Tanabe R&D for the 2010 Prius

[deltron3030]

UPDATE: I filled up the tank and dedicated myself to driving as conservatively as possible this time around....100 miles in, and I'm happy to report better milage so far than I've ever had driving these very common (for me) routes. a fairly consistant50-53 MPG with very minimal efforts. this was about as good as I used to get with very dedicated efforts to get higher MPG.

-of course the disclamers: this could be a product of the break in period we've all read about here on the forum, rather than parts.
-maybe a combination of parts and break in period.
-perhaps the parts really did improve mpg somehow. I'm guessing, the exhaust is the only thing mod'd part that could be responsible, if it's improving mpg at all. The improved suspension might be aiding in power transfer and less energy lost in turns, but who knows. someone on this board will find this entertaining. i do!

[Prius Happy]

Very nice... I can imagine stock parts can be restrictive and having these kind of aftermarket parts helps the airflow and less restrictive. Very nice post and very helpful.

[deltron3030]

Tanabe has just posted the rest of the R&D session for anyone interested in doing any "performance" mods to their prius:

Tanabe USA R&D Blog | Toyota Prius (2010)


PS. just ordered my wheel center caps from parts.com. next up, mud flaps....

[a_gray_prius]

Those DF springs give the car a really nice drop.

[drees]

The springs and braces look good, but I sure hate the look of the muffler. Just screams "hack job" to me with it hanging so low. Looks so out of place.

IMO, a muffler that tucked back up into the stock location with a a slash-cut tip that angled down (like stock) would be much more appropriate.

[Dakine50]

I spoke with Nate (Tanabe USA) earlier in the week and he mentioned that they are still a couple months out on production/availability due to packaging, pricing, etc.

Hey, we've waited this long what's another couple months!

deltron3030, you don't know how lucky you are!

[deltron3030]

Originally Posted by drees

The springs and braces look good, but I sure hate the look of the muffler. Just screams "hack job" to me with it hanging so low. Looks so out of place.

IMO, a muffler that tucked back up into the stock location with a a slash-cut tip that angled down (like stock) would be much more appropriate.

I somewhat agree with you. Whenever I walk out to my car, it does stand out, and insofar as that's concerned, I'd much rather that the retaining arm of the exhaust was shorter, so as to raise the whole thing another 3/4 inch toward the bumper (there's definitely enough clearance between the actual muffler and the muffler cavity on the car). Im assuming with the slight amount of vibration, having the tip that close tto the bumper might create rubbing issues. I figured all it would take is a welder to fix this, but A. the retaining arm is hollow, so it wouldn't be an easy cut n' weld. and B. there might be some piping issues that make it necessary for the exhaust to be where it is.

The reason i say "somewhat" is because it doesn't look nearly as out of place in person as it comes off in pics.

Yes! I do know how lucky I am. I'm a paycheck to paycheck guy now that I've bought my prius outright (no financing, no payments, no stress), and theres no way i could have afforded these very cool parts without getting into debt, which I am also lucky to NOT have. Also, I'd like to say that I'm not posting this stuff with any intent to brag. I was fortunate enough to get "hooked up", the least i can do is share my experience with the priuschat community and hopefully eliminate some of the legwork you guys would have to go through without seeing my car.

[drees]

If they just routed the muffler out straight instead where the stock muffler goes (there's a bit of a recess there I note) instead of angling out and used a reasonable size muffler tip (that thing is 3x larger than the pipe feeding it!) you could get the muffler tucked up a lot higher.

[deltron3030]

does that "straight pipe" thing have much to do with it being a performance exhaust?

[drees]

What do you mean?

The whole "angled exhaust canister" look came about because on some cars (like the Nissan Silvia) you can avoid an extra bend in the exhaust pipe leading up to the muffler by setting the muffler on an angle. This was done to supposedly eke every last bit of performance out of the car, but in reality, one 15-30* bend won't make any measurable difference compared to the rest of the system.

This was then set to be a trend and now it's "cool" to have a big exhaust tip and canister hanging out the back at an angle.

Never mind that it doesn't affect performance to make the tip any bigger than the exhaust pipe leading up to it.

Never mind that on this particular example on the Prius, they bent the pipe extra to give it that "tuner" look and angle the canister thus negating the point of the whole angling the muffler out the side trick!

So it really pains me to look at on two levels:

1. It's not cosmetically pleasing.
2. It's not functional - it was designed purposely to make it look like a "fast" part when in fact it does the opposite if anything.

If you're going to modify a car - at least make it look better or function better - but I guess cosmetics are in the eye of the beholder!