When was the first time you heard a race engine?

Summer of 1975, I'm at the Illinois State Fair, our stop that week on the harness racing Grand Circuit. I'm cooling out my horse, and for the first time in my life, I hear race engines.
The racehorse barns were near the pulling course. I got over there just in time to see a small block Chevy in a lawn tractor. I had never heard of tractor pulling.
I was already excited, when they announced the unlimited class, and the first one out was Tommy Ivo. Yes, that Tommy Ivo, and the tractor even had four injected Buick engines. He did a full pull like it was nothing. I'll never forget it.

On TV Indy 500, mid-60s.

In person, Lions Drag strip, early 70s.

When I was 5 (about 1978) dad took me to the local dirt circle track to watch a Sprint/Outlaw race and I was mesmerized.

About 15 years ago my (now-ex) uncle-in-law worked for Tire Rack and he had full pit passes to the Indy 500.  I remember visiting the Ford tent and hearing their new concept engine hit 15,000 rpm on the dyno and I think I probably got that funny feeling like when I climbed the rope in gym class.

I used to listen to muscle cars and be able to vaguely guess the cam specs from how it idled.  I was at a gas station one night when a truck pulled in towing a Camaro drag car on a trailer.  I said "that must be a 540."  He said "how can you tell?"  I said "because you have 2" primaries and looking at the sponsor stickers, they gave you headers that were suited to the displacement."  

1982........I was walking from what is now the site of the Mirage (it was a dirt lot then) towards the Caesar's Palace F1 track and you could hear the howl of Cosworth DFVs.

At about 5 or 6 y.o. I had a neighbor in the court we lived in that had a Dodge Challenger with a 440 in it. A fully built drag car that shook the garage. Made my hair stand on end when the throttle was blipped.

A few years later another neighbor that I blame for most of my sports car problems had an RX3 that he auto crossed and later converted to a GT3 car. That was my first exposure to a rotary fed by a Weber IDA. Life changing, still have a rotary fetish.

July 1968.  My older brother took me to the first race held at Donneybrooke Raceway (now known as Brainerd International Raceway) in northern Minnesota, my family had a lake cabin in the area.  They had all kinds of cars that day, from Formulat Vee to Can-Am cars.  There was even a Howmet TX Turbine car.  I remember when we were driving home, some guy passed us on the highway in a Ford GT40 (yes, a real one).  

1969, I think, so maybe going into the 8th grade. The next door older kid's friend had stopped over with his 57 Chevy Bel Air and they where uncorking his headers when I wandered over. We lived 3 mile down a gravel road from the highway and they let me ride in the back on the diamond tuck and roll upholstered rear seat and boy, that thing had a wicked lopey idle. When we got to the highway he made a couple of passes on the empty road that thrilled me to death pinning me to the back seat and I was hooked on loud cars ever since. No seat belts back then either.

May 26, 1986. Camel GT, IMSA GTP cars. Won by Al Holbert in the Porsche 962.

Also one of the longest traffic jams I've ever been in on the way to an event. Stop and go traffic for nearly 10 miles. I'd never seen people get out of their car and go to the cooler in their trunk before while still on the road. Mostly iced coffee and lemonade I'm sure. Attendance was incredible for those events. 
 

Those engine sounds though...

Age 14 or 15, a shop in Schenectady, NY that only did European cars.  Owner was Claude LeGrande (he always wore a driving suit).  Three Fiat 600 Abarth track cars.  I still want one.

These.  

It had to be either '58 Chevy short track car (dirt and asphalt), the Suzuki 400 dirt bike, or the C Sports Racer built out of a NSU Sport Prinz.  

I can remember sitting on the bike while it was on the trailer, my mom standing next to me while my dad idled the last 100' of our street, and I can remember sitting in the CSR, and I remember watching my dad on the dirt track, all some of my earliest memories before I even started school.  But I couldn't tell you which one I heard first.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

I was in that same traffic jam...

My dad took me to many races at Lime Rock and Brainard (I think that's what now-NHIS was called in the 70s?).

In the years before Camel GT I vaguely remember a CanAm race with a bright red Chevy powered car that decimated the rest of the field, an Indy car with bodywork grafted on, and a pair of black Lola T600s. I may be jumbling up cars/races; maybe the Lolas were Camel GT or an endurance race?

I also remember over a period of years, always being passed by a red M6 on the way there.  He seemed immune to traffic laws...

The most impressive sound was when we went to Montreal the first time, in maybe 83-84. The sensory overload of the whole pack, led by BRIGHT McLaren orange, blasting at us at impossible speeds, ear splitting noise, and parting smell of castrol was incredible.

Somewhere near 4, as the story goes.  Apparently I cried when my dad wouldn't take me to a Can Am race at Mid-Ohio back in 1971.  So I got to go.  And my brother likes to tell me that I cried the whole time because it was so loud- and he was mad that we had to come home early.

August 1970....Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant.....Trans-Am races.  The first race was the U2 group and there were Alfas screaming around at the front . Then the 5L boys came out to play. I had been a pony car fan all through high school, but those Alfas had a lasting impression on me.

A few years ago, my son and I went to Norwalk, Ohio for the NHRA meet. That was the first time I ever heard two Top Fuelers leave in unison. That was a Holy E36 M3 moment.

