A car with three exhaust tips is a rare find (see: Lexus LFA), so the new Honda Civic Type R and its triple exhaust outlet is an odd duck. The tiny pipe in the middle makes even less sense from an aesthetic point of view, but in reality, it’s specifically engineered to create a unique sound experience.

At the rear axle, the exhaust splits into three separate pipes; the two outer pipes lead to large mufflers, and the center pipe goes right into a resonator. This design creates an effect where the exhaust is loud when you want it to be, yet quiet when cruising at high speeds. Road & Track spoke to Rob Keough, Honda senior product planner for the Civic, and got the full explanation.

“Traditionally with these big flow exhaust systems, when you get up into highway speeds, you can get a lot of droning, booming, buzzing -- not very comfortable for high-speed cruising,” Keough said.

The triple exhaust trickery is revealed here by this cutaway shot.

When driving at low speeds and full throttle, some of the exhaust flows through the much less restrictive resonator to make it loud and aggressive sounding. So how does Honda make it easy to listen to on the highway then? Keough says that high-speed cruising causes the exhaust flowing through the resonator to hit a resonant frequency, filling it with air. The air pressure in the resonator causes back pressure to redirect the exhaust to the larger and quieter mufflers.

No gimmicks, no exhaust flaps or electronics, just honest to goodness exhaust engineering you can hear both in and outside the car.

Even though Honda spent considerable time to make a good sounding exhaust, we expect plenty of owners to have an aftermarket system on there in no time.

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