AS BTB TACKLES 40 YEARS OF BIG MOTOR TUNING.

Historic racecars are producing up to twice the power of their original 1960s versions - and beginning to cause massive headaches for their owners in more ways than one.

"The belief is that the weakest link in an historic racer is the brakes - but in truth, it's becoming the exhaust system," said Joe Ellis, Managing Director of BTB Exhausts, the leading designer and producer of performance and motorsport exhausts and manifolds.

"The 60s saw big, under-stressed American V8s and British straight sixes hitting the race circuits for the first time - and they were fast even when they were unmodified.

"But a race driver can never have enough power, and modern-day engine tuners are applying their black arts - and sciences - to extract massive outputs from some of the 60s' classic engines.

"Those motors are big and tough - and they can take a lot of tuning. The problem is that noise levels are rising as a result, circuit noise regs are beginning to tighten and the whole issue is actually based on how much space there is under the car: big outputs need big silencers."

BTB has, however, come up with a series of solutions to tackle the challenge based on more than ten years working with classic and historic racers.

"It's a challenge, but we have overcome it with carefully thought-through, designed and constructed manifolds and systems that utilise all available space, while also managing weight, maintaining power but containing noise.

"The design and construction is based on our experiences in the most difficult of circumstances - bringing noise levels down on BTCC and F3 cars at noise-sensitive circuits while not losing them any power. Miracles are pretty straightforward by comparison.

"The noise levels will be lower on the historic cars as a result of our work, but the noise quality on the big V8s and straight sixes is sublime."

BTB can offer a free noise-testing service to racers and all members of recognised trackday clubs so that they can establish their cars' noise levels before wasting their time and money taking a non-compliant car to a noise-senstive circuit.

"If there is a potential problem, then BTB can accurately advise and quote for a suitable system that solves their problem," said Joe.

BTB develops and manufacturers exhaust manifolds and systems in a variety of materials for a number of markets.

As well as OE development for car manufacturers, BTB manufacturers exhaust systems for a number of motor racing teams at various levels in the sport, plus limited production runs for specialist aftermarket distributors and bespoke systems to address one-off requirements.