Was sat in traffic as you do...the mini infront of me kept banging/ popping every time it moved off and stopped (driving normally, not thrashing the throttle). Its a new mini and it had a loud exhaust. What causes this? I've also noticed the same thing with the jag f type.

I know theres boy racers who pop/bag when they thrash their cars..how does that work? Are they destroying it?

Higher spec F-Types have a 'loud' button you can use to make the exhaust note louder - very likely there's a corresponding ECU settings to also make the car pop and crackle more than usual once this is selected.

Sports cars like the F type have exhaust designed for this, and when in sports mode it dumps fuel that passes through without igniting in the cylinder, this fuel then ignites in the exhaust causes those pops and bangs and flames, you can get a catback that does similar, i wouldn't call it a boy racer thing since almost any car can do it, if the exhaust is hot enough whilst running rich, the unburnt fuel can and will ignite in the exhaust.

A diesel would normally produce a lot of black smoke doing this, excessive pops, bangs and crackle can also be produced as a result of using some sort of anti lag system on a turbo engine, it's very wasteful of fuel but maintains better engine response, it isn't a good or bad thing, if tuned for that purpose it's harmless and enhances performance, if has a result of fault or bad tune the exhaust can overheat

Ah, thanks for clearing that up

They've obviously got the German Exhaust system :-

Der Spitzen Poppen Bangen Tuben

Taken from 'The German Phrasebook for the Common Market" (Motorist's Edition) :)

when I had my Scooby I had anti lag and launch control and I had it on a switch all working from the ecu

Wonder how exactly they engineer pops and crackles in on production cars, such as Focus RS, F-Type and so on as my understanding is that exhaust cats don't like having fuel igniting through them?

Seen a mate have a race bike all set up on a dyno then ask for it to pop flames on closed throttle so the tuner went back into the map and richened up some of the low rpm/throttle fuelling. Worked a treat ;)

i had a Seat Leon Cupra with a straight through exhaust and that popped and crackled - i loved it :D

Then i purchased a diesel and miss the vroom vroom sound and so do my two young boys