot be compared). Here's another one: Rear disc brakes on street driven cars. There is hardly any load at all on the rear brakes on a street car, and discs on the back work no better than conventional drum brakes - tested and verified by GM engineering. Again, it's nothing but a marketing gimmick. How about open hood scoops, i.e. "Ram Air?" What an engineering marvel, and it serves a great purpose of cramming cold air, under "ram pressure" into the carb. Fact is, most factory scoops aren't tall enough to get out of the boundary layer of air passing over the car, and there is no ram effect at all. In fact, most scoops end up in a low pressure area due to the boundary effect, resulting on the scoops actually producing lower pressure in the inlet system and having no actual benefit whatsoever.

So why were all these things installed on cars? They're just cool whether they work or not. Purpose and function is irrelevant if you simply like it.

 

[Jclgodale3]

And by the way, I built side pipes for my 1964 GTO when I was in high school.

But why???

WHY NOT ? race cars had them and they looked cool so I emulated them with what I had. I lost ground clearence, burnt my leg, put up with the noise, and had most the adults in town hating me for the racket it made -PERFECT.

The point was...wasn't this "your" original question? WHY?

 

[saudivette]

Good question and good answers. I will still (eventually) run side pipes on mine, although I'll be getting a set of Dean's shields to prevent a nasty burn