What's Your Favorite Factory Exhaust Design?

There are many aspects of a car's engineering and design that us enthusiasts can fall in love with and obsess over, though maybe none more so than their exhaust systems. Sure, the exhaust system is an important part of how an internal combustion engine works — a series of pipes that collect, clean and expunge the gases created by the engine into the atmosphere — but we love them because of the noises they make and how cool they can look. For today's question, we want to know what your favorite exhaust designs are?

Maybe you like tiny tailpipes on hot hatchbacks, side pipes on muscle cars or huge tips on track-ready sports cars. Do you like clever hidden exhaust setups, or ones that are a prominent part of the car's design? There are so many different types of exhaust designs to choose from. You can pick a new car or an old one, but let us know in the comments which OEM exhaust setups are your favorites.

The cars that instantly came to my mind are all Bugattis. When the hybrid V16-powered Tourbillon was unveiled last year it was shown with a pair of thin trapezoidal exhaust tips, 3D printed from titanium, that poke out from the carbon-fiber diffuser, which itself is a structural part of the car. The placement of the tips helps lower the pressure from underneath the car to increase the diffuser's performance. Well, if you thought the design of the Tourbillon's exhaust was a bit too tame, you're in luck. Customers will be able to order a $240,000 Equipe Pur Sang package that, along with other visual enhancements, fits the Tourbillon with eight exhaust tips. That's right, eight of 'em — four in a row on each side. It's a nod to the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic that had six pipes all in a row, and an acknowledgment of the Tourbillon's sixteen cylinders. Plus, it just looks rad as hell.

But there's another Bugatti I have to call out, and for reasons you might not be aware of. The original Veyron features a large nearly square exhaust surround in the center of the rear diffuser, through which you can see there is a split pipe inside that kinda looks like BMW kidney grilles. But what you may not have realized is that there is a round exhaust pipe placed in the diffuser on either side of the main center tip, angled downward so they look as flush and hidden as possible. If you're not actively looking for them, you might never notice them. It's a blown diffuser setup, accomplishing the same thing as the Tourbillon's exhaust — lowering pressure to increase downforce while maintaining a wonderful exhaust note. While subsequent Veyron variants ditched that hidden setup, and so did its Chiron successor, the limited-run Divo also used hidden exhaust tips in the diffuser. The Mercedes-AMG GT R is another car with a similar setup, having a central pipe and two additional pipes integrated into the diffuser, though those ones stick straight out.

I could choose a few more Bugattis with amazing exhaust setups, like the Chiron Super Sport and Bolide, but you've read me blab on long enough. So, reader, I turn it over to you. What's your favorite OEM exhaust design, and why? Let us know in the comments, and I'll round up my favorites later this week.