Borla Introduces Polyphonic Exhaust at SEMA 2017
The new system will produce multiple tones that harmonize with one another to make a complex sound.
Borla Performance Industries has announced new technology that will allow your Mercedes-Benz’s engine to sing glorious harmonies with itself.
Okay, we’re not exactly talking about a barbershop quartet or Handel’s Messiah, but the aftermarket company will unveil its polyphonic exhaust systems at this year’s SEMA 2017 show.
The method of exhaust note tuning combines pipe diameter with some of the basics of music theory. Pipe length and diameter are crucial to tuning any instrument, like a pipe organ or a trombone. This new exhaust system applies that theoretical basis to use diameters that work together musically.
If you want another analogy, consider wind chimes. Wind chimes consist of pipes of different lengths and diameters. Each one produces its own tone, but all of the tones usually work on a particular scale. This concept works in a similar way.
Borla released images of the polyphonic system ahead of the SEMA release and it looks to be a system similar to an exhaust collector. However, this quartet of pipes is located just ahead of the exhaust tip. A second drawing shows that in this set, the pipe diameter varies to produce the relative tones.
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That can produce harmonies, and in a press release, Borla indicated that they can customize these sounds. Want to play power chords with your AMG? They can probably approximate that. And as novel as this sounds, people have been tuning things this way since at least the Ancient Greeks.
Engine revs won’t necessarily play a scale, per se, but the exhaust pipe sizes can produce tones that harmonize. We’re excited to hear a demonstration once Borla posts one.
We suspect it will produce a suitably complex tone befitting of a Mercedes-Benz’s refinement. See more on exhaust tuning right here on MBWorld. And on a side note (pun intended), MBWorld’s sister site, Rennlist, will be getting a polyphonic exhaust on its #ProjectStork Porsche 911 S project car. We’re excited to see how this system will beautify an already sonorous flat-six.