The familiar sound & smell of shite motors

[Parky]

OHV Renaults of a certain vintage were described by (I believe Richard Bremner) of having a lovely "tinny timbre". The sound of a 5 Campus pulling away from lights takes me back to the early eighties where my entire family had Renault chod of some description.

 

Triumph Stags make a lovely sound too, Talbots were less lovely but certainly distinctive!

[DSdriver]

If you ever spill a carton of milk in a car sell the car straight away before the smell gets too bad. It is virtually impossible to get rid of the smell of sour milk however much you try and clean the carpets and underfelt.

[Charlie Croker]

The sound of a old BMW 6 cylinder BMW.......by old i mean late 80's early 90's. It's more often than not that they sound like they are knocking on deaths door even if they are in rude health.

[Inspector Morose]

Sounds:

The sound of an A series on tick over with rattly timing chain

The sound of an Farina Cambridge starting off - CLANG WOOORRRR

The delightful death rattle of a leyland 510 on start up on a cold morning. A symphony in three movements from churning over forever on the starter moving impeccably onto a barely starter beating tick over on a couple of cylinders then ending in a cacophony as all six cylinders fire up and revs rise to full chat as the air throttle gains its propellant.

 

Smells:

Any two stroke engine. Preferably of the East German persuasion.

Old hot engines after a long thrash. Usually accompanied by that light tinking sound as it cools.

Any interior of a particular decade. I'm sure every decade had its own interior smell, from the old leather, wood and must from the fifties to that pungent plastic aroma of the late seventies through eighties.

Diesel engines who's timing was too far advanced. It's that eye biting smell that hits you in the back of the throat that all but seems to have disappeared.

 

It's all gone far too homogenised out there these days...

[cms206]

The only smell I can really offer is that every Volvo I've ever driven smells the same inside. No idea why.

 

Sounds though... that odd tinny fart from LDV 200s and Pilots at about 2/3rds throttle than Convoys didn't have; 8v Vauxhalls, straight 6 BMWs, BMC A-series engines, the Transit Di, Nissan diesels in FX4s, XUDs, Peugeot Petrols (ala old 205s and whatnot), Mk2 and Mk3 Golf 1.6Ds/1.9Ds...

[Spiny Norman]

There's something about the smell of old BMWs and Mercs, lovely mix of solid maturing plastic and the horsehair in the seats.

The sound of an Alfa flat 4 or a nice smooth BMW straight 6 as it reaches the war paint section of the rev counter are both pretty addictive too.

Always thought the Renault 16 made a unique noise too, a sort of turbine-like whine. Maybe the autobox on the one Dad had was just fucked....

[Andrew353w]

Obviously any 2-stroke has a characteristic smell, which I love!

 

I took my Wartburg along to "Cars On The Green" in Croxley, near Watford a few years ago & an old guy from Hungary asked if I'd start it up, so he could smell the exhaust. He became quite tearful when he smelt it & said it reminded himself of his childhood.

 

Amazing what emotions one's nose can stir up!

[HMC]

A series gearbox in sump lower gear while

The dull crispy crunch of a rusty sill

Unmistakable chuffing of a failed DIY exhaust system repair thats just failed.

[oman5]

The old Audi 5 cylinder warble.

Essex V6 at around 2-2500 rpm

Aside from any big bore V8, one of my personal favorite noises is the old VW LT straight six petrol engine.

[vulgalour]

scorching hot vinyl and fresh rubber tyres reminds me of my childhood, specifically the Honda Goldwing sidecar my dad had before his Datsun Sunny estate in the mid 80s. After that, the distiinctive aroma of a shot Skoda 120 Estelle interior and later still the fragrance of my own Austin Princess velour on a damp day.

[R9UKE]

The Volvo 300 series had a very distinct interior smell - loved it. My Renault V6s all give a nice whaft of burning oil through the air vents as they're warming up! Sound - I love the sound of the transmission in the 1.6 auto Renault Mégane and Scénic. In fact it's the main reason I bought my Meg Convertible, to listen to that sound. Sad

[PhilA]

An A-series starter cranking, then getting kicked off the Bendix as the engine fires but doesn't catch- crn-crn-crn-crn-crn-KAK-VOOooooo

Any Ford Transit with a worn starter doing the same but wit the HRRRAAIIIRRrrrgghhhh noise of the thing spinning to a halt

 

The smell of old, slightly burned engine oil

 

The gentle chromatic whine of any old gearbox in the lower gears

 

Lucas bimetallic strip indicator flasher units. PLIK-tunk...PLIK-tunk...PLIK-tunk, not quite in time

 

Switches that go "clink" aka any MG

 

--hil

[Joseph]

Overheating Corsa sounds & smells:

 

Sounds - hot

Smells - hot

 

[Albert Ross]

Poorly maintained Ford Crossflow/HCS, like a skeleton wanking in a biscuit tin.

