Does anyone know why most bricks came with that goofy s-shaped tail pipe? The only reason that i can come up with is to avoid spraying exhaust on a trailor...or possibly to rout it away from the rear hatch on wagons....Any thoughts?

hey thanks guys...it was just out of curiousity...My rear muffler has been relplace like 4 times throught the cars life and now was an "L" shaped pipe. I don't really care about the looks, I was just wondering the purpose....the fluid dynamics of the air flow pulling the exhaust away from the car seems the most likely explanation...As for sound reduction...thats not an issue for me as my rear muffler is so shot that it leaks like a seive....very visible in cold weather start-up....oh well...thanks guys

Rhys is the only one to get it right so far. It is so the exhaust is taken away from the body by the draft so that even if the trunk were open or taillights damaged (broken from a crash), the fumes would not be pulled into the passenger compartment if the side windows were opened (causes negative pressure)

The design gets the exhaust stream to the outer corner of the car body, especially important on the station wagons, and that prevents the low pressure region behind the car from drawing exhaust gases in through the trunk or the hatch. For the same reason most big SUV's place the exhaust at the rear tire, rather than under the bumper.
There is also a noise reduction - using the cheapo Walker L-shaped tailpipes on an otherwise stock Volvo system results in a bit more noise, which some of my customers have complained about. I use the Volvo S-bend now exclusively.

I don't know if this reason was a factor in the design, but I think the L shaped pipe interferes with the standard Volvo tow hitch. And the S-curve does not.
--
Bruce S. near D.C.

I think the S-shaped design was actually for safety and/or preventing serious damage incase of a rear end accident but I can't really elaborate on the exact reasoning. It was a unique look but mine rotted out and replaced with a 90 degree pipe and stainless exhaust tip.

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'92 244GL silver-metallic, 152k, Enem V15 cam, Bilstein HDs, IPD sways, upper+lower and Cherry-Turbo strut braces, 240 OEM rear wing, 15' Dracos, SS lines, E-codes w/side repeaters, Euro cowl covers paint-matched, Magnaflow 2.5' SS exhaust, Unitek header

Correct. In a rear impact, the S-bend will crush first, preventing more serious damage from the rest of the exhaust system ramming up the car.

Of course in practice, exhaust pipes are so thin that it's pretty insignificant in a major accident.

-- Kane
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While I would never deliberately mislead anyone, take into consideration that any information and advice provided was at no cost to you.

But if the exhaust crumples, it can punch through the fuel tank, combining hot metal, sparks and volitile fuel. I remember reading an 80km/h front end crash test report on a Hyundai excel where it lost points for pushing the exhaust up against the tank (although from the rest of the damage, both the test dummies were dead anyway)
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Drive it like you hate it

Why ask why? They make an "L" shaped one if you don't like the "S" shape.

Mark