OT: Best sounding car ever?

[bthornt]

One lap around Le Mans in a Mazda 787b in 2011, celebrating 20 year anniversary of the 1991 victory. Sounds so good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvjzk3qaP8

[Schmed]

Not bad - sounds very Formula 1 ish. Like when they are going through the tunnel at Monaco.

I think the Ferrari 355 is up there in sound.

But for me, the "angry hornet" sound of the E30 M3 does it for me (as an E30 M3 fanatic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwU74AqNw3o

[Tickdoc]

jaguar f-type r is the one that gets me every time.

Here's a nice compilation video. Bit of jack elopes on display, but the sounds and variety are good:

http://youtu.be/e6Fk0pkhxno

[m_sasso]

Ferrari FXX K and what better than 21 of them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFsCE1srAPw

[Ken Robb]

In the 1959-61 era there was a 1955 Chevy and a 1956 Chevy that ran C-Gas and B-gas at Oswego Dragway in Illinois. They were both supercharged with close-ratio 4 speeds. There races were closer than we expected due to their different classifications but the sound was fabulous. BAAAAAt, BAAAAAt, BAAAAt, BAAAAt---checkered flag. Between limited traction and extremely tight gear ratios there was little sense of rising RPM in each gear. I'm guessing the engines were almost always in the range of 5,000-7,000RPM.

[Satellite]

Oh I don't know Iam partial to the sound of my Hybrid. The only way it could be better if it was a Tesla pure electric.

I pulled into a merge only Lane at a red light yesterday by mistake NOT my side of town. So when the light turned green I floored it to beat the traffic to the merge. I didn't realize the other two car next to me were racing. They were both V8 Chevy SUV's. I smoked them both with V6 Highlander Hybrid 4WDi and merged into the left lane in front of them. They kept going of course and I maintained the speed limit. They swerved through several cars before they were finally gone.

I always wanted a Boss 429 Mustang. Almost bought a GT500 when they first came out but Iam over the car thing. My Hybrid fits every requirement I have in a car I love it and Iam content. If only I could get to the same place with bicycles. I just restored a new to me Colnago C50 and Iam still looking at other bikes. I have a medical/metal condition I am sure of it!

American Muscle does anything sound better?
https://youtu.be/9q0uuzRJJ08

[Mike V]

BRM V16

https://youtu.be/fZMPDCNyQxE


MV

[NYCfixie]

How is there even any conversation about this topic.

Any Ferrari V12 (ferrari v12 sound).

Over and done.

[oldpotatoe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Q99XsYb1w

[commonguy001]

I'm partial to the old V10/V12 Ferrari F1 cars.
The sound used to put shivers down my spine and apparently still does as it happened again watching this clip.
Good times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvWxhhi0_yk

[CDollarsign]

The E60 M5 is music to my ears.

[Germany_chris]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhlKB6K2AUE

This

[bicycletricycle]

I like teh sound of a huge turbo with an anti lag system.

All that back firing sounds like a shoot out at the O.K. Corral


http://youtu.be/5VySN_xwHCo

[seanile]

Beast of Turin starting for the first time in over 100 years has my vote

28.5L Fiat.

http://jalopnik.com/watch-a-28-5l-fiat-start-for-the-first-time-in-a-centur-1665309191

[FlashUNC]

Rotarys are the Chris King hubs of the car world.

[benb]

That 787b might sound good in the video, my experience IRL is that Mazda rotaries are pretty horrible to listen to at the race track.. the sound is almost painful compared to other cars due to the tone.

I'll take a BMW inline 6 or just about any type of V8 (cross plane/inline plane or whatever it's called) instead for nice sounds. Some Motos sound amazing too, Ducati V-twins, just about any V-4, etc... Inline 4 motos sound OK at the track but horrible out on the street IMO.

But the absence of sound of a Tesla is pretty nice too. When race cars fully switch over we won't have to build tracks in the middle of nowhere too.

