But in the eyes of the law yours is still illegal. If you got pulled and tested they would still give you a ticket.
Its rediculous !!!

 

you may laugh but its come close to that, the eu where thinking of taxing farmers on the amount of methane their cows produce only one step away from taxing farting

 

thats exactly my point, i want a performance exhaust but at what point does it become illegal??

 

Well reading the law (Section 55, below), I would say it does not become illegal as long as the car is fitted with an exhaust that includes silencers, the silencer is not bypassed, any new/replacement exhaust system does not bypass the silencer, and any new exhaust is not louder than a stock exhaust.

The law does NOT prevent you from using an exhaust that is bigger, or different, or that increases performance, or that allows a great flow of gases (such as a performance exhaust). BUT, to the letter of the law, removing silencers is a NO.

Now, bending the law a bit, a modern Impreza STI has 2 silencers and a cat. No police officer would notice if you changed the down pipe, but changing silencer 2 and / or the cat and be very easily spotted when he looks under your car so would be picked up on and identified as flouting the law on silencers if removed entirely.

The notes that some Police forces write on their websites about "big bore exhausts" are a bit misleading - your exhaust can be as big as you want, BUT not as loud as you want!


Section 55: Silencers
(1) Every vehicle propelled by an internal combustion engine shall be fitted with an exhaust system including a silencer and the exhaust gases from the engine shall not escape into the atmosphere without first passing through the silencer.
(2) Every exhaust system and silencer shall be maintained in good and efficient working order and shall not be altered so as to increase the noise made by the escape of exhaust gases.

 

Madscoob .... 112db at 4500rpm ..... you sure? thats mentally loud!

Romford boy, that section 1 bit is to just outlaw screamer pipes from extrenal wastegates.

The thing that gets me about all of this is that as mine is a track car, and all of my car mates have track cars, its always an aspiration to get noise down without limiting power. Most tracks are circa 96-99db at 4500rpm ..... which is easily achievable and doesnt have to limit power.

So just out of interest, why would you want a massive exhaust making that much noise? If your out for a spirited b road blast, and plods in the next village, he'll hear you coming from miles away and have the ticket written and ready just to fill the number plate in before you even get there!

The laws are written very conservatively to give plod the discression to pull loud cars, simply to lead to further checks .... and fair play to them! I was happy as larry when i saw the BTCC wannabe cupra ******** from my estate pulled by the fuzz, they didnt do him for noise, but it did give them the excuse to pull him and find he was DUI and his "stance" setup had worn the inside edge of his tyres down to the carcass.

Problem is that a bored jobsworth copper wont use his discression, he'll just pick holes for something to do!

A little level of protection is having an import as the data for factory specs can be fuzzy at best and it gives some leeway.

 

legacy_gtb

I agree with everything you wrote bar the comment on the law extract, it is to out law any car without silencers and is very clear, any exhaust gases that flow through your exhaust must at some point also pass through the silencer (I think the use of the word "atmosphere" can be a bit misleading in this context). It is worded as such to prevent someone fitting an exhaust and a silencer but then bypassing this silencer and telling the police that it is ok because the silencer is present nonetheless.

 

I totally agree but I don't roar up and down my street, think I am going to swap my 5" cannon for a more subtle design

 

Just fecking crazy to the lengths the plod will go to these days to rape our wallets.

The only thing on that list I thought was a very valid point was the thing about it be illegal for blue lights and a red light installed on the front.

I currently have a Blitz NUR Spec on the P1 and I drive it with the bung in and it's not too noisy to fail the test, but I've been pulled several times to have it tested and it's always been lower than the filth was hoping for. I swear they target people with cars like ours, thinking we have a health wedge of cash in our **** pocket to keep paying out these silly little fines.

 

Of course they do.

99.9% of people drive bog standard dull vehicles, so of course the few with big exhausts and massive rear wings (driven well or not) will attract attention. I bet the Evo owners feel the same as us.

 

the bit in red is not completely true that only apples to a car that dose not have a UK equivalent, if it has a UK equivalent then it has to comply with the UK specs

 

well madscoob running 112db , ive got a rcm tube exhaust, no boxes and no cats, 110db @4500,

got a new setup going in soon so i might think of introducing a better system, track friendly with boxes lol

 

My exhaust was recorded at 89Db @ 3/4 revs, at possibly one of the most stringent places for noise control, Elvington

Nur Spec R with no bung fitted.

 

Been reading this thread with interest. I got pulled 3 weeks ago and told to change exhaust which is full 3" HKS decat , I downloaded 160 Decibel Noise Meter for I Phone and it works quite well don't know if its 100 percent accurate though but should give a rough guide.

 

Was at a rally the other week and he wanted a car to try and mine read 84db at 4000rpm 1 mtr away on an open airfield.

 

Glad I dont live near you .....

 

Cheers for the reply, just found out my new scoob has a scoobyclinic exhaust. Find out next weekend when i pick her up how loud she is lol