cowtown

I picked up another set of mufflers recently, and they had the later squarish Gillette tips instead of my current oval Bischoff tips. I gave them a quick media blasting and mounted them today but haven't driven with them yet. I got to thinking, why did Porche change these? The company was in deep financial straits at that time ('95-'96) and I can't imagine this was a high priority. Was this an aesthetic change, or are the bigger square tips actually louder/better sounding? I'm pretty sure from the part number that these are not Motorsound tips.
Just curious.

Dudley

They sure look like Motorsound Tips to me. What part number do they carry?
This older post, GL seems to cover all the options.
https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...otorsound+tips

cowtown

993.111.251.10, which shows "M493 NARROW BODYWORK" as the option. 251.11 (M159) would be motorsound as far as I can tell. I'll check out that post you linked.

epj993

The oval-ish tip on the left is the standard/stock tip. The square-ish on the right is a Motorsound tip.

Bruce SEA 993

Hmmm...I thought the smaller tip on the left was the MY 95 and the squarish tip was the MY 96 and newer.

DJF1

The square tip is the Motorsound option. The small oval is the stock standard. The big oval was another option like on my car below:

Joe S.

Bruce got it right. The one on the left is the 95, the one on the right is the 96 & newer, & if this same tip on the right is polished it is the motorsound.

Feehliks

The right one is used on Varioram car and the left one was used on pre-Varioram cars. Neither is Motorsound. I guees the reason was a hint for Varioram cars.

Motorsound tip is way different - see the red car.

Felix

Dudley

Now, if only the motor cover on/off question was so easily answered!

jnx

The red cab has big oval tips, motorsound on right.

Robin 993DX

The retangular tips are just regular "newer" model tips introduced as the 96 model year. (Most likely indicating varioram), the motorsound tips are the same tips but polished like a chrome finish.

InTheAir

Ditto.

My non-motorsound '96 came with the unpolished square tips:



which I changed out to the polished motorsound (i.e. square) tips:



They can be polished to a matte finish using a wire wheel on a drill (bottom) (heck, the matte ones are sitting in my basement if anyone wants to buy them ):

cowtown

So to follow up on the original question, why did Porsche bother with this? Sound, aesthetics, something else? Maybe this is mentioned in a book somewhere?

And I have no idea why I have to find this out...

RallyJon

It was around 1996 that Porsche's design department began to be influenced by the aftermarket for Honda Civics. While not able to shoot grapefruits effectively, TUV testing rated the larger tips to propel a wurst several meters.