[soulspinner]

I'm partial to the old V10/V12 Ferrari F1 cars.
The sound used to put shivers down my spine and apparently still does as it happened again watching this clip.
Good times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvWxhhi0_yk


Yes

[MTB81]

One of my favorite (gotta love downshifts): Ferrari 430 Scuderia Novitec Rosso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMo3pwyDNns

[pjm]

Porsche Carrera GT or Audi R8 V10. Both sound very similiar.....https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFkreHsTHI

[BrakeL8]

Lamborghini Countach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFqslG0Axbk

[choke]

Porsche 917K - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkP5Svl16Qg

Beast of Turin starting for the first time in over 100 years has my voteThat was my first thought....though I think this is the first time it was started. https://vimeo.com/113158655

[EPIC! Stratton]

Porsche 911SC (I'm partial to the 1980 and 1982 myself).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFamrDHwuRQ

[Spdntrxi]

One lap around Le Mans in a Mazda 787b in 2011, celebrating 20 year anniversary of the 1991 victory. Sounds so good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvjzk3qaP8



As I have heard this car up close and personally in SoCal at an RX7 meet a few years back.. I agree

[crankles]

being from detroit, I was gonna go with the mustang, then the hemi cuda showed up...

but that Beast of Turin is
just, well, such an ape of a motor. Winner!

[slidey]

I'm partial to the old V10/V12 Ferrari F1 cars.
The sound used to put shivers down my spine and apparently still does as it happened again watching this clip.
Good times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvWxhhi0_yk

Every so often, I find some flying lap videos of a qualifying/racing session, and play them as a soundtrack while doing some work.

Good times!

[Slow Eddie]

There has been some debate as to what car was actually used to make the film, or whether the engine sounds heard even belong to the same car, but the soundtrack to "C'etait un Rendez-vous" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvDXlDxMnb4) is right up there ATMO.

[Fishbike]

Ultegra hubs. . . .

[uno-speedo]

Group B rally cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrlhepfy9-I

[paredown]

There has been some debate as to what car was actually used to make the film, or whether the engine sounds heard even belong to the same car, but the soundtrack to "C'etait un Rendez-vous" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvDXlDxMnb4) is right up there ATMO.

Last thing I read (and repeated in a French documentary about the making of the film) is that the actual car with the camera mounted was a big Merc 450SEL, but they re-recorded the sound of Lelouch's Ferrari 275 GTB to dub the sound.

(Someone's posted the 'Making Of' video here--haven't watched it to see the quality: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9b7_1427148672 )

So that's my favorite too--V12 Ferrari...

BTW--anyone who had not watched this, should. I saw it way back on a 16mm print, and then my lovely wife picked up the DvD when it was re-released (we were in London and the guy from Spirit Films dropped it off!). Now on Youtube.

[Clancy]

My very first car, a '59 VW Bug, I was 16. Every time I turned the key and heard that little 4 cyc engine start up I'd almost **** myself.

[avalonracing]

Best sounding car is... A motorcycle!

Honda CBX 6 cylinder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQfI6TPbIfg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39JM42N7_cc

[Bob Ross]

Not really a car guy, but this thread reminds me of something I experienced many many years ago, mid-1970s when I was probably 15 years old:

I'm locking my bike up at the mall, about to go shopping for...um...whatever it was that 15-year-old me used to shop for ...when I hear this deep throbbing hum, like a cross between the 32' pipe on a massive church organ, and the one-note booty-shaking trunk-rattling thrum of a poorly-tuned-but-massively-overdriven subwoofer in the trunk of a Mercedes with blacked-out windows (that wouldn't become a common cultural reference for at least another 20 years). And this deep throbbing hum gets louder and louder until it is almost deafening, and I feel like the aqueous humour in my eyeballs is starting to boil from being pressurized by this massive subsonic note, this unbelievably pure single tone residing way down in the netheroctaves. And I'm looking all around trying to figure out what's causing this sound, this Big Note, this subsonic chest-collapsing sonic boom of a buzz

...when a yellow DeThomaso Pantera drives by.

First one I'd ever seen. Or heard. I will never forget the sound of that car.

[PeregrineA1]

My Dad was a teacher, first high school then 2 year college. It was common for his friends to have him, when they were ready to sell a car, take the car to school with him to get a broad audience.

