Busy or Quiet Engine ?

[slomoshun]

Got to thinking this morning how each of us takes the retro hobby different ways and styles come and go, scenes are popular then often wane some for the good others through change but exhaust sound / engine sound appear to just fall into what i call busy and quiet.
Busy i call larger bore pipes ranging side pipe to out the back stainless pipes then induction kit, dump valve etc that makes the engine sound busy and Subaru, American and drift type engines come to mind then you have the Morris Minor and small Austins, Cambridge or Cortina than often pass by on a show site hardly heard.
My thoughts were what do people prefer loud n lairy or quiet as a church mouse ?
Any thoughts ?

[PhoenixCapri]

I prefer a rich sound, with a character that matches the car - so a sports car should sound free revving and energetic, verses a smooth and relaxed saloon, for example. Basically you want the sound the make the car feel even more like what it is, helping to make the car feel complete.

How loud it is, for me, should also be linked to this character, so a Micra barking away trying to be as loud as a Ferrari isn't likely to sound 'right' (or actually very good at all since it doesn't displace enough air to get those noise levels without loosing any character it had....)

In the industry this is called Powertrain sound quality, and it is an amazingly complicated world, based on surprisingly simple maths.

All of this is very interesting stuff when you get into it - it's basically the interaction of man and machine and while it can be computed with maths it's basically psychology and human perception. When you couple the noise stuff with Dynamics/Handling and other factors, is called Vehicle Attribute Engineering - this is all the stuff jurno's harp on about.

And now I feel I'm getting a bit geeky (sorry, it's the bit of my job I'm most passionate about) - but to answer your question with one of the two options, I like to hear the engine, so Loud n lairy for me ;D

One of my favourite ever car sounds is the Alfa twin cam, in 1750 flavor - hopefully this will give you an idea why I love it

[slomoshun]

lovely sound
very well explained thank you

[baggabones]

Depends on the car just had the middle pipe replaced on the 924 for the MOT and miss the popping on overrun now it's not blowing...still get the nice burble from the stainless back section though

[mikeymk]

Many people seem to look to exhausts for sound, i grew out of that mistake before my 20's. It frustrates me a mate at work has a P6 V8 and is intent on keeping two SU's, and focusing on the exhaust in the belief that he'll find the sound he's after that way.

Once you've ran a quiet exhaust and individual throttles with exposed velocity stacks, you'll never look to the exhaust again - other than to make it quieter.

[slomoshun]

Yes i believe we put a large emphasis on sound
We all know sound don't equal performance / if only it was that easy but its a preference i suppose
I like to hear a car be alive but would not push that point on someone who thinks opposite however it does make me wonder how some are content with a quiet car and others its got to be louder
Know we are individuals but suppose whatever makes you happy

[bazzateer]

With the Imp it's a naturally noisey, revvy little beastie.
The daily 320i touring is a quiet wafter until I hit the gas and then it has an almost turbine like quality both in noise and smoothness.

The 318is is a little more revvy and raucous. The Singer Vogue will eventually be a relatively loud beast once the bike carbs and Holbay exhaust etc are fitted.

The other Imp wil lend up with BMW K power so should sound like a bike (if I go with a bike exhaust) or an Imp.

Hosrses for courses really.

[PhoenixCapri]

Sept 2, 2015 15:51:42 GMT mikeymk said:

Many people seem to look to exhausts for sound, i grew out of that mistake before my 20's. It frustrates me a mate at work has a P6 V8 and is intent on keeping two SU's, and focusing on the exhaust in the belief that he'll find the sound he's after that way.

Once you've ran a quiet exhaust and individual throttles with exposed velocity stacks, you'll never look to the exhaust again - other than to make it quieter.

Agree with that completely, you get a much purer sound from the intakes - there's a reason I love things with ram pipes!

[steveg]

I used to drive a lot of different Vauxhalls for work. Out of all of them the nicest ones to drive were the small 8 valve engined Astras/Corsas. It wasn't to do with power or the exhaust but purely down to the induction noise they made.
Another garage I worked at had a Alfa Sud Sprint as a loan car. The induction noise on that was glorious and I got the job of starting it up first thing in the morning (there was a knack to it) and putting it outside.

