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| A week later all this showed up at our door! |
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| Our 2.5″ J bends and straight tubing from Vibrant are high quality 304 stainless steel. Vibrant also has 90 degree bends and U bends but we thought a couple J’s would be enough for the short part of our system that’s 2.5″. |
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| The 4″ (nominal width) oval tubing has 0.065″ wall thickness and measures approximately 2.5″ tall and 5″ wide–just about perfect size for merging our dual 2.5″ tubes into. |
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| 2 pairs of Vibrant’s 2.5″ quick release V-Band clamps will allow us to easily connect and disconnect the rear section of our exhaust from the secondaries. Since the entire exhaust is below all suspension parts the entire system behind the cats can be made of a single piece. These clamps have a tight leak free seal and can be removed with only one bolt. Many V-Band clamps on the market are made of rusting mild steel and have cheap warping clamp flanges. Vibrant’s part is all stainless steel and the flanges are machined from stainless for a tight fit and warp free welding. |
Now that we’ve got all this nice stainless tubing I’m not going to risk f’ing it up trying to cobble it all together myself so we needed to find some help.
Enter Bryan Min and Laura Heng, the proprietors over at Berk Technology (named after their alma mater, UC Berkley). They don’t normally do custom fabrication jobs, but when Laura contacted me only a few days prior to see if I knew anyone who could do some product photography for them for cheap, well… “as a matter of fact, I DO!!”
A MotoIQ trade agreement was drafted and the following week we dropped off the car and materials at Berk’s new facility in Santa Ana. I did a couple hours of photo work for them and told them I’d be by to pick the RX-7 up the following week!
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| Up on the rack! Berk produces high quality exhausts, high-flow catalytic converters and other exhaust related parts for a handful of vehicles such as the 370Z, EVO, and BMW 1 & 3 series. They are probably best known for their success campaigning their BMW 135 in Time Attack street and limited classes. Their pits are always open to everyone at events and you’re likely to get fed well and offered a cold beer just for stopping by–I know I always am 😉 |
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| Bryan chops and cuts the 2.5″ tubes to navigate between the transmission and tunnel. The 2×2 square stock sitting on top of another 1.5″ piece marks the lowest he’ll allow the exhaust to hang down, ensuring us 3.5″ of ground clearance throughout. |