One of these cars was the car of the son of a friend, the son going to Vietnam. The car was a '67 Camaro set up for drag racing. When he started that thing in the garage it was deafening and fantastic to my 9 or 10 year old ears.

I still like a good American V-8 and there are some great sounds right now. But my favorite is probably a Porsche GT3 with the exhaust uncorked, followed closely by any of several Ferrari's.

[Steve in SLO]

1) Just about any V12 Ferrari.
2) 914/6 I had with a 2.2L S motor with Webers, sport muffler best heard in a tunnel.
3) My GT3 cruising down our town's narrow main street at about 25mph in 1st gear.

[jischr]

Whatever they put in the Mustang that McQueen drove in Bullet. 351 Cleveland??

[carpediemracing]

I wish I had a recording of my plain/simple Passat. It wasn't a great car, it ended up ingesting its own engine parts, but while it was running...

Very straight forward. VR6. Cold air intake (which just makes it sound so great, I got one for the Z for that reason alone). Light flywheel. It had some cat back exhaust but I don't know what, very mellow whatever it was. When you stabbed the throttle to heel/toe it sounded like shotguns going off. I used to downshift in tunnels or long bridges (like on FDR in NYC) just to hear it. I think part of the reason the engine failed was that I loved to hear it rev to its higher-than-stock 7200 rpm redline.

The other car I had that had a "distinctive" sound was because some welds failed on some exhaust parts and I didn't realize it. GTI, 16v, 1.8 liter. No CAI (if I'd known about the sound they add under throttle I'd have added one). I didn't think it was that loud (although we lost our voices yelling over the engine noise on a 5 hour drive, should have given me a hint) but one morning I went to pick up a teammate who lived maybe a mile off the highway. He was waiting for me when I rolled up at some awful hour, like 4 AM (for a NYC park race). I asked him how he knew I was about to show up. He said he heard me downshift for the exit off the highway. Haha. He was a junior (15 years old at the time?) so after that I tried to be more mellow about it so his parents thought I was setting a good example.

[carpediemracing]

Also Ducati.

[ergott]

2003 Honda V10 on the dyno

https://youtu.be/8DYl4mD_620?t=27s

You can picture the Suzuka circuit as you listen to a lap.

[ergott]

This sounds like pure evil.

https://youtu.be/gSHToyGIxWE?t=46s

[ergott]

This one even sings God Save the Queen.

https://youtu.be/1JPBdBIFGNQ?t=56s

[Ed-B]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAXGuD_f3Kw

[Spdntrxi]

That 787b might sound good in the video, my experience IRL is that Mazda rotaries are pretty horrible to listen to at the race track.. the sound is almost painful compared to other cars due to the tone.



I'll take a BMW inline 6 or just about any type of V8 (cross plane/inline plane or whatever it's called) instead for nice sounds. Some Motos sound amazing too, Ducati V-twins, just about any V-4, etc... Inline 4 motos sound OK at the track but horrible out on the street IMO.



But the absence of sound of a Tesla is pretty nice too. When race cars fully switch over we won't have to build tracks in the middle of nowhere too.



Yeah 2 rotors drone like mad The driver has it worse believe me.. But the 787 is not 2 rotors . It's a beautiful sound

[Flying Pigeon]

A high revving naturally aspirated V12 like in the Pagani Zonda (https://youtu.be/oN8pHJ3sQ0Q) sounds good to me.

Along those lines there is a Japanese fabricator that sells a full exhaust for old Mercedes 600 sedans. It is a V12 from the same family tree as the Zonda.. hear the resemblance?:

https://youtu.be/oN8pHJ3sQ0Q

[Tickdoc]

Not a bad sound at all....but can you imagine it daily?

http://youtu.be/ZBfXupvEyOI

[witcombusa]

Maybe not the 'best' ever, but in the running for top 20 anyway...

[verticaldoug]

For me the best sound in the old super cars was anticipation turning on the ignition to let the fuel pump go glupglupglup as you heard gas going to the carb, then once it stopped, starting the thing up and hearing the engine roar to life.

