What is your favorite engine sound?

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to frenchyd :

The big reason the Navy used radials was reliability.  No coolant system = increased combat reliability.  

As a downside, they needed higher octane fuels when turbocharged or supercharged compared to a liquid cooled engine.  Probably not as much a problem with naval aircraft, but ground based pilots had issues with refueling at unfamiliar airstrip because there was no real standard yet for quantifying a fuel's antiknock properties, so they might insist on 145 octane when all that was available was 130, even if it was the same fuel just labeled differently.  Almost all aircraft were knock limited for power, so it was rather important to then to have good fuel!

(Pure triptane, IIRC, had a knock index of 270 octane during the war, using the "rating" system in place)

In reply to Tim Suddard :  Well yeah - Pretty much any Ferrari.  But almost any Ford engine and particularly Mustang GT's and Ford Shelby Mustangs with OEM mufflers.  Ford has muffler tone down.  Also, any unmuffled or barely muffled A sedan coming down the straight.  Old school GM big blocks.

You haven't heard anything until you've heard a cacklefest. The sound of nitro burning Mopar Hemi's and Ford SOHC's idling & reving is incredible. 

https://youtu.be/SsW6bPV7kSw

Masarati MC12 at full throttle up the hill from 5 to 6 at Road America is a pretty sweet sound, but I still love the sound of my R32 VR6

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

I have recenty experienced this one. Good choice!

Lots of great comments on this one. Glad I was able to get people thinking and reminiscing on the topic.

13b, definitely not the most reliable but best sounding in my opinion 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-tuGOb0p0s

Hans setting a record lap on the Nordschliefe in a ///M3 GTR.

Almost any prepped V8.  Muffled or not.  Really hard to beat an "A" Sedan at full chat.  GRM didn't ask but, my least favorite engine sound is the fake sound some EV prototype and pre-production street and race cars make.  "With a few lines of code, we can make your Challenger sound like an F40!

/thread

I like all of the usual suspects - 6-cylinder Jag, Porsche flat-6, Ferrari V-12 - but growing up with a dad who loved American muscle - things like a solid lifter Pontiac V8 and the Ford FE 428CJ still top the list and bring back the memories...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8gkJc_HoE8

Audi R18 Le Mans car circa 2011 - SO QUIET. Literally, nothing but a whhoooosssssh at the front straight at Le Mans. If you didn't look for it coming, you may have missed it, it was soooo quiet. And that was SUPER COOL. No wasted energy, it all went into propulsion. And though I love the huge V8 rumble of the Corvette C6R/C7R, the Audi was so impressive, and honestly livable and listenable, during the race. Loud race cars are... well what we are accustomed to, but they don't *have* to be loud to be fast.

My Favorite engine sound is my LS1 powered 98 Corvette convertible as it blasts down the track.

I'm a cliche, I know. But cmon. 

The Lexus LFA instantly comes to mind, that V10 sounds beautiful and is a work of art.

But one of my favorite engine sounds is a quite unconventional one, and it comes from the 1.8L V6 Mazda MX-3. It sounds pretty damn good, and is unexpected from such a small little car.

Tuned up BMW inline sixes sound awesome and are attainable.  Could almost double as a Ferrari V12 in a soundtrack.

So for well over a decade I've never really liked the sound of turbo 4's. Neon, sorry, srt4, evo all sounded like tracto engines. Really hard to get excited listening to a John Deere take off down a course. 
 

I would like to officially recant that previous statement for the modern direct injected small displacement turbo 4's. The abarth, hy/Kia's gamma-t, the Honda l15b, whatever vag is using now adays. I don't know if it's the smaller displacement or the induction making different tones but I'm starting to find them a bit intoxicating. 

preach (dudeist priest) said:

Best v8: Ford 302

Best i6: toyota or nissan in the 80s/90s

Best 6: air-cooled Mezger

Best dorito: 787B

Best 10: Anything from the v10 f1 era...so much drool

I once met a Testarossa with my Cayman just south of the mexican border. The flat 12 sang a high rev duet with the flat 6 to over 7k rpm (for me). It was amazing to hear.

Shocked at how long it took to see a 302/5.0 hit the list. Probably a little biased but my favorite V8 sound 

Porsche 917 flat 12 on start. 2022 at Monterey Reunion LeMans tent at Laguna Seca. The crowd went wild. I heard it before at Rennsport in '18 (I think). Nothing like it.

A Ferrari 333SP chasing a Maserati MC12 up the hill from turn 5 to turn 6 at Road America sounds pretty great

But the absolutely loudest engine I've ever heard was an FB111 taking off with full afterburner during a war games exercise when I was in the Air Force...still have the tinnitus to prove it!

bobzilla said:

So for well over a decade I've never really liked the sound of turbo 4's. Neon, sorry, srt4, evo all sounded like tracto engines. Really hard to get excited listening to a John Deere take off down a course.

Funny, I prefer the sound of a tractor singing along on the governor over the sound of most car engines.

In reply to Tim Suddard :

LeMans 4 rotor Mazda

yupididit said:

 

Wringing out the s85 bmw v10.

The fun starts around 40 seconds.... that 8k+ rpm pull from the 54 second mark...whew!

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jjkkSphnqmU?rel=0

 

Ah got my yearly fix

There are so many intoxicatingly vivid memories of great engines I have heard that I hardly know where to begin: But A few notables from cars I have owned,

Six cylinder corvair engine breathing thru twin glasspacks

EJ25 DOHC NA Subaru engine thru unequal length headers and 2 1/2 exhaust at 7000 rpm - sweet!

small block 350 chevy thru open headers at Danville autocross many years ago...

Chrysler 2.2 with twin DCOE 40mm Webers and headers thru a supertrapp muffler @ 7000 rpm - glorious cacophony - lousy engine lol

Cars I wish I had owned...

My first track day ever was at Summit Point and there I was blessed to see and hear:

Lambo Countach - the sound of that 12 cylinder engine was glorious!

First Generation BMW M3 - That screaming little engine banging the rev limiter was just amazing...

Fully track prepped 911 turbo with open exhaust...holy cow what a sound.

Triumph TR6 with built engine, headers and reasonable street exhaust, 3 dcoe webers.

A certain yellow Austin Healy Spridget that used to run in BRR-SCCA autocrosses - no one including the owner knew how high that engine would rev, but it sounded like well over 9k and sounded sooooo goood.

On a more recent trip to the Nurgurgring -

Porsche GT3 RS -

Multiple Ferraris, lambos, etc - they were moving fast enough compared to me that identifying which model they were was impossible. If you have never driven there you cannot imagine the speed differential that exists between normal cars and the hypercars...until you experience it. They all sound WONDERFUL...I was driving a rental 323 with track setup but stock engine and transmission. So it was SLOW...and so was I, not knowing the track at all. But the sounds of the high dollar european machinery that visits there you just have to experience it to understand it. It was truly a once a in a lifetime experience.