What are the best engine sounds (and why)?

So I'm working on a story where we want to examine several notable engine notes in a more scientific manner. I'll be talking to a mechanical engineer whose responsibility was perfecting engine sounds on performance cars for a large car company, as well as a rather famous (to me, anyway) music producer and audio engineer, who's also worked with some game studios on racing games. Basically I want to get the perspective from both a mechanical and audio engineering perspective on why certain engines sound the way they do, and why they produce the emotional reactions in gear heads the ay they do.

Now I just need to pin down the list.

We can't do them all, but I'd like to come up with 6-8 good archetypes of engine sounds for these guys to analyze. Off the tp of my head, my list would look like this:

Flat-plane crank V8

Cross-plane crank V8

Inline 6

Rotary

Horizontally-opposed 4 and 6

Rotax 494 2-stroke

Kidding. Actually some high-strung turbo 4.

Input? Like I said, I'm looking for 6-8 good notes that I can provide these guys sound files on for their analysis.

Go.

EDIT: Trying to keep this to archetypes rather than specific brand powerplants. But if you want to list a specific mill, feel free to do so, just try and make a case for it.

None of the above, Ferrari V12, Lexus V10.

Well, a turbo rotary has the most famous sound (BRRAAAAAAPAPAPAPAPAAAAAAP STUTUTUTUTU), BMW straight sixes sound like ripping silk, turbo boxer 4s have an unmistakable burble, and the notorious SBC makes a nice growl.

Really any V-engine with 180° headers installed.

I'd say it's hard to nail down by type. Example - V6. Some (60* GM v6 I'm looking at you) sound awful. Like dying duck awful. Some, (VW VR6, Nissan/Infiniti VQ35) sound great. Of course this is to my ears, in my opinion.

I was typing up some thing about the engines I like and I realized that I pretty much like how almost any engine sounds. Though I prefer inline sixes (especially L series Nissan and RB), high revving engines of any kind, or V8s

VFR800 vs VFR1200. They changed the V angle when they went to the 1200 and I think the bike sounds like garbage. Aftermarket pipes do not help it sound better, it just sounds louder.

If it has to be a car, Lancia did stuff like this as well with their V-4's.

I was just thinking about engines I want to hear that I haven't and i've been wanting to see a Firebird Sprint with the Pontiac OHC for quite a while. I like inline sixes a lot and think that one probably would be a good one to hear. Every time I see one at a car show I immediately check it out and am disappointed because someone swapped a V8 in.

I would buy one of those if I had the money and could find one not swapped.

I was thinking the best sound was when it starts. It started! It started!

VR6 goodness

I may be biased, but I think the 5.0 OHV Ford V8 sounds amazing when opened up.

Odd fire 90deg V6 vs 60 degree V6

On that note, anyone have a visual explanation of how the 90 deg odd-fire V6 is converted to even fire by offsetting the crank arms?

Edit also 90 deg V10 (viper, odd fire) vs 72 degree V10

V10s have always been the sweet spot for me.

Maybe toss in some odd balls like an old Buick straight eight or a DKW two stroke three cylinder.

maybe a twin with something other than a 180 crank separation? Like a harley?

I agree that it's not just a generic type, but the specific implementation of the type. There seems to be good and bad examples of most of the common configurations.

Note how different a Ford V8 and a Chevy V8 sound. Both are cross-plane configurations. Others have cited different V6s.

Then again, there are sometimes different configurations which can sound similar. I've occasionally heard V-twins that sounded not unlike a V8. A friend of mine one commented that friends of his hopped up a 240Z, and "man that thing sounded like a Ferrari".

Moreover, I've heard dramatic differences in engine note (and accompanying pleasantness or unpleasantness) with modifications. Header style, intake, exhaust, cams, etc. all seem to affect the sound it makes in some way. (And here I'm only speaking of naturally aspirated engines.)

The one nearly universal thing I've found is that log manifolds tend to sound like crap.

Any engine that's spinning above 8,000rpm. It can be a big block, inline 6, boxer, rotary, whatever. It sounds like Jesus screaming.

Also, anything that competes at Reno, because raceplane.

Rotarty with only a Supertrapp muffler.
Not sure if the sound is "best" but it sure is distinctive.

Any discussion on this topic that doesn't include the noise an old school Ford GT makes, with the good ol' bundle of snakes headers, is null and void... Then there's this, angriest bike I ever did hear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzpThocO-Y8

And gpB Quattro

And Top Fuel anything

An Aston Martin racing V12, nothing better in my opinion.

Big Block Chevy V8 is hard to beat for both for volume and sound. They have a very deep angry sound. Google DIRT Modifieds for examples. The GTLM Corvettes are a close second. You can tell when they are coming, the sound different then the higher pitched whining the rest of the IMSA cars make.

JG Pasterjak wrote: ...and why they produce the emotional reactions in gear heads that they do.

Esoteric Nixon wrote: Really any V-engine with 180° headers installed.

^This... or a V12. Really, any engine with evenly-spaced exhaust pulses sounds nice. And speaking of that, the Subi engine? Seriously? It sounds like a V6 with two spark plugs pulled off.

I'll just leave this here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ0u9iRTWyI

And be sure to turn it up for the fly-by!

Also a lesson in not idling too long without a cooling fan...

12 cylinder whether V or flat. Awesomeness.