Roush Active Exhaust For Stage 3 Ford Mustang

ROUSH ACTIVE EXHAUST
on STAGE 3 FordMustang

Review By Steve Purdy
Senior Editor
The Auto Channel
Michigan Bureau

How far we’ve come in just a few decades – well, maybe more than a few.

I recall in my younger days as an enthusiastic car guy who liked to make serious noise now and then the dedicated street rodders, drag racers and other motor heads in my circle of pals welded up “cutouts” as part of a “performance” dual exhaust system. Somewhere about midstream the exhaust pipes split with a short branch coming out the side, usually just in front of the rear wheels, while the main pipe continued back to the mufflers somewhere behind the rear axle. These cutout side pipes were capped most of the time so the car sounded normal. But, if you wanted to tease the local cops, or just catch the adrenalin of all that V-8 noise you just took off the caps and essentially had straight pipes. Pretty cool, eh?

Well, exhaust technology has come a long way with electronic systems that can not only change the sound coming through today’s sophisticated exhaust systems but some can even generate sounds that are not even there making your Fiesta sound like a Ferrari, thanks to the new specialty of “acoustic engineering.” That may go a bit too far, I contend.

Now, Roush Performance has taken it all one step further with a new active exhaust system that can take those great V8 motor sounds and adjust them . . . get this . . . with a smart phone. With an iOS application and OBD2-based WiFi interface you can change the exhaust flow to make your Mustang sound sedate or raucous or anywhere in between.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the sparkling Roush Performance facility near Detroit where marketing VP Don Manfredi and a couple of his team gave me a tour of the facility and demonstrated this new exhaust system. Part of the demonstration, I’m thrilled to report, was a drive around the neighborhood in a new Stage 3 Roush Mustang. More on that in just a bit.

A relatively simple butterfly valve adjusts the flow through each muffler. As it closes the exhaust is forced through the baffles. When opened, though, the exhaust goes essentially straight through. What is more complex is the electronic control module that takes information from the car’s engine management computer and combines it with driver input to activate different modes within the exhaust system, either with in-car controls or, as we described earlier, by way of a smart phone app. Three settings are programmed into the control module, Touring, Sport and Track, and a fourth “Custom” setting is the one that allows the driver to control it all with adjustments based on engine speed, vehicle speed and throttle position.

The system is optional on Roush’s Stage 1, 2 and 3 Mustangs, all of which come prepped for the system, and kits are available for earlier performance Mustangs as well. The kit costs about $1,700. You can see it all at www.activeexhaust.roushperformance.com.

Now, back to that Stage 3 Mustang drive:

Justin Schroeder, one of the key development guys at Roush, got into the passenger seat of a striking white Stage 3 Mustang as I slid into the driver’s seat with great anticipation. Sure wish we were headed out onto the race track, I thought, having recently spent an afternoon with the 707-hp Hell Cat at Gingerman Raceway in Western Michigan. But this Mustang with supercharged 5.0-liter V8 promised to be a hoot as well, not withstanding the limitations of public roads.

As we eased out onto Schoolcraft Road Justin clarified the Custom settings on the active exhaust allow for the owner to set the system to be quiet as you leave your neighborhood in the serenity of a morning then let her loose as you punch it onto the freeway. Or, in case you’re feuding with your neighbors perhaps the other way around.

The Stage 3 Mustang gets a plethora of Roush treatments – performance, handling and cosmetic. Ford sends the basic car over to the Roush Performance shop there in Livonia where a surprisingly small crew of skilled workers, many of them motor heads themselves, massage them into various levels of Roush-ness. Most of the design and production of the custom parts are done in-house.

We skittered around the neighborhood in this beast of a pony car long enough for me to get a good feel for her. She’s cranking out 670 horsepower and making 545 pound-feet of torque but doing it in a remarkably civilized way. As I’m running though the gears I’m thinking how much more sophisticated performance cars are now compared to those of few decades ago. My friend’s early 442 with cut outs, for example, would be no more track worthy than a Packard Caribbean.

This car, with all the Roush mods, will hold its own on any race track, anywhere and with the active exhaust she can purr like a lap cat or roar like a lion.