The History of NASCAR's Iconic 2000s Sounds

But you've never heard his name. >> I could call it an X pipe at first. >> [clears throat] >> X pipes >> I call it a tangentially Siamese pipe. >> You know, that used to be what what everybody ran and I feel like these guys do it just because they still like the sound of it, right? >> This is a story of how a rocket scientist from Utah changed motor sports and automotive culture forever. >> We refer to Utah, I do, as the vacuum of motor sports because we don't have anything here. It's even even more unusual that this would happen here. Oh, by the way, on the wall right there, that's that's my first first X pipe. It's this car and I actually raced this car with with that X pipe on it. >> So this is the original car that you built the first X pipe with on this car. >> On this car. >> This is the the origin of the Kodak car, the Daytona IROC, everything came from that exhaust pipe and this car. >> That is correct. >> This thing just sounds fast, doesn't it? >> It does sound fast. >> For that car, sounds a little bit on you sound like an Indy car almost. What's what's the engine deal? The headers or what what is it? >> This is this is numero uno. When I finally got this all done to about right here, I started the car and and it went just just like it was supposed to. And I had a quite a celebration in the shop. I was screaming and yelling cuz I was so excited because it it worked. This is This is back in the '86 or '87 when when I when I when I built that. I thought about it for a long time and then finally finally did it. I should have done it earlier cuz the world was ready for it. >> He's going to have himself a good starting position for Saturday's Brickyard 400. >> Was the sound anything you considered or were you just looking to optimize the performance of the engine? >> I was both. Let me go further back. I mean way back. In college um I was the president of the sports car club. Car guy forever for life. A friend comes to me and he says, "Do you know why Chevrolets sound so much better than a Ford?" And I went like, "I don't know. I can't I can't tell you." He said, "It's the firing order. The firing order is different." I didn't know if that was right or not. So, I went to the library and I got a Chilton's motor manual and a piece of paper and I wrote [snorts] down on this paper 1 2 3 4, you know, I wrote put four circles representing the the banks of cylinders on the engine and then I got the firing orders and I drew a line from whichever cylinder was was on the firing order. I did it for a Dodge, a a Chevy Chevy, Mercedes, anybody who made a V8 with a 90° throw crank. I looked at these patterns for Ford and a Dodge. And by the way, Ford had two firing orders. They had a 289 firing order and they had a 351 Windsor firing order, which I think the Cleveland also had as well. And the patterns were the same. They're exactly the same except one was flipped over. It was front to rear flipped over like this. And the Chevrolets were like this. By the way, answer to question about the the Ford and Chevy firing order. 350 firing order is exactly the same, period, as a 289. There is a universal pattern. Now, the pattern can be [clears throat] flipped over like this, side to side down down the center line. You can flip it over like that. Or you can flip it front to back. But, the pattern is always the same. What that means is regardless if you have a 90-degree total crankshaft, you have two cylinders on the right bank, two cylinders on the left bank that are right next to each other in the firing order. So, what you have is you have 90 degrees later of crank rotation, you have an exhaust event that is going to come down a second pipe. And they're they're in a header, they're going to be isolated until they get to the collector. And then all of a sudden they're fighting for space in the collector. And so, you get a double pop. And because the wave the wave patterns overlap, they're they're really close to each other. They almost like almost like two waves close together. They will uh combine. And so, you get a really loud pop. You know, it's not just a a a pop pop. It's it's a big loud pop. Now, on the other bank, on the other side of the engine, nothing is happening. Back in the '80s, I had a magazine or no, it was a it was like one of those HP books about different types of exhaust crossovers. They they had the H, and then it showed a an interesting system where they had the two pipes parallel. And this is similar to the one that that Borla makes it right now, and it's like like this. Ooh ah, you know, the coolest thing since sliced bread. >> The Z pipe, is that what they call it? >> pipe, yeah. Like, it's not new, folks. It's It's been in a book for probably 50 years. Anyway, so I made some of those. And this is back in