Crank Your Ride’s Volume to 11 with Flowmaster

Crank Your Ride’s Volume to 11 with Flowmaster

A wise mine with teased hair and a double-neck bass guitar once said, “The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushing.” While he may not have been talking about the roar of an exhaust system, the sentiment is closely related — the bigger the tone, the sweeter the ride. If you’re looking to crank your auto’s volume up to 11, Flowmaster has the tubes for you.

Never heard of Flowmaster before? Their saga started way back in 1983, the same year when Megadeth, Stryper and Fates Warning were founded. At the time, new noise regulations were threatening to curb California Sprint Car drivers’ ability to race at a number of different tracks. They hunted around for an exhaust system that could muffle the bark of their motors without dampening their bite, but all the conventional designs choked back their performance. Then, like an intrepid roadie who swoops in to right a fallen Stonehenge prop mid-performance, Ray Flugger, the founder of Flowmaster, stepped on the scene, developed his first racing silencer, and changed the sound of speed demons forever.

Even though Flowmaster made their bones building mufflers to turn down the ear-splitting sound of thoroughbred racecars, their modern custom exhaust systems do just the opposite to your stock ride. Their complete cat-back exhaust systems come in two strengths: the Force II and the American Thunder. The Force II exhaust system is more like a strong power ballad — it’ll make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, but it won’t blow your socks off. The American Thunder exhaust, though, is a full-throttle rocker — think the chainsaw solo from Jackyl’s The Lumberjack coming out your tailpipe. How do you decide between the two? Consider this: if you want to maintain a healthy relationship with your neighbors, go with the Force II. If you want an exhaust system that’s loud enough to make your drummer spontaneously combust, go with the American Thunder.

Because both of these are complete replacement exhaust systems, they might be beyond your budget. Luckily, you can swap out just your muffler with a throatier Flowmaster model to get all the sound but not as much performance gain. There are a lot of mufflers to choose from, but they break down into three basic groups: mild, moderate and aggressive. The milder group consists of the 50 Big Block, 70 Series, 50 SUV and 60 Delta mufflers. On the moderate squad are the 50 Delta, 50 HD and Hushpower II mufflers. Then, the aggressive big boys are made up of the 60 Series, 40 Delta, Super 40 and Super 44 mufflers — real firecrackers, those ones.