Speaker A
This is a white car. And this white car is actually very special. This is a TVR called the White Elephant.
A rare 1988 TVR prototype called the White Elephant gets a custom exhaust upgrade to improve sound and ground clearance.
Key Takeaways
- Custom exhaust fabrication can significantly improve prototype car performance and durability.
- Using a combination of off-the-shelf parts and custom welding saves time and effort.
- Maintaining proper exhaust flow and sound quality is crucial when modifying rare vehicles.
- Attention to detail, such as spacing from the chassis, prevents damage and enhances longevity.
- Prototype cars often require creative, on-the-fly solutions during restoration or modification.
Summary
- The video features a unique 1988 TVR prototype named the White Elephant, owned by Ed from Shme Automotive.
- The main issue addressed is the exhaust system being too low and prone to scraping the ground.
- Bob from THE-MACHINE-SHOP custom fabricates a new exhaust silencer and piping to raise the exhaust and improve sound quality.
- The original exhaust was a mix of MIG and TIG welds with a complex design that needed simplification and better flow.
- The new exhaust uses off-the-shelf components combined with custom welding to maintain flow and appearance.
- Foam spacers are used to prevent the new exhaust from rubbing against the chassis.
- The fabrication process involves cutting, welding, and fitting swaged bends and Y-pieces to achieve correct pipe diameters and angles.
- The finished exhaust sits higher, sounds better, and looks more professional while preserving the car’s original aesthetic.
- Ed tests the car after installation and expresses satisfaction with the improved exhaust system.
- The video includes a brief sponsored segment promoting a ready-to-drink meal product.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the TVR White Elephant
- 00:29Owner Introduction and Car Background
- 01:03Initial Sound Check and Problem Overview
- 01:49Planning the Exhaust Upgrade
- 02:20Custom Silencer and Fabrication Setup
- 03:35Removing the Old Exhaust and Design Challenges
- 04:42Exhaust Flow Design and Pipe Diameter Changes
- 05:35Fitting and Adjusting the New Exhaust
- 06:06Sponsored Segment: W Food Promotion
- 06:28Final Adjustments and Spacing
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
It's the only one in the world like this. It's a prototype that came out of the factory a long time ago. But it's got one big problem. The exhaust system here is way too low. As we all know,
Speaker A
British engineering of this era was the best in the world, and we need to make it even better.
Speaker A
Now, I don't know much about this car, but here's a man that does. Uh, well, I'm Ed from Shme Automotive, and uh, this is Nelly the White Elephant, which is a TVR prototype from 1988.
Speaker A
It was built for the chairman of TVR at the time, Peter Wheeler. Um, and I happen to own it and, um, it's a fantastic car. It's got a Holden Bathurst engine in the front of it, but
Speaker A
it's here for Bob to do some, uh, work on the exhaust system on it. And, uh, we just want to experiment with the car and see if we can make it run a little bit better than it already does. [music]
Speaker A
So yeah, this is an extremely rare car. But before we start working on it, let's see how it sounds.
Speaker A
So it already sounds pretty damn good. We're going to try and make that sound even better. But there are some structural issues. So, as this is a prototype, everything has been put together just for testing, but the main
Speaker A
issue is this part, the exhaust rubs off the ground. Our job is to try and get it further up and slightly quieter. Now, we've got some room up here. We've got about 30 to 40 mil to play with so we can
Speaker A
get all that piping up here. Um, and similar here as well, but the main issue is going to be this box. So, we're going to have a measure up and see what stuff we can get off the shelf. Now, we could
Speaker A
make this, uh, silencer boxy thing by hand, but it's a lot of time and effort when you can just buy them off the shelf. And then we're going to remake all this, but hopefully a little bit more slim around. So, that is what we
Speaker A
need to fix. We need to replace this road-rashed center section and replace it with a nice shiny new one.
Speaker A
This is a custom chrome silencer made just down the road, 5 minutes away. Um, I've worked around for years. They make incredibly good stuff. And this is all made in-house by the guys. Fun fact, they are also the home of the Cherry
Speaker A
Bomb exhaust. Oh, is it kind of like rotating? Yeah, I've seen something like this on a DMT trip before. So, first, let's get this out.
Speaker A
So, we're going to get rid of these because this is farmer. We don't do that around here. We're very professional.
Speaker A
So, this is an absolute mess. Uh, it looks like it's been [music] made with a mixture of somewhere between MIG and TIG. Bit of a crazy design. So, what we're going to do is we want to keep the
Speaker A
flow from changing too much like all these random patterns. So these pipes will be coming into the box and then they're presumably converging inside with, with like a T-piece like this in here and then out big bore into [music]
Speaker A
two smaller bars. What we're going to do is do that on the outside around here I think. So we'll go from this diameter which is 51 mil. Then go to that diameter. So it's got small entrance, big exit into [music] the new box through
Speaker A
the new box and then reverse that again on the other side. So it's going from the big diameter [music] to two smaller diameters and then out to the pipes that were originally on the car. So the look won't change when the car is on the
Speaker A
ground, but the flow hopefully will be a little bit more uniform and sound better. So, all being well, this will be a better looking exhaust, a better sounding exhaust, [music] and won't scrape off the floors.
Speaker A
So, this new can is significantly quite a little bit thinner than the last one, but get it up into this gap here. Okay. So, this crossmember here is set higher than the rest of the chassis. So, we can get this
Speaker A
up into that gap. Oh, looks like it's meant to be there. Yeah. So, because this goes up in here, I need to have these slightly angled down. So, I'm going to cut this off.
