M&K 911R Muffler

[Nordschleife]

I finally took the plunge and bought one of M&K's stainless steel mufflers from Vintage NLA in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (they were very helpful, by the way).

Swapping the original 2-in, 1-out muffler for the M&K was straightforward. I even managed to do it without removing the rear valence. Vintage NLA ( http://www.vintagenla.com/ ) included all the stainless steel mounting hardware including new gaskets and straps/clamps.

As to the sound? It's louder but not so loud that it'd be embarrassing to drive through our neighborhood. At idle it lopes along nicely, more lump-lump-lump than a burble sound.

There's an interesting harmonic overtone you hear down in the 2400-3800 RPM range that reminds me of the 917's in the movie Le Mans. At 3800-5000 my engine -- the original 1968 aluminum 2.0L with PMO 40s and original heat exchangers -- has a distinct change of tone, like an opening up to a "whaaaa" sound, and there is some resonant drone right at 4000 RPM which is to be avoided.

The high end above 5000 RPM is actually a bit less pronounced than with the stock muffler, but it still has that "shredding paper" ripping sound to the redline at 7000 RPM.

I like it. I'd guess there's a bit more horsepower, as it spools up a bit quicker now. And the M&K welding quality is superb work, artful.

My 2 cents!

Best Regards,
Andy

[gsjohnson]

Love the color of your car.

[Nordschleife]

Thank you! It's "Cotswold Blue", PPG paint #12199, a non-metallic color. Depending on the light, it can look more grey-blue (as in the photos above) or more strongly blue. There's a slight touch of green in it too.

Cotswold Blue is a classic Jaguar color from 1956-1964 (XKs and E-Types). When I was trying to decide what color to paint our 1968 SWB 911, it came down to this one and Porsche Oslo Blue (a 356-series color).

Here's a link to classic Jaguar XK-series car paint colors, with photos: http://www.xkdata.com/catalog/colors/ I really like several of these early Jag colors. Our 911 will never revert to original spec (it was originally Ivory), so I figured I'd just choose a color that I really, really liked.

Best Regards,
Andy

[Anatol]

Andy,
could you please post more pics of your very beautiful car? Is it a SWB with flares or already LWB?
Thanks!

[jloucks388]

interesting website format.. fun to poke around.. very hip..

http://www.xkdata.com/

[Nordschleife]

Hallo Anatol,

Dies ist ein kurzer Radstand (SWB) Auto. Die Kotflügeln
wurden speziell auf Stahl gebaut.

Beste Grüße,
Andy

[Bert]

Hello Andy,

Your 1968 looks great! Great looking color.

I think more photos are necessary

Did the M&K muffler fit well without too much muscle to meet the heat exchangers?

Is there a weight savings with the M&K?

It would be helpful to post a video or audio file to hear the muffler through the rev range.

Thanks,

[Nordschleife]

Hi Bert,

Here are a few photos of this SWB with flares. The design/concept has been to answer the question "what would a 1968 SWB privateer competition car look like if it had been modified up until 1973?" When I first bought it, it was painted Guards Red, had a 1980's Webasto sunroof, a 911SC rear P-O-R-S-C-H-E reflector, Vitaloni flag mirrors, CD player stereo, standard seats, simplified 911 base coupe gauges, etc. I like it a lot better now.

The M&K 911R muffler fit my original heat exchangers with hardly any fuss. The bolt alignment was --at most -- about 1/16" off, and that's almost certainly owing to my old heat exchangers being bent rather than the muffler itself.

The M&K muffler is definitely lighter, although I couldn't say how much.

Anatol, the rear flares are SC steel flares that were heated and beaten/formed into a more rounded shape, without the edge "lip" and turned slightly inward near the torsion bar cover. Getting the rear flares to align centrally on a SWB car is not easy. The front quarter panels are the original 1968 bits.

The front bumper is a steel SWB bumper and we removed the deco strips, welded the holes closed to make a smooth "R" look, and then fabricated brake duct openings from steel in the foglight openings.

The front Enots filler cap is connected to the original SWB fuel tank. It has a pie pan to catch any water or spilled fuel. The hood was modified with a second pan welded to it which nests neatly inside the other pie pan, giving a very clean installation look.

We also welded in one of TRE's excellent front "RSR" strut bars plus their RSR steel rear shock tower reinforcements. The rollbar is TRE's clubsport2 model.

Interior has old Recaro race seats that I brought back from Germany years ago, and although I kept the 1968 door panels, which I like, I'm slowly modifying the trim with 1967S items such as the door tops and chrome door button trim. I may still replace the standard 1968 aluminum dash trim with 1967 911S basketweave trim, but there's no rush to do it. Carpet needs replacement, and after seeing Chris' square weave carpet in his terrific '67, I'm thinking that is the way to go. Steering wheel is a "fat" 400mm leather wheel and it works very well with the SWB steering rack, 7" front + 8" rear Fuchs wheels and Yokohama A0048 tires.

I drive my 911 regularly, whenever I can, except in winter.

I will try to figure out how to add some video footage of the M&K muffler soon so you can hear it. I can sympathize with your request -- I looked all over YouTube for something similar before buying the M&K but never found a video combining the M&K muffler with an early SWB 2.0L car.

Hope that helps,
Andy

[Bert]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the write up and extra photos. It's nice to see such a clean "driver"

[Mark Morrissey]

Hey Andy, the new muffler looks great and so does the car.
Hope you don't mind me adding to the crop...