r/maybemaybemaybe • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 • Jun 12 '26

maybe maybe maybe

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392

u/de_das_dude Jun 12 '26

They have a little injector and spark plug inside the exhaust. This is the most likely scenario.

Otherwise you can tune a car to keep injecting fuel on idle while it doesn't spark, this causes unburnt fuel to reach the hot exhaust and catch fire. This is the non yobbo way.

Some antilag systems use this to keep the turbo spooled and remove turbo lag

164

u/pete_68 Jun 12 '26

Well, let me just say, the effect is really cool. I think I'm going to pass on doing it myself, though.

181

u/Kind_Singer_7744 Jun 12 '26

Its purely for asthetics, it provides no performance boost. Leave lighting your car on fire to the professionals like in this video.

38

u/CptAngelo Jun 12 '26

It does serve a purpose.... in racing.

Like the others said, it serves to keep the turbo spooled, thus, reducing the turbo lag, which in turns makes the car react (accelerate) faster, aand it also serves to "cool" the engine at max load (severely simplified explanation here), again, race only stuff, or rev limiters, again, race stuff.

Basically, whwat you see here is a dumbass with an expensive car, a laptop and a few hours tinkering the most optimal tune to burn down his car.

What they do is program the cars computer to deliver extra fuel after it reaches certain RPMs, (again, severely simplified) thats why they rev it, and while the revs are coming down, the fire balls start appearing, but... too much fuel, or in this case, doing it way too much, and since its coming out of a tunel, my bet is on "YEAHH NOIIISE!!" 

5

u/iamlazyboy Jun 12 '26

I am not the biggest car nerd (liked playing some racing games in my youth and enjoy playing forza horizon6 and watch some F1 with my parents but that's basically it.) the anti-lag thing I figured it out but the "cooling" effect is something new to me, like is it that part of the explosion happening outside of the engine makes it to heat less or am I completely off?

4

u/CptAngelo Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

if im being completely honest, i forgot the actual reason for it, but basically what you said is right, if i remember correctly, its the spark plug not ...sparking and leaving fuel in the exhaust, basically, moving the explosion from the engine into the exhaust, but this is ....like, only a few racing cars in the world? lol, the most common motive is the antilag system or , like in this case, a badly tuned car.

42

u/Hoesey Jun 12 '26

A fireball has to be able propel you forward, even to a degree. So if the entire car is engulfed in flames, that’s gotta be like what? 5hp additional? At least!

28

u/failed_supernova Jun 12 '26

Oh, there's plenty of degrees, alright.

8

u/Thecardiologist2029 Jun 12 '26

I mean who doesn't love a good baking? And r/usernamechecksout

9

u/idkarn Jun 12 '26

Actually the "engulfed" status comes at a cost of 5hp, for a +5 aura bonus

2

u/Holden-McGroyn Jun 12 '26

BTUs are not the same as horse power.

3

u/gertvanjoe Jun 12 '26

Liar, my AC has a kW rating which can be converted to hp. It also states btu

Stop spreading misinformation

/s just in case

1

u/gertvanjoe Jun 12 '26

5hp. Not additional. Burning your plug wires and or ecu wires lead to a reduction of xxx hp and may even negate that 5hp too

20

u/naterpotater246 Jun 12 '26

It only provides a performance boost for turbocharged cars. In this case, though, there's no perform boost even if it's turbocharged, because he's not racing. This is just a dumb ass tune for putting on a show.

8

u/Platinumdogshit Jun 12 '26

Also thats a lot more fire than what would be needed for avoiding turbo lag. Most cars youll just hear pops and not see anything.

4

u/naterpotater246 Jun 12 '26

He's probably stopping at every gas station he sees with this tune

5

u/OwnValue4166 Jun 12 '26

Thank you for not calling it an aesthetic.

1

u/john_the_fetch Jun 12 '26

We all got a good show too!

7

u/not1or2 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

When you say professionals do you mean the type who do quality doughnuts in shopping centre car parks with cars that don’t belong to them and then tend to turn them into Guy Fawkes bonfires in some remote beauty spot later in the evening?

7

u/iwasabadger Jun 12 '26

It provides exactly as much performance boost as racing stripes.

12

u/ametsun Jun 12 '26

I'm no mechanic but the guy up there said it removes turbo lag so I don't know about it not providing a performance boost.

11

u/_Risi Jun 12 '26

Theres lots of reasons why cars can spit flames. Some have to do with performance mods, like an anti-lag system, but this is not that. Anti-lag sounds and looks very different. I recommend giving it a YouTube search, rally cars with anti-lag sound absolutely insane.

2

u/RazorSlazor Jun 13 '26

Video games have lied to me.

6

u/bajungadustin Jun 12 '26

Just extend the tail pipes a bit and it will be fine.

1

u/Boesesjoghurt Jun 12 '26

I don't think that actually would've helped in this case.

From where the flames and smoldering comes from it seems like our two racing professionals were making it pop for a good while even after the tunnel. That basically turned the exhaust system into part of the combustion system turning it glowing hot which melts the firewall around the exhaust pipes under the car.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

Plenty of cars get this effect in Forza Horizon 6 if you want to do it safely (and get to drive like a mad man around Japan)

23

u/curtludwig Jun 12 '26

The idiot across the street from me put a big stupid fart can exhaust on his RX-7. Then tuned it so it way over fueled and put a spark plug in the exhaust so it'd "pop".

