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The science of engine music


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The Jensen Interceptor thread reminded me of James May in South America explaining to the Loud Tall Unhealthy One about why a Porsche V8 sounds different to a muscle car V8

This article is a bit techie,  but just in case you need to impress at your next men's shed meeting...

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/this-is-why-various-engine-types-sound-so-different-feature

 

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Does BMW really do that?! Has to be just about the dumbest thing anyone has ever put on a car! Fake engine noises through the stereo, WOW!

That's been happening for years. Another reason to avoid that brand.

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That's been happening for years. Another reason to avoid that brand.

They're not alone...Ford Mustang too. Others such as VW/Audi have a firewall speaker ("Soundaktor"), while others use resonant tubes to literally pipe engine noise into the cabin.

 

 

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Great article, thanks for posting it Tassieman, I am from bikes and always wandered why a Ducati sounds a certain way as opposed to other twins, BMW bikes never sound any good no matter what you do, Moto Guzzies which have a similar engine set up (but not) sound different again.

My Cayman has what I call an F1 sound whereas one of the many reasons for me buying an air cooled Pcar was the sound.

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That's a good read Tassieman, I recall the big teams in the late stages of 500cc and early MotoGP using sound engineers to calculate the exact firing order and intervals and layout of other teams engines as they rode past. This was a common practice when "Big Bang" 2 strokes engines first came in and then subsequently when Honda showed its first 1000cc MotoGP bike (turned out to be a 5cylinder V) and when Yamaha brought in the cross plain crank Big Bang which was a 4 but sounds very v twin-ish. 

I also remember reading about the scores of engineers that Mercedes and BMW used to employ back in the 90's & 2000's to make their engines and exhaust mechanically sound right for the car, ie  a 3 series and 7 series may have the same motor but the exhaust would be tuned to have a more sporty sound in the 3 and a refined sound in the 7. It a shame now if those engineers have been beplaced by a recorded soundtrack played through the speakers ?

Good sounding cars will be a challenge moving forward with ever tougher sound emission laws and as manufacturers move to smaller engines with fewer cylinders and turbos for exhaust emissions... Maybe I need to record my current cars and bikes so I can play them while driving in the future!

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