Cherrybomb exhausts - talk to me.

[BenzBoy]

What's the deal with Cherrybomb exhausts - are they road legal? Do the Tailbombs actually have any silencing effect what-so-ever?
I like the idea of them but there's a lot of hearsay and nonsense talked on t'interwebs about them. I figured I'd get a better, more informed response from the good people of RR.

My Benz had an exhaust that exited behind the front wheel with no silencers at all, and I didn't feel that was particularly loud...

[needabeetle]

Volume depends on the car - N/A cars are louder, 4 pots are higher pitched etc.

My BMW was ridiculously loud, and that had a small front box and a cherry bomb rear - I got pulled VERY regularly in that!

They DO make a difference though, without the cherry you didn't want to take the car over 3'000rpm it was so ridiculous, with it I was happy to thrash around

They are legal - why wouldn't they be?

[LowStandards]

There brilliant - end of!

Buy one!!!

There middle boxes are called MUFFler DIVERS... Amazing

[JohnnySomersett]

I had one on my 100A... sounded awesome, I have one my Sledric... sounds awesome

[HARDCORE]

The V8 in my Manta has (each side) a 4-1 manifold, about 6" of pipe, a 24" Cherrybomb, 18" of pipe, a 45deg bend and another foot or so of pipe with a home made SS slash-cut tip sticking out in front of the back wheel - sounds fekking awesome! Good low V8 rumble at low revs and tasty roar when revved, without being too much on a long drive (car still has full interior). I can't wait to get my supercharger whine thrown into the mix! ;D

[BenzBoy]

So the RR consensus is that Cherrybombs are a Good Thing^TM! Excellent. Thankyou for your feedback!

JS, those vids have sealed the deal. I have concluded that those people on the internet who were complaining about them being too loud were either girly wimps, or their mum told them to say that when she found out what they'd done to her car.

[akku]

Cheery Bombs made now (despite their "disturbing the peace since 1968" sale slogan) are made by a new company who bought the rights to the Cherry Bomb brand which stopped production a while back. I read a story in a magazine about the guy who set them back up in busienss. I digress. A whole bunch of look-a-like products have been made over the years by other brands. AFAIK "Muff Divers" and the like are not made by Cherry Bomb.

Cherry Bomb also is like "Hoover", you know, like your Hoover might be a Dyson or a Panasonic...

Anyway... AFAIK there is no type approval for individual car exhaust pipe parts. So you can make your own or use whatever. Thus a Cherry Bomb won't in and of itself be illegal. So long as it meets the prevailing rules on noise levels you can use what you like.

Now the MOT is an interesting one because it requires the "original number and type of silencers" or similar words which technically means ANY aftermarket exhaust is illegal unless it is to stock pattern...

[JohnnySomersett]

Very true AK, really they are 'glasspack' exhausts IIRC

I always buy mine from Ratsport, reasonable price and 'CherryBomb' branded

oh, and they do seem to rust like **** so maybe some HT paint before installation? I always forget mind until I look under and its more turdbomb than cherrybomb LOL

[BenzBoy]

Interesting stuff AK. I did wonder whether "Cherry Bomb" has become a generic term. The ones I've seen for sale seem to be coming from the recently-formed company so I suppose are a genuines as one can get these days (well, the name is genuine, whether they're anything like Cherrybombs of old is another matter)

May 4, 2010 16:49:37 GMT akku said:

Now the MOT is an interesting one because it requires the "original number and type of silencers" or similar words which technically means ANY aftermarket exhaust is illegal unless it is to stock pattern...

That's interesting. In my case, if any MOT tester can find the original specs for the car and tell me how many silencers it had originally and what type they were, I'd be amazed! ;D

[HARDCORE]

My MoT had an advisory saying "Exhaust system slightly loud" ;D

[skinnylew]

I've had that before
advisory - "exhaust system noisy"
lol'd alot!!

[Seth]

If the diameter matches up you can get "bomb" type glass pack silencers in stainless that are sold for MGB's at a not too dear price.

eg. www.ukmgparts.com/product.aspx?CID=a06aab03-5ebc-49d9-a937-a6d8adfce6c1&SID=521486b8-8b83-4f6f-9aaa-bd9ceeb0d0a5&PID=1472f8ec-6712-4944-87b1-cc1e339918fb

I think they are meant for 1 3/4" pipe?

[ThePollitt]

Been here before, but I'm never unhappy to post a clip of my old Zodiac as an example...



Chris

[will]

Red, loud, good name, what more could you ask for? buy one

[donttellhimpike]

i have one going on the celica as we speak, twinned with twin pancakes ,hoping it will sound retro!!

[ChasR]

Hmmm, I'll stay quiet(ish) on this one. On the cars I've heard them on, they weren't too great.

First was a MkIV Escort XR3i my father. Only the backbox was a cherry bomb but I can quite comfortably say that it was probably the loudest system I've heard on an XR3i (close anyway to when my XR3i Cabrio snapped an exhaust at the header join). Booming inside was awful with even underlay not silencing it enough. Conversely, the Magnex and Mongoose systems didn't sound as loud on the others I have heard, even the RS Turbos on Mongoose systems were quieter inside especially on a motorway run (maybe the Turbo has something to do with that. To say that we were all relieved when a stock box went back on was an understatement. Not putting the radio up to max volume to overcome the noise was one thing or hearing somebody coming from half a mile away.

On my white MGB, that was running a Cherry bomb centre silencer with a normalish rear silencer. Way too raspy for my liking, boomy at some revs too. The Falcon single Box (albeit a larger silencer on the rear (and the only silencer) on my Sebring sounds much nicer IMO all round, well as far as stock B Series engines go.



There had to be one hater in this thread, it may as well me be me LOL. Maybe I got unlucky on both counts, although on the few V8s I have heard with them, they do sound the nuts.