Can anyone tell me if the exhaust has much bearing on performance?

I have 5" pipes and my father in laws zed with small bore twin pipes is more responsive - seems to pick up more quickly.

We both have induction kits but I don't think there are any more mods on either car ( I don't really know what to look for ).

Any ideas?

n/a cars rely on back pressure in the exhaust and will lose performance with too big of an exhaust although ofc manufacture exhaust restrics car etc., turbos work more effeicient with nothing restricting the exhaust gases, however too big of an exhaust and pressure starts to drop so turbo wont spin as fast Also for turbo cars the bigger the exhaust the longer the turbo lag as pressure needs to build up to spin the exhaust side of the turbo, this could be why ur father in law says small pipes are more responsive, he is correct. both the same really, will work better with bigger exhausts for hp figures but on a turbo car will produce more hp than n/a, but wont be nothing much/that noticable.

n/a cars rely on back pressure in the exhaust and will lose performance with too big of an exhaust although ofc manufacture exhaust restrics car etc., turbos work more effeicient with nothing restricting the exhaust gases, however too big of an exhaust and pressure starts to drop so turbo wont spin as fast Also for turbo cars the bigger the exhaust the longer the turbo lag as pressure needs to build up to spin the exhaust side of the turbo, this could be why ur father in law says small pipes are more responsive, he is correct. both the same really, will work better with bigger exhausts for hp figures but on a turbo car will produce more hp than n/a, but wont be nothing much/that noticable.

 

Thanks mate. Both cars are turbos.I was in his yesterday and it seems to pick up a lot faster than mine when he boots it- I thought if it's not the exhausts maybe he had a boost chip or something but I don't know how to tell. Dopey question I know but I don't really know anything about cars.