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.