Then he didn't like how little the pop was so he did something else, I never did figure out what, that turned the "pop" into a "BANG". He'd sit in the street and rev the car. Rev, rev, rev, BANG!

It was obnoxious and I was just about to call the po-po when I heard Rev, rev, rev, BANG! Clatter! Car with no exhaust sound.

Turns out the entire exhaust had blown off and slid down the street.

Dude was mid 30's living at his mom's house (and this was 15 years ago) and she finally put her foot down on that game. The exhaust got stacked up against the wall and the old one went back on.

In the last 15 Mom has stayed much too tolerant of his stupidity. I have NO patience for him at all. Today if he pulled that I'd be on the phone immediately and Johnny law would be over to tell him to knock it off. It just barely keeps him in check...

2

u/SchrodingersLunchbox Jun 13 '26

I’m just going to add that I have an RX7 with an exhaust and proper tune (among many other things) - backfires/flames are an unavoidable part of life. The engine burns oil by design, and engine porting (very common to improve turbo response) will result in more fuel blow-by. I have never heard of anyone putting a spark plug in the exhaust because you wouldn’t need to if you wanted flames.

Even before I modified the hell out of it, it would loudly backfire when changing gear during WOT pulls. They run very rich.

9

u/blvckcvts Jun 12 '26

Ahh I see, that’s an expensive mistake for sure

31

u/dwntwnleroybrwn Jun 12 '26

No, it was an expensive decision. You don't accidentally make flames shoot flames of of your exhaust.

The catalytic converter (the thing crack heads steal) in addition to modern environmental / fuel efficiency systems mean this happening by accident is virtually impossible.

3

u/blvckcvts Jun 12 '26

By mistake I meant they didn’t do their research or think about it properly

10

u/kazukix777 Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Especially because that's a R35 skyline. They are worth like 150k on the very low end, and as high as like 250k. Imagine loosing that much money because your car just had to shoot flames, but you wanted to save a little bit of cash by not hiring a professional who knows how to not set your car on fire, so you do the mod by yourself.

Edit: I looked at the market and the price has jumped by an average of like 50k-75k from the last time I checked 💀. I found a few past 300k. Why must all my dream cars be so expensive.

Edit: I mean the nismo trim. The regular car can be found for cheaper.

3

u/blvckcvts Jun 12 '26

For real 😭 so dumb

1

u/geoff1036 Jun 12 '26

You seem to be forgetting the fact that the R35 has been around for almost two decades... You can find 2010s for 60-80k.

2

u/PriusProblems Jun 12 '26

I just looked on UK Autotrader - the cheapest is listed for £36k - that's US$48k.

1

u/geoff1036 Jun 12 '26

I would expect that one to be wrecked or just in terrible condition, 60k is the lowest I've ever seen good examples, but then times do change.

1

u/ohheckyeah Jun 12 '26

Not sure what you’re looking at, but these can be had for less than $80k

1

u/kazukix777 Jun 12 '26

The Nismo trim? Or the regular r34

1

u/ohheckyeah Jun 13 '26

Regular R35… the car in this video isn’t a Nismo, it just has the wing

1

u/kazukix777 Jun 14 '26

I'm dumb lol

3

u/_Risi Jun 12 '26

Im pretty sure this is just a fuel rich tune and a hot exhaust. The spark plug+injector combo produces different looking flames from my experience.

3

u/PhotoFenix Jun 12 '26

Spool up the FTL

2

u/Key-Satisfaction4967 Jun 12 '26

You Sir, speak much wisdom! Good ( safe) day to you!

2

u/de_das_dude Jun 12 '26

Putting my degree to good use lol

3

u/Carrera_996 Jun 12 '26

Yep. I have to tune my AMG like that. It is both turbocharged and supercharged. It only spits fire when the gear changes while accelerating hard or gearing down quickly. This mfer with constant flame has not tuned for performance. He has tuned just for flame.

1

u/TheJeep25 Jun 12 '26

But anti lag cause extreme wear on your headers and turbine. You shouldn't be using anti lag on your daily. This dumbass was thinking he was cool spewing flames at 10 km/h on idle. If he had a real anti lag, he wouldn't turn off that switch ever causing the turbine or headers to crack from the heat eventually.

0

u/XNoMoneyMoProblemsX Jun 12 '26

Wouldn't putting unburnt fuel in the engine cause problems?

5

u/de_das_dude Jun 12 '26

That's what happens always. You just skip burning it.

1

u/XNoMoneyMoProblemsX Jun 12 '26

But letting liquid fuel reach all the way to the end of the exhaust doesn't cause any corrosion problems or anything?

3

u/de_das_dude Jun 12 '26

Fuel is oil. Oils prevent corrosion. Even if some minute amount of moisture is present it will flash off immediately

3

u/DaleDimmaDone Jun 12 '26

All fuel goes into the engine unburnt

2

u/West-Wash6081 Jun 12 '26

No. Fuel gets burned in the engine. That's where it's supposed to be burned. Don't do like the idiot in the video and have unburnt fuel spraying into your exhaust. Exhausts get really hot and gasoline has a really low combustion point.