the '80s. I was telling a friend about how to make this, and he didn't understand. So he goes to the exhaust shop, and they come and they cross these pipes right together like like like a handrail. No bends there at all. They're just But they're they're just open like that. He said, "I actually like it pretty good." I thought, "Well, that's ridiculous." I thought Then it just like click, lightbulb moment, we've got to put bends there and make it so these are tangentially That was the my scientific name at the time, tangentially siamesed. That's what I called it. Crossover. I didn't call it an X pipe at first. I called it a tangentially siamesed pipe, and I realized that that window and they come back apart. The whole idea here was to let some of that exhaust cross come just directly go straight across, you know, back and forth like like this, and the effect flip-flops. When you have a pulse down this side, you have nothing over here. So this this side right here has relatively close to ambient pressure. All of a sudden, here comes this exhaust at at which might be as much as a couple of hundred PSI, and it shoots through there, that hole there, and it and it In nature, everything fluids, you know, everything is pushed. This exhaust comes shooting over here, and what it does is it gives everything in here a kick and pushes it out here. Well, the at the same at the same moment, there is rather than having a pop here and nothing over here, and then a minute later have a pop here and nothing here. That gives your exhaust kind of a machine gun sound, you know, like like the growling you're used to hearing like a V8 gutteral, you know, I don't like that sound. I'm not going to make it here cuz >> I think that current the current cup car that sounds like an old broken Harley. >> Oh. Tell me. That the current sound is atrocious. So, this balances out the sound. Now, you still hear a little bit of ripple in there. You can still hear a little bit of that sound. It's not perfect like like a like an Yamaha R6 at 15,000 RPM where it's just almost like like music. You You can still hear a little ripple, but that's that's inevitable, but most of the sound is is going to be smooth, high pitch, and and very very music-like. >> So, what was your background that made you think about wave pulses and firing orders to begin with? Cuz normal people don't think about that stuff. >> Yeah, I I have a degree in physics. >> So, you're like a rocket scientist. >> Well, actually I was. >> [laughter] >> You saw that picture upstairs. >> Yeah, well, we're going to ballistic missiles and stuff in the military. >> I worked for Hercules Aerospace. I loved that company, and if the uh Cold War hadn't ended, I'd still be there, and I have no idea about this if this this would even exist. >> So, thank god communism collapsed to save NASCAR. >> Yeah, yeah, the Berlin Wall helped NASCAR. There's a benefit there that you've never thought about. >> The butterfly effect is real. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, exactly. Yeah, chaos theory and butterfly in Brazil. [snorts] >> So, you plotted out these firing orders, and we're looking at the back >> plotted out these firing orders, and I and I realized on my own that somebody else had already figured this out. That if you take the inside two if you have your V8 and you take the inside two cylinders here here's here's four, and you cross them over to the other side, and you over here you have the outside two, and you cross them over to the other side, or excuse me, the inside two and you cross them to the other side, then you can actually balance the exhaust. And it does not matter whether it's whose firing order it is. It could be Ford, Dodge, Chevy. It could be an LS firing order or it could be a 350 firing order. By the way, the LS great improvement firing order. You know, everybody oh, I got to have the 5.7 swap. You know, the LS firing order it's just the 351 Windsor firing order. There's two firing orders. You know, you can you can flip them back and forth like that. Just that and that's it. The only way you could actually change the firing order is like they they try and do with the Corvette with a flat crank. >> So, you were trying to make your car sound like 180° headers without building 180° headers. >> Exactly. >> That's actually what you sat down to to do that specifically. >> Yes. >> Really? >> That's a fact. And that that idea I actually had that back in the '70s. And I thought about it for years and I had I had this great aerospace job that kept me really really busy and was making a nice a nice paycheck. And loved the work and so I just I thought about it in the back of my mind. I just kept thinking about it. And then as the uh Cold War started, you know, we could see the attrition on the part of the Russians and the the