Speaker A
Weld that to at an angle. And that will get me down around these crossmembers onto the headers. And I'll do something exactly the same on this end. What up?
Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
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Speaker A
What food? So, I'm going to use this little bit of foam here to space it away from the chassis so it's not rubbing on the chassis because that would be the night, not the right way of doing things. So, we
Speaker A
pop that in there, push it up to where it needs to be. So, we come up this end.
Speaker A
We can see the original height or sorry the original depth, the original level of this area was significantly lower than that. And what we want to do now this time and we do have this pressed all the way up to the chassis at the moment just
Speaker A
so get as much as we can up there. Um, but the current level this is the same level as the lowest part of that and that can still go up a bit more. So we want that around here. So we know that
Speaker A
this point was originally higher than the original back box. And now when we got this in place, this is higher than that.
Speaker A
It may be a little bit hard to follow along with what I'm saying. Even for a simple job like this, because this is a 101 car, we [music] have to do this right. We need to make it special.
Speaker A
So, as I mentioned earlier, the inlet size is different to what we have here.
Speaker A
So, let me show you how we're going to fix this. We take some pre-made swages.
Speaker A
So, this is swage where it's expanded. And these are swaged bends as well. We're going to cut these up and use little bits and pieces that we need of them. So, like bits of the bends, bits of these swages. And then they're going
Speaker A
to turn into these. So, this piece used to be in there, if you can see that. And the bigger side of that is the same diameter as this Y piece. We'll put that on there and tack it. And then this is the upy
Speaker A
bit that will get us back level again because remember we're going to be dipping down out the silencer to get onto the headers. [music] And that will go around the headers at the front. And with these kind of jobs,
Speaker A
it's really good to have a plan. But for prototype jobs like this, most of the time I make it up as I go along. So I'm going to leave Luke to weld the junction pieces while I cut the next bits of the
Speaker A
pipe. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. So, we know that this one goes in nicely. Just by look, I didn't plan to get it that well. I did plan it to get that did plan to get it that good, but
Speaker A
didn't think it would work, but it did work. So, next one is to get this one in. So, that will go up like that.
Speaker A
And then that will slide into that. Like that. Now, we can put tack there and there. That's done. Now we just need to check make sure that our level, remember this was the highest point before.
Speaker A
So we've got a good 5 mil. So we've saved 10 mm. My deal, which is not a lot, but to some people it can make the difference. Sometimes when there's so many different cuts and sizes of pipe that need to join
Speaker A
together, it's very hard to imagine the finished process. Small factors that can change the whole look and even the sound of the exhaust. And frustratingly enough, when you adjust one pipe, it throws another pipe out. So, with [music] the night drawing in, we're
Speaker A
going to put it in its final place. We're going to tack it all up, get it on the weld table for its fi
Speaker A
So, after another sleepless night, it's ready to go back on the car. [music] So, I finished this at about 4:00 a.m.
Speaker A
last night while some people are at home sleeping like my cameraman. Um, things I've done. So, I've put these nice brackets on rubber mounts, AV mounts, antiibration, so it doesn't uh the noise doesn't resonate through the chassis [music] too much. Um, and I have
Speaker A
given it a bit of an aqua blast in our lovely Vixen Aqua Blaster. [music] uh put some nice band clamps on and then put these uh Audi bits, exhaust tips, um back where they should be. So, it looks
Speaker A
all standard from um as it was before. The only difference is we've got this real nice uh silencer thingy in the middle and it should sit a bit higher.
Speaker A
It sits a lot higher. So, the old one used to scrape the floor, but now this was the this was the um highest part of the old exhaust system, and it's now the lowest part of the exhaust system. So,
Speaker A
we've really shoved this up. It's up about 30 mil further than it used to be.
Speaker A
So, yay. Have you started it yet? I have not started it yet. Uh let's get it started. I want to see how it sounds.
Speaker A
And just as we were about to turn the key, Ed arrived to [music] witness the first start.
Speaker A
Ah, it's bloody awful job, Bob. [laughter] See, my grandma could have done a better job. No, no. Uh, really happy with it.
Speaker A
Looks very good. Very professional. Exactly what I wanted. Oh, brilliant. Awesome. Brilliant. So, now Ed's has his first drive.
Speaker A
[music] Let's see what he thinks. You happy? I am. Brilliant. Good, man. Slightly quieter than we're expecting, but I think it's going to get louder over time, but time will tell. But good job done.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful job. Really nice. Just need to paint the chassis now that everything you're happy with everything.
Speaker A
Finishing job. Yeah, but the fabrication on it is amazing. So happy with it, Bob. Thank you.
Speaker A
Thank you. Good, man. Thank you very much. [music] Thank you very much. So, that's another few hundred gone off the HMRC bill. And that's that job done. And if you want to see uh the rest of Ed's car collection,
Speaker A
it's Automotive on Instagram. And if you want to do welding classes and learn to weld like me, we do welding classes on Thursday, Friday, [music] Saturday, and Sunday, various different times. You can find them on the website. And if you've
Speaker A
got a job on a project that you want me to do, you can pop on the website. And don't forget to like and subscribe.
Speaker A
[music] Bye.
Topics:TVR White Elephantprototype carcustom exhaustcar fabricationexhaust upgradeBritish sports carcar restorationTHE-MACHINE-SHOPcar sound improvementautomotive welding
