R500 Exhaust

[pfreeman]

Has anyone ever used a supertrapp silencer on a Caterham? I've got an R500 with the carbon exhaust which makes a fantastic noise but might be a 'bit' noisy for some track days.

[andy]

I've got a supertrap on my HPC. It's fitted with a 5'' diameter silencer and belts out about 105dB. In order to fit the trap I had to cut the lip off the pipe and weld on one of those steel end pipes that make the tailpipes of cortinas and things look nice! I then used a thin sheet wrapped around the trap and pipe and jubilee clipped it at both ends. Bit of a mess but it seems to be the most cost effective way around the noise problem.

First time out I used 8 plates which got me down to the required 98dB static at Goodwood (just). However I got nabbed coming past the pits over the 96dB driveby. I then went down down to 5 plates and was still at 98dB (surprisingly) but this time learnt to change gear at the exact point where the man with the gun was standing!

Saying that, with these few plates, the top end was shot to pieces.

[Jules Martin]

Paul,

 

I too have an R500 and love the noise,- especially through all 6 gears under "a bit" of pressure !

Caterham are well aware of the problem and are currently working on it. Sadly it's not just the silencer end, it's also the induction end, so you'll get caught on track days one way or another. It strikes me we might need our own pressure group .....!!!

Regards,

Jules.

 

 

[Marius]

Might not be the right topic for my statement but yesterday I saw a Superlight R500 at the Nurburgring which had burned his nice carbon silencer a little bit. There were large black burnings (front & rear end) on the silencer. So go easy and let them cool off properly...

[pfreeman]

I wonder if the burn marks on the exhaust could be caused by backfires?, apparently I get a nice 2ft blue flame out of the side of mine on overrun, or changing down.

[Jules Martin]

Marius,

Thanks for the advice, - I wonder who was at the Nurburgring yesterday ? - I'm going there next Wednesday for a bit of fun. As for the "go easy" I'm not sure that's what I bought it for !

And Paul, - I too used to get a flame on over-run and down-change, but I've just picked it up this morning from the factory afterit's first service and the flame seems to have disappeared. The noise is still as orgasmic however.

Jules

 

 

[pfreeman]

Hmmm, now that I've done 900 miles in my car, I've also got a couple of burn marks on the carbon. Anyone else had this problem ?

 

Cheers,

 

Paul.

[Marius]

I still know this problem from my "biked" times. You can buy the finest carbon-silencer there is on the market and it will still get some burn-marks after some time. I think the one of the R500 is a repackable one, so you have to check it sometimes and fill it up again with new "wool" (don´t know the english word for this stuff)so that it won´t burn so fast. I love the look of the carbon-silencer but I think for hard use, a stainless steel one would be more proper.

[Marius]

Yep, just forgot it: The R500 I saw at the Ring was heavily used (abused?) by Hyperion Motorsport and was registered "CINCE". If anyone whises photos, let me know, got them beside me.

Schneiderwind@T-Online.de

[Marius]

Yep, I meant "wishes" not "whises". And thw R500 got stuck on the second day of use on the Ring. They said "engine problems"... but it looked little like "blown up".

[pfreeman]

Just been to the factory this morning and C1 INCE was down there. Exhaust didn't seem too bad. As for the re-packing of the exhaust this will need to be done with mine as it's started to rattle, Caterham didn't have any more baffling in though.