I have an old 1981 Aston Martin V8 Vantage with loud sport exhaust.

A friend had an old Countach. The countach was so hard to start. You had a couple tries before the battery went dead trying to turn over the engine.

D

[Dave B]

Would never knock the exotics your cats have listed, but growing up in the midwest in the late 80's early 90's with Mellencamp as the local town hero, it was muscle cars and at the time it was the 5.0 liter V8 mustangs and that throaty burble of that underpowered engine. Then it was the SS camaros and the WS6 trans am.

Now it is my Bee with 6.1L Hemi. I just love that V8 rumble at idle and then all hell breaking lose as I mash the pedal to the floor. Just makes me weak in the knees. I do not have a sound clip, but will try to get one soon and up load it.

I took a 2011 Shelby GT500 for a test drive last year and the carmax lady who went with me knows me very well, so she let me drive it how I wanted. The car was inside the showroom and the manager and I are pals and he told me to rev it up inside. The entire staff and customers stood up from their "dealings" to see what was going on, but that sound. ohhhhh lord that sound.

I went full child at that moment and was grinning from ear to ear. The test drive was also out of this world.

[Gern]

For me it has to be the old Ferrari 333 SP. I remember sitting in the shade of a tree at the corkscrew at Laguna back in the IMSA days. That was a treat.

[verticaldoug]

Would never knock the exotics your cats have listed, but growing up in the midwest in the late 80's early 90's with Mellencamp as the local town hero, it was muscle cars and at the time it was the 5.0 liter V8 mustangs and that throaty burble of that underpowered engine. Then it was the SS camaros and the WS6 trans am.

Now it is my Bee with 6.1L Hemi. I just love that V8 rumble at idle and then all hell breaking lose as I mash the pedal to the floor. Just makes me weak in the knees. I do not have a sound clip, but will try to get one soon and up load it.

I took a 2011 Shelby GT500 for a test drive last year and the carmax lady who went with me knows me very well, so she let me drive it how I wanted. The car was inside the showroom and the manager and I are pals and he told me to rev it up inside. The entire staff and customers stood up from their "dealings" to see what was going on, but that sound. ohhhhh lord that sound.

I went full child at that moment and was grinning from ear to ear. The test drive was also out of this world.

when I was a teenager in the early 80's , the old big block 396 cu.in camaro from the 70/71 was the dream, most settled for the late 70's 350 cu.in z28.

Goat, Mach1, Nova, Chevelle, Charger, the list goes on and on in the midwest. All killed and made classic by the oil embargo....

[Dave B]

when I was a teenager in the early 80's , the old big block 396 cu.in camaro from the 70/71 was the dream, most settled for the late 70's 350 cu.in z28.

Goat, Mach1, Nova, Chevelle, Charger, the list goes on and on in the midwest. All killed and made classic by the oil embargo....


I do not disagree, but you have to admit, while today's "muscle" cars are way more refined, it is still great to see the big three in a pissing contest for who has the best version.

There are some older muscle cars that have the most beautiful lines. Late 60's camaro, Mach1 mustangs or boss 302. Sweet! Would love to have a Goat or MOPAR's GTX. Love those looks. I will say whatever gen charger I have is still a looker to me. The newest ones including the Hellcat look lame, like a stretched out dart. Now the challenger SRT and Hellcat look fantastic.

But as I digress they were not as purpose built like back in the day.

I can fit my entire family in the Bee and get to 60 faster than a Ferrari Testarosa! Now that is groovy.

[BobO]

The European exotics have a very refined, musical sound, which I love. Ferrari 599 :banana:

Buuuuuut,...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBrMRIb0PWk
Nothing has come close to the schwing factor of an FE motor with side pipes full song shredding a set of steamrollers.

[parris]

I haven't read the whole thread so if I'm covering the same ground I apologize.