Iron Block uh countries that things were starting to collapse. I started thinking like, you know, maybe I ought to look into doing this. So, I had I had the ideas pretty much defined and actually built my first X pipe while I was still an engineer out at at Hercules Aerospace. And that company got bought up by ATK which later got bought up by Northrop Grumman. >> So, you Cold War ends, there's a gap between the Berlin Wall and Sterling Marlin at Daytona. >> Yeah, actually the Cold War excuse me, the the Cold uh war ended uh in um I think '91 or right around '90 '91. It was It wasn't an exact hard date. It was more of a kind of a fluid just Russia going down. >> Yeah. >> And and >> the Soviet Union collapsed like December '91 or something like that, right? >> Something like that, yeah. And then not long thereafter in 1993, uh we were going through some pretty severe layoffs at at Hercules. And we went from 6,500 uh people down to less than 2,000. And it was It's kind of heartbreaking that such a wonderful place to work became uh I call it food chain politics. Whoever had the best position and that the best time would keep their job. Layoff after layoff came and finally I just I just went and said, "You know what? Rather than just live with the suspense, the next time this happens, I'll go." And they gave me 6 months severance pay as well. So, I It was a It was a good break. I I I I had a so a good income for a while and uh put this all together. And then uh just out of out of stroke of luck, NASCAR comes along and what a what a sweet deal that was. In December of 1994, I got a call from Larry McClure. You make that work on a Winston Cup car? >> [laughter] >> I says, "Of course." >> I was wondering what that sound was. >> I I opened the door. >> [music] >> That That's what I'm talking about. >> It wants to make noise again. >> You just a few actual systems here that were raced. And then these are um exhibit with from from the SEMA show and the and the PRI show. That's an actual IROC system right there. >> Pull away from the line at the inside of the race track which is led by Kenny Brack with Dale Jarrett right behind Brack in the yellow car. This is It's first time >> Oh, really? >> Mhm. That has 5,500 mi on it. And after that much service as I said, this side of the the bends right here are thin. This developed a crack. Follows that weld that's in the heat-affected zone of that weld right there. >> Ah. >> So, they returned that. I I made every I didn't let my let my employees touch these. I made [clears throat] every one of those for 11 years. >> What are they weld a bead on here for every race it ran or something? What is that? >> weld that on there in case it rubs on the ground. >> Oh. >> Just a way to add a like like a road some road strip material. >> I guess they needed it here. >> Yeah, some right there as well. >> Was this one of the original ones from '96? >> You know, I I made so many of them. And I serialized all of them. But, they didn't uh keep keep up with that on their records. So, I'm I'm not really sure what year it is. But, they're all the same. They're all built with the same tooling. Oh, here's a This is a display. >> [clears throat] >> See, this this is this is exactly the same as as this. I just don't have the uh This is a a replica that I built of the system that was on Jeff Gordon's car when he [clears throat] won the '97 Daytona 500. >> Jeff Gordon turned in the sixth fastest speed last year during first day qualifying and uh Jerry Punch has more from down in the pit area. Well, Bob, as you watch Jeff Gordon get ready to qualify, the wind has picked up. Take a look at the flags up and down pit >> That's the the real one like this is in a museum somewhere, probably back at Hendrick Motorsports. >> Still on the car? >> Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that car is in a museum. >> for Jeff Gordon. He's doing this for someone else. >> Here goes the pass. Gordon making a move on the inside of Earnhardt. Oh, Jeff loses >> [screaming] >> down the back straightaway. Big trouble. Earnhardt out. >> And this is a replica of [clears throat] what I had on Sterling Marlin's car. After after I did this, I then started getting requests to Well, we don't want a split system. We want to have have it all run out one side. And that's when they want to put all their exhaust out the right side of the car to have the weight over on the right side of the car. And then NASCAR later told them, "No, no, you have to put it out the other way because you got to keep the exhaust away from fuel in case during during a pit stop you spill some fuel, you don't want to have a fire." This could go either This could go either way. So, I imagine what I what I imagined is >> [clears throat] >> I I left left home. It was just before Christmas in '96. And when [clears throat] I stayed in Embassy Suites for a night so I could be alone, nobody bothering me, >> [snorts] >> I designed that. And I the way I I imagined it is just like I imagined that this stuff would stretch. And here's my here's my split system like this like this. Imagine taking this and just if this was like rubber, I just stretching it over here. So, that's that's how I did that is is get it in a little bit closer so I have time to bend here. Then we went into into a dual inlet boom tube. Now, this is you asked me a question earlier about if a boom tube could change the sound. In this case, the answer is yes because they would combine the uh merge merge the exhaust right here into one one boom tube kind of like like these systems back here. And then it would go out and it'd have a beautiful just beautiful sound. >> You watch Jeff Gordon get ready to qualify. The wind has picked up. Take a look at the flags up and down pit >> Now this is an actual system that came off from one of Rusty Wallace's cars August of 2005. >> Stewart 19th and right now Jimmie Johnson 30th. What do you think Rusty Wallace is going to be feeling when this race is over? >> Oh. >> Is some of it relief? >> Because it's finally he can walk away from it and and go to take care of but >> I'm thinking tomorrow there'll there'll be some wistfulness but Daytona next February, that'll be when it really sinks in. That's when >> And now this is a different system I designed. I started to get comments from people saying that the [snorts] X pipe above like about 8,000 or so RPM doesn't really help. Doesn't doesn't make much difference but that's really that's you don't do 8,000 RPM on the street. Um so I thought well there is one way I can I can get around that and that's with a Y pipe. So that's what these are right here. That's an actual display from PRI or SEMA. This this being an actual race part. >> Motor Speedway. 199 mph into turn one and that's just after taking the green. >> That's the fastest I've seen so far tonight. That was the fastest through turn one and two. >> And look at this, the green bubble continues to move further away. >> What we're trying to do here is is to because we have bends here, this tends to slow the exhaust down a little. And this is a little bit this side is a little bit longer. The cross-sectional area right here versus the cross-sectional area down here even though it's thinner because it gets wider so fast. Let me turn this up on its side side, so you can you can see how how it tapers. You [clears throat] see the see that taper right there? The goal was to make this into a giant three-dimensional merge collector. There's expansion all the way out here. >> Further away from the center. If he gets through three and four, this is going to be an awesome lap for this this team. >> 182 through three and four there. That's the lowest speed right there. 191 at the line and by three full tenths of a second. >> Penske >> [snorts] >> was the most professional, amazing organization to work with. >> [snorts] >> The guy's a scientist. Everything at Penske was just perfect. There's a story with with one of these. I I took one of these back to uh them. >> [clears throat] >> And Rusty went out and drove the car and says, "I don't like the way it sounds." And the and the uh crew chief said, "We don't really care >> [laughter] >> because the car is faster with it." >> He didn't like the way the Y pipe sounded? >> Didn't like the way it sounded. So, he was used to the uh the H pipe sound. And with the change in that, he had to reacquire, you know, what what the because it it revs it it revs so much higher, it sounds that way. >> So, turning one and two. And look at this, the green bubble continues to be >> that you think you need to shift sooner than you do. So, you have to look at the tach. And so, he had he had to learn all over what the uh the the sound, you know, was with the car. And and the crew crew chief just said, "This is the way it is." >> What's the sound difference between that when it's built right versus the uh other two? >> There isn't any. I can I have qualifying videos. I'm I apologize. Um William has them and he uh took it took them down and I don't know where they are. They sound so close that if I didn't know what I because I knew what I'd sold to what team like at Las Vegas I went I listened once once for qualifying I knew that when Jeff Gordon went by they had they had one of those. I knew when Walt when Rusty went by I knew they had one of these and when Michael Waltrip went by they had that. But they're really close really really really close because you're doing the same thing here with a Y pipe >> [clears throat] >> that you're doing with an X pipe. You're just combining the high and low pressure points just putting it back together just like that.…