My old hometown Newspaper, the Albany, NY, “Times Union,” publishes articles in the Regional Section that appeared in the newspaper 100-years ago…
This article appeared in the paper 100-years ago… I hope you are not guilty of “persistent use of cut-out”…
(Whatever that is…) L 
L . . .
My dad was ‘guilty’ of that. We had a 1911 Regal, and it had an exhaust cutout ahead of the muffler. I guess it was to get max power for climbing hills, that kind of thing.
A cut out was a physical valve in the exhaust pipe to “cut out” the rest of the exhaust system and allow an open pipe. A friend of mine had one from J C Whitney on his 56 Ford.
According to merrian webster, I’m going with #3
Cutout Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster,
intransitive verb
1 to depart in haste
2 to cease operating
3 to swerve out of a traffic line
Many cars built before 1924 had exhaust cut-outs. More power, better fuel consumption, maybe early ruffians… When you only have 30 hp, most anything helps but it was not supposed to be used whence the horses, small children or people of mild disposition be disturbed!
From their loudness, I’d guess some of the motorcycles in this area still use exhaust cutouts. Haven’t noticed this on cars & trucks though.
Nah, they have the ‘muffler delete’ option!
I can see that, but I do not remember ever calling them that. When I started driving in the mid '60s, I seem to remember the use of “Lake Pipes” that were welded onto the exhaust pipes and usually extended out from behind the front tire and they had a cap that was bolted on and could be opened.
And I remember even a few that were “hidden” and I think they had a wire cable, like the old lawn mower throttles, that could open and close the value from inside the car…
When I wanted a “heathier” sound, I replaced the muffler with a Resonator (sort of a half muffler), the straight through “Cheery Bomb” style mufflers never fooled the police and you were guaranteed to get a ticket for “inadequate exhaust…”
Different from Lake Pipes, which were removable caps. Cutouts are valves, controlled be the driver. There were two levers on the floor of the Regal, now they’re electrically controlled.
Granted, I am not a police officer of 100-years ago, but I would think that any vehicle that had this factory installed should not have a problem.
Remember, back then Thompson Submachine guns were still marketed for home protection…
But bust those “scofflaws” for their confounded Cut-Outs…
Local law enforcement back then looked out for the horses.