I like the way many well built engines sound but to this day there's one that for whatever reason just sticks with me big time. I was helping out a buddy at a small local car show about 25 years ago and there was a big block Challenger that came idling by. The thing that hit me was the sound of a very aggressive cam combined with what can best be described as a very high compression crackle. The car wasn't loud but what I could hear spoke volumes about a very serious build. The kicker was that race gas smell that hit like a brick wall as he drove past. I've seen and been around cars on and off most of my life but that one stood out. After he'd parked the thing I took a closer look and remember seeing the tach with a 7500 rpm redline.

[parris]

After my reply I scanned the thread and saw the McQueen reference. The Mustang that he drove had a built 390 FE engine. It also had some pretty heavy suspension mods for the time.

The Charger had a stock 440 RB engine. It had suspension bits from the Mopar Nascar program due to the pounding the car would take. If I remember correctly both cars were inspected every night after filming including Magnaflux inspection of many suspension bits.

[Peter B]

Something special about this effort and the man behind it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttl-kF8Rbuo). 2300#, 400hp and one-of-a-kind. The music begins about 2:45. Not the most symphonic but the overall story makes it worth the time to watch.

[PaMtbRider]

This always gets my heart racing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZB6WXDuM1g
I'm also fond of the new Shelby GT350R.

[donevwil]

After my reply I scanned the thread and saw the McQueen reference. The Mustang that he drove had a built 390 FE engine. It also had some pretty heavy suspension mods for the time.

The Charger had a stock 440 RB engine. It had suspension bits from the Mopar Nascar program due to the pounding the car would take. If I remember correctly both cars were inspected every night after filming including Magnaflux inspection of many suspension bits.

Apparently the Charger repeatedly ran away from the Mustang and they had a heck of a time evening the field. The first change was Steve McQueen taking over driving duties of the Mustang, but that wasn't enough so they put smaller wheels and tires on the Charger to slow it down. Go Mopar !

The best sounding car I've ever witnessed was a buddy's brother's '65 El Camino bracket racer with radical 396, tunnel ram, etc. My buddy's car died the same week mine was in the shop so the only option was to borrow his brother's El Camino for our commute from Newport Beach to Pomona. No way to appropriately share the experience of a 40 mile rush-hour, stop and go commute in a super-stout 396 powered, Muncie rock crusher shifted and ladder bar suspended beast. The next day we both called in sick awaiting the completion of the work on my car.

[wallymann]

for me, any V12.

[bikinchris]

Whatever they put in the Mustang that McQueen drove in Bullet. 351 Cleveland??

The 351 Cleveland wouldn't be available for several years. the Bullitt car used an FE family engine. Probably a 390 or maybe a 428.

My older brother built a Boss 302 using a Shelby 289 solid lifter cam and he worked over the Holley like a maestro. The sounds that engine made we frightening. When he revved it up hard, it sounded like a pro stock engine. Instant revs. No vroom vroom, more like brap brap 8,000 revs in a blink of an eye.

But thumbs up to those who posted the GT350R voodoo engine sounds, great sound.

[Seramount]

Probably a 390 or maybe a 428.

there were two Mustangs used in the filming.

both had 390 ci engines.

[SPOKE]

The best sounding muscle car for me was a 1970 Mustang Mach I that a guy had here in Raleigh when I was still in high school. The car came with a factory 351 Cleveland engine with a shaker hood scoop. In stock form it sounded mildly wicked with an aftermarket custom exhaust system. In the summer of 79' the owner decided to pump up the beast with a complete rebuild that turned the motor into a fire breathing stallion pushing nearly 600hp when running aviation fuel. During strong accelerations it sounded like a slightly muted NASCAR storming off pit road!!! All I can say is that I wish that I could have purchased that car from the guy but I was just a broke high school kid and just couldn't swing it😢😢.
In the motorcycle world I'll have to say that the 2008 Ducati 1098R with the factory race kit installed is the best sounding bike ever accelerating up to full song👍. Some days I wish I still had this bike.

[Seramount]

at the height of my gear-head years, the '69 open-chamber 427 ci L-88 big-block I put in a '71 Z28 Camaro made sounds that were positively unearthly...

crazy cam specs and 12:1 pistons can create some seriously ear-destroying noises.