Sebring 12 Hour 1963.   I didn't leave the chain link fence for the whole 12 hours.  Also, first time viewing glowing brakes, and night racing.  The activities going on in the infield were also interesting.  

Mid 70s a friend took me out to the Westwood circuit near Vancouver BC to see a Formula Atlantic race. Walking into the venue I could hear the practice sessions going on, with the Cosworth BDD engines screaming up from the hairpin. I was laughing and jumping around it was so exciting! I was hooked. That was a great series. That day I saw Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal, and Keke Rosberg race. What a day!

I'll assume "in person."

I was probably about six yrs old when we drove by the big parking lot in front of the Del Mar Fairgrounds one day. In the off-season, it was used for all sorts of things, and on that day, there were hay bales and a course marked out. I can still remember seeing a strange looking car, driver sitting upright, coming around the turn. Dad had zero interest so we didn't stop, alas.

[edit] For fun, I tried Google and crazy enough, this pic is very close to where I saw the same thing, as the perimeter road is right behind the photographer. Don't know what year that was taken but it's the same style of car. Pic is from https://www.racingsportscars.com/track/Del%20Mar.html, and one of the frequent winners was some guy named Bob Bondurant, hah. (If the photographer had slewed about 45 degrees to the right, it would show the hills that we used to play on, now covered by homes, sigh.)

Not sure how we define "race engine"

I think I was 15 at a surf music festival in LA and the festival was kicked off with the starting of an old slingshot dragster on alcohol. Could feel that rattling my lungs!

DeadSkunk (Warren) said:

August 1970....Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant.....Trans-Am races.  The first race was the U2 group and there were Alfas screaming around at the front . Then the 5L boys came out to play. I had been a pony car fan all through high school, but those Alfas had a lasting impression on me.

A few years ago, my son and I went to Norwalk, Ohio for the NHRA meet. That was the first time I ever heard two Top Fuelers leave in unison. That was a Holy E36 M3 moment.

I've shared this here before, it bears repeating.

The sound of a fuel dragster engine is beyond anything else I've ever witnessed.

We were at Gainesville Raceway for the Gatornationals. We parked outside of the track on the side of the road, as all of the parking lots were full.

For those who have been to the Challenge, the Top Fuel pits are right by the pavilion, so maybe a quarter mile from where we were standing at our car. The parking lot between us was full of parked cars, trucks and RVs.

 Despite the distance, and from behind the parked racecar transports that enclose the pits, I could make out the distinctive crackle of a fuel dragster engine idling in the pits.

As I was looking in the direction of the pits, I saw a visible line of distortion in the air race towards us. The air behind it was sparkling, and a fraction of a second later when it reached us we heard the crack of the throttle like we were standing next to it.

The sound slammed into the trees behind us, and as it echoed back, I could see the leading edge of the sound traveling away from us. It was like watching a wave hitting a seawall.

Top Fuel engines. So loud that you can see the sound.

When the dew point in the air is just right, yes, it's possible to see the sound waves. There's a recent YT video of a SpaceX takeoff where it's very visible.

The 1988 Reno Air Races, went there with my girl friend and her parents.  It was glorious.

Heard lots of them from the first time I went to the track, but the loudest most piercing one was from a Mazda rotary - you could hear it all the way around the two mile road circuit and knew exactly where it was even when you couldn't see it.

They apparently limited it to only 8500 rpm for the endurance race with 'only' 650 bhp

Here is one (wait for it to go by)

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

May 26, 1986. Camel GT, IMSA GTP cars. Won by Al Holbert in the Porsche 962.

Also one of the longest traffic jams I've ever been in on the way to an event. Stop and go traffic for nearly 10 miles. I'd never seen people get out of their car and go to the cooler in their trunk before while still on the road. Mostly iced coffee and lemonade I'm sure. Attendance was incredible for those events. 
 

Those engine sounds though...

My Dad and I were there too.  My grandparents had a vacation home up the road in Falls Village. Before we spent too much time in traffic he decided to turn around and we rode our bikes there. Afterwards we were probably home before most people left the track. 
 

I imagine my first time hearing a race engine was shortly after I was born. My dad and uncle worked on a friend's stock car and they kept it at our house.  I was born in June and by the end of the summer we were all going to the track together. 
 

There were two big surprises the first time I experienced Formula 1 cars in person.

The first, of course, was the sound. Without ear protection, clarity was beyond the audible spectrum. As in, your eardrums could not cycle fast enough to process the sound. They sort of flatlined near the top of their range. It went from the sound of a revving engine to just some sort of white noise. It was weird. 
 

The second surprise was that the cars didn't seem to be as fast as I had expected. Not long before that, I had the chance to see WRC cars flying through the woods from about twenty feet away (stupid, we were way too close). Formula 1 seemed slow and safe by comparison.  
 

But the rate of deceleration on the F1 cars under braking was truly astonishing. 

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

I was also surprised how big an F1 car is. They look like they should be maybe 2/3 the size they are. 

One sound is still stuck in my head - the first full speed lap at the '77 Indy 500. 

Those 33 cars came screaming down the straightaway and the sound was UNBELIEVABLE.  I was 14 years old and I was hooked