Favourite car sound?

[pandamonium]

I particularly like the weird woosh of a big old Volvo.How about this though...http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XHaesH36_aI

[Milford Cubicle]

I'm a big fan of unconventional engine noises, like those made by 3-cylinder and 5-cylinder engines.Also chuntering noisy old fashioned diesels like the Perkins Prima

[Timewaster]

I just love the sound of the thing actually starting.Hate the flat battery "Urrrrhump..ump..ump.........ump" that means its time for the jumpleads (again!) There is something comforting about the wet fart sound you get when a Morris Minor driver backs off.Anymore?

[Volksy]

Audi or Volvo 5 pot, or the mad turbine noise of an aircooled 911.Do like the sound of the 6 pot Diesels, or the ultimate oilburner must be a Detroit 2 stroke Diesel or Mercedes V10.The Minor 'fart' is a great noise, makes me smile everytime i see one accelerating, as you know whats coming

[Albert Ross]

2144cc Audi Quattro......RS200 at full chat through Kielder......289 Mustang giving it plenty at the traffic lights GP.....Fiat 500 (proper one).....2CV (any of em) A suspension pump on a BX Petrol actually working and getting to the correct ride height! And to beat them all????? Following a Jaguar XK150 from Lincoln to Leicester on a summer evening. I kept up all the way in my (t)rusty 2 Litre Sierra, just to hear the beautiful exhaust note. Like ripping calico!!!

[Baz]

Was fortunate enough to witness these....

 

 

....Giving it the full beans under the bridge, and down Pilgrim's Drop at Brands several years back....The sound literally brought a lump to my throat....TRULY the greatest sound to ever rattle my ear drums!

[stoterstangen90]

Boombox?

[pandamonium]

[Ross_K]

[stormee]

Audi quattro/200, def. gooseflesh inducing!Aaaaannnd: BMW E3 2500 and 3.0S or later M535i! The E3 got the ultimate purism of the row 6-pots sound, I once enjoyed a ride in a 3.0S with sunroof fully open, driving at night through the landscape, p0rn!

[pogweasel]

BMW 6-cyl with a decent (not overkill) exhaust is joy. Also my old 4-banger BMW sounded glorious at full chat (though too bland at town pootlage). RV8, always a winner, especially in a fruity SD1. The Alfa 155 my mate had off Wakely had just about the most glorious engine note I think I have heard from a not-all-that-interesting car.

[stoterstangen90]

BRM v16

[Guest greenvanman]

Anyone remember the Suzuki GT750, 1970s 2-stroke watercooled triple? That made a glorious sound.

[Richard]

I love the sound of the F1 stock cars, especially at Cowdenbeath. They have American V8 engines and their axles normally come from a Transit or Bedford CF. As you can imagine they are utterly brutal, especially on a short track like Cowdenbeath. The sound goes from full chat on the straights to almost silence on the corners. Multiplied by 20 the sound is amazing. This video doesn't quite capture it, unfortunately.

Another sound I like is straight-cut gears. The Mini in the first clip has a straight-cut box but it's hard to hear it because it appears to have no bulkhead. There's no trouble hearing the box in the Beemer in the second clip, it might just be too much of a good thing. It doesn't half go though.

[Richard]

BRM v16

V16 beats 16V any day

[jonny rotbox]

I`ve always loved the sound of a highly tuned Ford crossflow engine on twin sidedraught DCOE carbs, this sound could be closely replicated on a 1600 MG Maestro (especially the R series versions) by removing the air filter housing, although it may have sounded the part the speed achieved was somewhat of a disappointment! , a friend has a 3ltr Essex V6 in a mk2 Cortina with custom made exhausts and that sounds awesome, I also like the sound of a 2.8 V6 Granny with 2 into 1 and single cherry bomb exhaust going full chat round an oval....almost as good as a sawn off Westminster! But the best by far has to be the Mustang from the film "Bullit"

[bigstraight6]

But the best by far has to be the Mustang from the film "Bullit"

The mighty Dodge Charger also sounds superb

[55bloke]

I must say, I'm surprised how few folks nominate the sweet burble/rumble of a big V8! Surely, nothing automotive comes close? I did used to love the sound of my 1st ever motor, a '65 1500 GT Cortina, sucking hard (!! !!) throught the twin choke webber with the air filter off!! Never forget 1st love, eh?

[shite_meister]

My Rover SD1 V8 always sounds glorious especially with its 'fruity' stainless sports exhaust and tubular manifolds mmmmmmm, although mine is a manual I always found that the autos sounded so much nicer than a manual SD1. My BMW E28 525i with its rotten exhaust always sounds burbular. Who can resist an Alfa Romeo V6? pref the GTV6 from the early eighties-again an amazing sound and not stupid money either. Jaguar V12-sounds like fine Swiss watch, sounds really precise-go and listen to one...today!

