Exhaust pipes can be really artistic if you’re creative enough. Here are some of the best custom exhaust designs we could think of.
Whether by necessity or design, some custom cars roll out the garage with sculpted pipework that looks like it should be part of a modern art instillation. Occasionally this is a mere happy accident – a side effect of the quest for more efficient airflow. Other times it comes about due to a want to improve the way a car sounds, and sometimes these designs arise purely and simply because the builder thinks it looks cool.
Here, we’ve collated several of the best examples we could think of. So let’s jump straight in – here are some of the modifying community’s best custom exhaust designs.
Best Custom Exhaust Designs
Titanium Manifolds
Often, a lot of the artistry found in exhaust systems is with the manifolds. Here is where fabricators arguably get to be at their most creative, given the number of different pipes that there are to work with. If you’ve purely got performance on your mind, then the shape and flow of the pipework will be governed by science and efficiency. But if you’re building a show car, manifolds are a great component with which to steal people’s attention.
The particular example we’ve chosen here is part of special one-off. Yes, that might be a Ford V8 you’re looking at, but this shot was taken under the engine cover of Liberty Walk’s faux Miura. The beautiful coloration of the titanium metalwork is just one highlight amongst many. It’s a car that must be seen to be believed.
Mk4 Golf with exposed setup
The first thing to acknowledge about this Mk4 Golf is that wherever you look, you’re bound to find a detail which makes you raise your eyebrows. The exhaust system is no exception. It’s a dual pipe & wastegate setup which protrudes proudly upwards in place of where the rest of the hood should be.
The pipes are incredibly short, but that in itself makes them quite unique. Above all else, this is a car built with a care-free attitude, and its exhaust system channels that perfectly. There’s no place for common norms here.
MG-BEAST
The MG B-EAST recently won the British leg of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, and fittingly it has one of the most brutish custom exhaust designs we’ve ever seen fitted to an old MG. This dramatic side-exit pipe is straight from the world of hot rods, yet somehow seemingly more raw. It’s a straight-through pipe as well, so you can bet it sounds as mean as it looks.
We actually ran a feature on this British beast a few years back, before it became Hot Wheels-famous. If you’d like to read that, click here.
Bumper-delete twin turbo Huracan
When modded twin-turbo Huracans came onto the scene, their rapid pace shook up the modified car community’s food chain. Not only that, but the vast majority are found rocking a rear bumper delete, with all their exotic innards on show. As such, we get to marvel at their custom exhaust designs, which often wrap around like metallic snakes. The one we’ve featured above is particularly aggressive, but a quick Google search will reveal all sorts of variations.
Bosozoku Cars
You can’t write a feature on cool exhaust designs without at least briefly mentioning the Bosozoku. A Japanese phenomenon, the Bosozoku are the sort of people you don’t want to mess with – even if their cars are rather comical.
Typically keen on mid-size domestic sedans, the Bosozoku submerge their cars in excessive bodywork, ranging from towering wings to snow-plough-rivalling splitters. But on top of that, they almost always endow their motors with utterly bizarre exhaust pipes. The standard look will simply reach for the sky as shown above, but it’s also not uncommon to see the pipe fabricated into shapes like stars or hearts.
Yes, that really is a 350z…
From the front, this widebody Nissan 350z looks like a cool but relatively sensible build. However, all hell breaks loose when you get to the back. Stare at it dead-on, and we’d be impressed if you could even identify what sort of car it was. The Porsche taillights and double wing setup are noteworthy in their own right, but the biggest attention grabber has got to be that exposed custom exhaust – too girthy to even fit behind the stock bodywork.
Bisimoto ’76 Carrera
If you don’t know about Bisimoto, you should. Bisi Ezerioha has created some truly epic vehicles over the years, including this *comprehensively reworked* Porsche 911. The list of modifications is large to say the least, but let’s just focus in on that exhaust for a moment.
The metal spaghetti is intertwined with a twin-turbo setup; a big chunk of the rear bumper having been cut away to maximize airflow into the two snails. It’s unashamed function over form, but to some, that’s the real root of beauty in engineering.
Diesel Hot Rod
Finding a fitting ending to this piece proved difficult, but I think I may’ve found just the thing. Known as ‘The Marauder’, this custom hot rod started out in life as a Ford Model A. However, there’s not much of that original DNA left over. I mean, for a start, there’s a whopping great 5.9-liter Cummins diesel V8 up front. The power unit features a compound turbo setup rather than a sequential one, with the flow of air culminating in a 4-inch spike exhaust which rises way beyond the roofline.
Anyway, if all this has sparked some inspiration within you, you might want to have a read of our custom exhaust fabrication guide next…
