The Best DIY Tools and Techniques

Posted on March 31st, 2009 in diesel,Driving Emotion,Economy,Mufflers,Opinion,pedal power,testing by Julian Edgar

This week in AutoSpeed we start a new series that I’ve immodestly called the ‘Ultimate DIY Automotive Modification Kit’.

It’s not the sort of material that you’d find anywhere else but at AutoSpeed - and, perhaps for that reason, longstanding readers will have seen much of the content before.

What the series does is integrate the testing and modification techniques that over the years I’ve discovered  to work for all cars.

Yes, all cars.

The muffler yell test…

Posted on January 6th, 2009 in Driving Emotion,Mufflers,testing by Julian Edgar

Years ago I did a muffler comparison test for a magazine. I used about $120,000 of equipment to test the sound attenuating properties of the mufflers – including a dyno, test car and sound pressure level meter.

Since I was working from home, I ended up with a lot of mufflers (all clean and brand new, I might add) strewn around the lounge room.

And, in a moment of (drunken?) lunacy, I found a much simpler way of testing the mufflers than using a dyno and the rest of the gear. In short, I simply grabbed a muffler and yelled through it.  And then another muffler, and then another muffler…