Beta Don, I was thinking during the quiet hours how fortunate I was when I started driving. Many of the younger folks today have no sense of how things were back then. When I was in high school I purchased a 51' Ford Coupe in good shape for $100.00. Gas at that time was 17 cents a gallon. Older model hotrods from the 30's and 40's were everywhere. My friend had a 49 merc coupe painted bright yellow with the sweetest sounding glass packs imaginable. Fords especially the 40 coupe and the mercury coupe were everywhere. 1937 Fords were hot too, some stock, some not. Speed shops were prolific where work could be done reasonably. Every kid had a job and sunk all his or her money into their cars. Well, almost all of it anyway, we had to have stove pipe jeans, tee shirts, and bleached wing tip shoes. Most of us tried to do our own mechanical work before taking it to the speed shop for more advanced stuff. Even me, with the mechanical ability of a frog, did my own work. Cars were simpler then. Life was simpler then. Cruising was affordable and enjoyable then. The music of that time was too. Chuck Berry was a fixture in the area here and would often be seen driving along St. Charles Rock Road on his way to a gig. A great hangout was The Club Imperial where Ike and Tina Turner played and the Imperial was the swing dance we did. Pink and black were the cool colors and the Pink Mr. B. shirt was the thing. Black pants, pink belt, white shoes was dancin' dress. When the cops caught us for speeding, if we were polite, would just take our beer and give us a warning...LOL. It was the sweet sound of mufflers that brings it all back.
You having owned two 57' chevs, a vette, and a 396 Chevelle SS would know that. Things were not much different no matter where you lived in the States. It seems almost an obligation to the younger folks of today that we somehow design a muffler for today's 4's that could carry on that sweet deep sounding tradition. When I mentioned the water drum I wasn't kidding. A small drum, filled about 1/3 to 1/2 with water sounds like a much bigger deep sounding drum.. This clearly has application to the muffler industry. Some home garage guy somewhere will figure it out. A sealed container of fluid properly engineered into a muffler likely would do the job. It's just not cool when your muffler sounds like a bee fart.