wspohn
SuperDork
6/16/23 1:12 p.m.
I had the same issue in my daily driver Solstice coupe. GM used Fiamm horns but used only one (IIRC the low note). I researched it and found that the cars were produced with horn brackets on both sides of the cars but that GM had elected to save around $8 at the expense of safety for their customers. The added horn gave a far louder sound and I didn't go any further into air hor territory.
Berck
Reader
6/16/23 6:18 p.m.
I'll second the Stebel Nautilus. Super compact, super loud. I've used the FIAMM horns with the separate compressor as well, and found that they periodically stop making noise until you clean them again, and the compressors fail randomly. The Stebel Nautilus fits perfectly in a Miata, doesn't need a separate relay, and my oldest one has been going strong for 17 years with zero maintenance.
CAinCA
Dork
6/17/23 11:05 a.m.
I'd advise you to use a horn that is louder but not deeper. The horn that came on our 2010 Highlander was pitiful. I tried replacing it with a really loud but deep tone air horn. Every time I used it people would look around for the big ass truck that was making all that noise. I wound up replacing it with a set of Hella Supertone horns. They were painfully loud and the tone matched the size of the vehicle.
I've always loved the horn sound on an aircooled 911. Does anyone know of an aftermarket horn that mimics that sound? It would be great to have that horn sound on a Miata!
You can still get the originals, although a bit spendy: http://carnewal.com/products/993/p93062/Trumpet-Horns
Best bet if you have a 993-owning friend is to con them that they need to upgrade to these (and they do) and then put the take-off horns in your miata. Tone is the same and they're plenty loud when not buried inside a 911 fender - easily as loud as the Fiamm air horns I replaced them with on the Volvo.
For junkyard stuff, honda and acura horns from the last 30 years or so are stupid loud. I have swapped them onto other vehicles with the weak baby cow moo soft horns.
on my 4cyl nissan truck with no muffler, i can just wap the throttle and send a nice loud trumpet blast out to wake up the berkin bob costas's that are to busy on their phones to realize they are drifting over or whatever else. Its quite effective.