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Just the Tip: Our 13 Favorite Exhaust Designs

The Monkeemobile, Pagani Zonda and “Big Daddy” Garlits’ drag racers all have one thing in common.

By Max Prince

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Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Rallye
Yes, that’s a Silver Shadow rally car. Yes, the exhaust exits the hood, runs over the pillars and dumps out over the roof. Yes, this is real life. You’re welcome., Fox Photos/Getty Images
Alfa Romeo 155 DTM
These upturned pipes were an all-too familiar sight for the German opposition. BMW and Mercedes spent an entire season trailing the Alfa, and its 11,000-rpm engine note, as it won the 1993 DTM Championship.
Holden HSV V8 Supercar
Know what’s better than an Aussie V8 Supercar jacking over a curb, riding on two wheels and kicking fire out of its fender-exit exhaust dump? Nothing., FOTOPRESS/Ross Land
Ferrari 312/68
Plenty of stellar pipes in Formula 1 of the Sixties, but this bundle of snakes did it best. This, kids, is V12 exhaust design at its best., Grand Prix Photo/Getty Images
Porsche 935K
Exhaust design minimalism, just a few inches of metal redirecting the overrun fireballs from a pair of exposed turbochargers. Well played, Porsche. Well played., Bob Harmeyer/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Garlits Swamp Rat X
Form and function from the man who made professional drag racing a thing. Don “Big Daddy” Garlits is a hero in the backyard engineering of brute speed. His homemade Top Fuel Dragster manifold looks like a church organ on P.C.P. Perfect, basically., ISC Archives/Getty
Monkeemobile
Wonky is as wonky does. Dean Jeffries’ one-off custom was based on a ’66 Pontiac GTO and named for the pop band that used it. The exhaust, weird and bunched-up and slightly jarring, fit the whole project perfectly., Darryl Norenberg/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Images
Maserati 250F T2
A relic from when men were men and racing was racing. The V12 250F’s tubes climbed over the fenders like ivy, dumping right at chest height. You know, to make sure the unfiltered, deafening noise really resonated in the sternum., Klemantaski Collection/Getty Images
Pagani Zonda
The best-sounding supercar of all time? You won’t count us among the objectors. And those quad cannons bunched at the rear know nothing of subtlety, either. There’s much to be said for aural-visual symmetry. The Zonda screams it., The Age/Getty
Class 5 Baja Bug
A glutton for berserk exhaust designs, welcoming all varieties of custom-made awesome. Stacks? Pigtail? French horn? Check, check and check., Bob D’Olivo/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Images
Lexus LFA Nürburgring
Fun fact: The LFA’s exhaust note was co-developed by Yamaha's musical instrument department. The tri-tipped tailpipe cluster is similarly artistic, like Wassily Kandinsky gone industrial. Except louder.
Audi 90 Quattro IMSA
The most hated car in IMSA history, mostly because it was a 700-horsepower, four-wheel-drive Group B rally car masquerading in GT guise. That’s saying nothing of its industrial sewer duct-size exhaust, belching out flames during door-to-door competition., Bob Harmeyer/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Duesenberg J
An automobile suited for the Monopoly Man (and Clark Gable), with the exquisitely detailed headers to match. Ribbed, for everybody’s pleasure., Clarence Sinclair Bull/John Kobal Foundation/Getty Images