 

XK120 and onwards.... sitting behind one on a twisty B road, as it churns up and down the box, the combined turbine like whine of the transmission and diff, coupled with the exhaust note like "ripping calico"....

 

Ford RWD V6 Auto starting, kshishashishashishashishazinggggggg!

 

VW LT 6 pot diesel units with a rattly vac pump on the cam.... Every time the brakes are released, ruggaduggaduggaduggadugga.....

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Ford RWD V6 Auto starting, kshishashishashishashishazinggggggg!

 

Exactly that! I can hear it now!

 

Jag straight sixes have a distinctive sound - either the XK or the AJ6 sound like nothing else. Older BMWs like the E28 have a really distinctive whine at idle - is it the fuel pump?

[Morgan84]

Toyota car manual gearboxes when selecting reverse gear;that satisfying positive hollow metallic " clonk". Typical to Carina E,Corolla,Celica,Yaris and Avensis

[Guest]

The sound of a 1.7 Renault unit starting up is quite distinctive.

 

Yeah, that sort of ephemeral, braying wank that makes you wonder if the whole affair is worth bothering with. My 460 has a really loud starter motor.

 

Amazons also smell the same. Even the 1000km example in the Volvo museum had that same musty funk of decaying rubber floor mats and gently rotting sound deadening. I left some driving gloves in there and they reek of it ; I brought them home so I can drive the C4 68 mph in homage.

[vulgalour]

Volvo 240 and 740 have a very distinctive wroouuff noise when the loud pedal is depressed. This is particularly excellent for scaring the bajeezus out of unwary pedestrians who haven't heard you trundling along looking for a parking space, far more effective than a press of the horn too.

[Shep Shepherd]

Volvo 240 and 740 have a very distinctive wroouuff noise when the loud pedal is depressed. This is particularly excellent for scaring the bajeezus out of unwary pedestrians who haven't heard you trundling along looking for a parking space, far more effective than a press of the horn too.

 

I like to rev The Volvo's engine just after starting it up in order to hear the whoosh from the viscous fan

[Leyland Lawrence]

Ford Fiesta engine

Volvo 240 engine.

MGB exhaust note.

 

Very distinctive to me.

[ashmicro]

Injected CVHs make a whirring noise at idle.

 

Renault 14s sound like Peugeots - I remember thinking that when I was about 9 or 10. Didn't find out why for about another 2 decades.

[purplebargeken]

My uber clean 740 saloon smelled of digestive biscuits, old people and wee. Not always in that order. No matter what i did I could not get rid of the distinctive odour. Very odd indeed.

 

Small Triumph saloons all have the same comforting smell.

[oman5]

oo, I thought of another nostalgic trigger- the popopopop of an idling Bedford TK air compressor

[Morgan84]

VW Golf and Polo MK2 petrol engine cold starts - that lovely growling whine

[vulgalour]

My uber clean 740 saloon smelled of digestive biscuits, old people and wee. Not always in that order. No matter what i did I could not get rid of the distinctive odour.

 

The auto Maestro I borrowed from skattrd smelled of digestive biscuits too, combination of the air freshener and dead ATF. Mind you, it never smelled particularly of old people or wee, so maybe your Volvo had a more different reason behind the odour.

 

I remembered the odour of 50s car interiors, all warm leather, that smell peculiar to warm cloth headlinings and quite often a lingering aroma of cigar/pipe smoke. Very pleasant, all told.

[Ben_L]

PSA XUD Engine

Corsa 12v

New Focus 1.0 3 pot

Early Metro (1st gear howl)

Hydraulic Citroens with the Accumulator "Tick"

6 pot small engined 3-series BMW's from the 80's

Transit 2.5 D

 

All have very distinctive sounds to them. Recognisable blindfolded.

 

Also, Vicous fans on Merc's when they're getting warm at around 3500rpm, sounds like a plane landing. Very entertaining

[SambaS]

Aah the sweet smell of burning clutch after tearing round the scrapyard for hours on end.. The best car interior smell has to be the MKII Astra

[gearoil]

the central locking also had a very distinctive " Clunk ... Errrrr " sound.

 

Yes ! My Dad's old Honda Ballade did that too.

 

+1 for Ford V6 starters, I loved that sound.

 

Mk2/3 Cav's, Astras and Novas have that 'click' when reverse is selected.

 

The Cat engined 8 wheel Foden tippers that used to run to the Bison Concrete plant behind my old primary school...

[blackburied]

The rough idle on Peugeot GTI's, My Clio idles like a 80's bag of nails. Absolutely love it.

Smell of Castrol R, Petrol smell of Carb engines on start up

 

MMmmmm!

[stilo_active]

Anything Peugeot, Talbot or Citroen (or as mentioned previously Renault 14) fitted with the lean back suitcase engineamabob. Distinctive sound I remember from my uncle's R14, neighbour's Visa, friend's Samba, another neighbour's 104 and my current daily hack 205.