[igor]

Many of the old BMC cars I've had, and probably most other old stuff too, came factory with exhaust pipes of such small diameter that they just about choked the engine to death. I have found the balance between too loud and too gutless to be a larger than standard pipe with a quietish straight through muffler. I don't mind the roar of a straight pipe with no muffler at all on occasion but it rapidly becomes unpleasant on a long journey and always attracts unwanted attention from Mr Plod. Short answer is I like to hear the engine enough to be able to tell if it's running right but still be able to hear the radio.
My late grandfather's take on the subject was that since he had worked in sawmills for many years and was almost completely deaf loud exhausts on cars were a good thing because he could hear them coming when he was out walking on the country roads near our place. By this reasoning almost all new cars are too quiet and are therefore unsafe for pedestrians.

Check out the pipes on this Cropmaster....



...looks like the original exhaust manifold had fallen apart so they just welded four stubby pipes onto a profile cut plate. It roars like a big old dinosaur.

[Copey]

I am a big fan of tone rather than volume, my Saph isn't massively loud, but its got a nice tone, 2" mild steel system, standard up to the middle box and then I have removed a load of bends and replaced with straight pipe and the standard back box replaced with a free flowing oval silencer that gives a bit more volume than standard, whilst still keeping a nicer tone, i have also used fairly thick walled tube for the exit which seems to give a less rhaspy note, which I prefer, I don't know if the wall thickness really does much to denote the tone, but it does seem to, as well as material, I always feel like a stainless system is more rhaspy than mild steel

[The Jackeria]

Depends entirely on the noise, there are many, MANY cars that I revere the noise they make.

First and foremost any 20v 5 cylinder turbo engine with a proper exhaust oof! My Volvo made a fabulous noise, kind of wish I kept it now. It wasn't obscenely loud when driving it normally, just when you gave it some, a little crackle on overrun and a reasonably quiet turbo without a crazy loud blow off. My own Group B Audi if you will



I had a disco with a v8 and a near straight through stainless, which was beautiful too, this was loud, all the time. It wasn't particularly fast but it didn't need to be, I used it for laning and wanted bragging rights for owning a v8 as none of my friends are that manly.



My little Toledo made some of the right noises with an open filter, this is the standard exhaust, with single SU, it never liked cold mornings and went through batteries like no tomorrow because they were so tiny right up until the day I took the battery out of the Volvo and rammed it in there because I kept having to bump it at work. With the roof down it just had that classic car carbed, throaty warble, which even though it was slow, still brought a smile to my face.



Without the obscene and varied noises they each made, I wouldn't have bought them (well I'd still have had the Toledo as it was a great little car with a nearly sewing machine like engine when it worked)

The throttle-bodied beauties that climb the Bergrennen are well up there.

I would like to say there is a recipe for what I like, but there really isn't, every engine has a different attraction. Whether it's a highly tuned turbo engine or just a simple ohv 8v. Some I like, some I don't. I guess I fall into the busy category here in that most of the cars I've had have been garishly noisy, if I had petrol head neighbours they would have loved my cars when they came by, though as you can imagine, most neighbours aren't fans. But then I buy cars for the engine/sound in most cases, I'm ticking off a mental list of types of engines.

Having had single and twin carbed 8v's, a bike carbed 8v, a vr6, a 4 cylinder turbo, a 5 cylinder turbo, v8, an 1800 16v (which was the most tame noise-wise due to being fuel injected) I need a v12 jag to come into my life soon and then some kind of straight six whether it be beemer, merc or even triumph. Then something supercharged. I've been in a rather mental supercharged c20 engined corsa and really need to own my own.

At the moment I'm enjoying quiet exhaust turbo wooshy noises with a decent power to weight ratio to throw me into my seat.

[chrissyb]

Old saab 900's had quite a unique sound for a 4 pot...