AMD 255 October 2020 | Page 25

Torquer 450 in black with black end caps. Spin forming can be used to economically produce an "axially symmetric" and seamless part with a complex radial geometry and degree of precision that is not always possible with processes such as hydroforming, stamping, forging or casting. Those tasked with keeping the product range current manufacturing up to standards, and the company's sales and marketing moving in the intervening years, especially during and since the 2018 MAG bankruptcy protection filing, had done a fine job in what had appeared to be increasingly difficult circumstances. Emergence from the filing and a sequence of new starts following it did no better at 'fixing' the MAG issues than all the other fixes that had gone before. But as 2020 dawned, with bright and shiny new opportunities, the company was all set to reap the benefits from manufacturing improvements, relationship rebuilds and a brand new program of M- 8 exhausts that delivered on the often contradictory priorities of 50-State emissions compliance, improved power and, their primary targets, great sound at a market savvy price-point. That new program was the M-8 (and Twin Cam) 'Torquer 450' mufflers and, despite the complications of the past nine months, the market response to them has made it a full year of R&D investment well spent. Vance & Hines has 'form' where big diameter mufflers are concerned, of course. At a time when 4- inchers were the 'Big Boys' on the block, Vance & Hines knocked it out of the park with the market's first 4.5" diameter mufflers. www.AMDchampionship.com AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - OCTOBER 2020 25