Imperfect Pipes

Handcrafting headers to satisfy the soul.

- Preston Lerner

Jack Burns studies a blackened, three-into-one exhaust header from a Porsche 911 RSR with professional admiration. Re-creating that header in stainless steel for a car scheduled to race in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is the next project on his job list. The work is definitely a challenge, but from an aesthetic perspective, it’s like asking Raphael to paint a copy of the Mona Lisa.

Burns is a fine artist whose medium is exhaust headers. At the moment, he’s fabricating a set for a big-block V-8 that’s destined for Bonneville and more than 300 mph. The unfinished masterpiece is temporarily attached to a raw casting of a Pro Stock head—four gleaming tubes snaking away from the exhaust ports before merging into a single pipe. It looks less like a car part than a sinuous sculpture.

“All of the projects are fun, but this was pain-in-the-butt fun,” Burns says, laughing. “It was very, very complicated. But that’s what I like.”

At 66, with a white goatee and a twinkle in his eye, Burns works with technical director Vince Roman and five fabricators out of a homely shop in a nondescript industrial stretch of Costa Mesa, California. For nearly three decades, Burns Stainless has been a go-to destination for teams in NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, and V8 Supercars in Australia. The DeltaWing race car carried Burns exhaust components. So does each Porsche 911 reimagined by Singer.

Nowadays, every gearhead knows there’s magic in exhaust systems. YouTube is awash with how-to videos for do-it-yourselfers. But during the first half century of the automobile’s development, the benefits of “tuned” headers weren’t understood. Exhaust gases were usually routed out of an engine as simply as possible, through a log-shaped manifold and a long tailpipe.