McLaren Exhaust

[hardingfv32]

Here are pictures of the McLaren exhaust at Canada:

1) The two rings where the tail pipe connects to the collector, are they some form of flex or expansion joint? (top photo)
2) Does the top branch (primary pipe 1?) of the collector seem oval? (top photo)
3) The step in pipe 1 is at a different distance to pipe 2 from the port, why? (bottom photo)
4) Note the reinforcement patches between the collector branches. Do not think I have seen that before.

Brian

[Robbobnob]

As each cylinder has two exhaust ports, the header starts oval in shape to capture both ports in the same pipe. As the pipes lengthen they expand into a circular cross section for a variety of reasons, one being low thermal dissipation around the circumference, a circle has the highest area to circumferential length out of all shapes.

The patches on the collector will be the joins between the different sections of pipe to create such a complex shape.

The difference in the step lengths in the headers is to have the same path length for each, so when they combine at the collector the pressure waves from the cylinders are in phase.

[marcush.]

the oval piece is in the collector ,mate! not at the head face ,which is of course oval and beautifully made..

Mclaren has the oval pipes at the collector joint at least since 2010 ,when we discussed the workmanship comparing exhaust to Mercedes GP who seemed to be very crude at that time..

Work of art ..I love the workmanship..Having done considerable work with exhausts and header fabrication I am deeply impressed ....Mclaren are detail kings and there is nothing comparable even in Formula 1 methinks.
Sadly it does not translate in bulletproff designs..Button had an exhaust failure already ,did he?

[Just_a_fan]

A few years ago I was chatting to a chap who, it turned out, fabricated the exhausts for Renault. I made comment about how beautiful they are and how much skill was involved etc. and that he should be very proud of them. He said that he was but, after making quite a few, it was quite tedious work and some of the welds are in difficult to access areas. He was very matter of fact about it all. Which I guess it not surprising if you've spent several years doing the same thing day after day.

He was much more animated about the rail he had in the garage. We talked for a while about drag racing etc. Now that he was enthusiastic about!