[KruJoe]

Alpha V6 - good call.

2144cc Audi Quattro...... at full chat through Kielder.

My S2 had the 2226cc DOHC 20v turbo went "howwwwwwll - shsh, howwwwwwll - shsh" with the factory dump valve. Echoing off the dry stone walls. Heavenly. 'til it broke again. The lout in me is crying "Impreza, Impreza", but I'd like to nominate the muffled burble of a SVX 6cyl boxer.When I'm old and sensible, I think I'll enjoy the "---silence---" of a Xedos.

[pompei]

Even the "lowly" Alfa boxer makes a lovely noise.

[55bloke]

Must be something about flat fours- Imprezza does sound lovely, (shame most of them seam to be driven by hooligans) and even the lowly beetle has a nice note through the right exhaust.

[Pillock]

My old G40 - combination of a small engine and a flowed 'charger meant the growl was very pronounced, and it also when purchased had a slightly loose V-belt - 6000rpm started to give a little squeal up to the redline, sounded pretty darn good when thrashing it! But it was losing power so i tightened it up :)But generally speaking any supercharged engine gives me teh horn.

[Guest]

A normally aspirated rotary, tuned up. I like how when they're tuned up they sound really rough and rattly in lower revs. Further tuning results in an even rougher idle. That's why I want one in the Charmant, so I can potter around with everyone thinking it is absolutely knackered, but actually it isn't.THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDVRARRRRRR:

[j-j]

I need to nominate the Citroen GS/A engine for this! yep it's a small engine but the little flat 4 air cooled boxer just has a great exhaust note for such an understated set up. Someone's beaten me to it but the sort of 'science lab' sounds of the Citroen hydraulics on a CX pleases me - move the steering wheel at idle speed and you get a delayed "whir-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-cklick!", move it lots and you get "whir-r-r--clik-whr-r-r-r-rclick-whir-r-r-click" from the pump and regulator - just sounds so old skool hi tech. Switch off the engine and step out and a few seconds later you hear "whisssssssssssssss-s-s-s!" as the front end lowers 3 inches to self adjust from you stepping out, the rear follows but silently...I just love that. Unfortunately, the Xantia is silent! guess they 'sound engineered' the components more in recent years?..I'm also a massive fan of the sound of an older jet airliner. I'm talking about the 'Old Smokers' like the Boieng 707, MD DC-8, the DC-9 and anything Russian like Tupolev (still screaming and smokin' away in the Eastern half of Europe today but not allowed in our so-called clean airspace) and if you've ever heard the harmonic terror of a B52 you'll know where I'm at with these old jets - it's music. Terrifying music but music none the less!For anyone that can dig 'Aeroshite' check this sound out..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KnF9icdpao

[j-j]

Actually this one's even better sounding!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArH_2kbS ... re=relatedmuch as I love these old Ruskies, I'm certain I'd be throroughly shitting it flying on one of them!!and listen to this terrifying monsterhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUylLXsppE&NR=1absolotely NOT ALLOWED in the civilised west!all jets used to sound like this

[Justin Case]

My favourite sound: that reassuring quiet 'chung' a few seconds after I start the 156 which tells me that the air-con is still working

[wuvvum]

My favourite sound: that reassuring quiet 'chung' a few seconds after I start the 156 which tells me that the air-con is still working

Yup, I get the same in the 166. Doubly satisfying because the ACC didn't work when I bought it and it took me bloody ages (and much effing and blinding about Italian cars and Italian electrics) to trace and fix the fault, and also the ICS has lost its code so I can't actually see from the display whether the ACC is working or not. I have to say that the 2.0 Twin Spark lump sounds surprisingly good for an in-line 4-pot too, 'specially between 5,000 and 7,000 rpm. I would like a V6 though - in fact I'm bidding on a 164 24V at the moment. Wonderfully snarly. Alfa flat-fours make a very pleasant noise too, both when working hard and on the overrun.I think the best sounding car engine I've ever heard though was a 1970-ish Dodge Challenger with a (presumably) highly tuned big-block, a blower protruding through the "hood" and what sounded like a straight-through side exhaust. I pulled up beside it at a set of traffic lights on the coastal road just south of Malibu and I could feel my internal organs vibrating just from the rumbling of the thing sitting there idling. When the lights went green he gave it some beans and I very nearly had a spontaneous orgasm. There are no letters on this keyboard that can come close to describing the noise it made. Even when he was half a mile ahead of me (I was thrashing the nads off my rented Chrysler Sebring convertible trying to keep him in earshot as long as possible) his exhaust note was completely drowning out the sound of my V6. Pure sex on wheels. You'd never get away with a 'zorst like that over here. In fact I'm surprised he got away with it in California - they're a bit of an anal state when it comes to noise and pollution. I have to say that the two-stroke Detroit Diesel in that old GMC Brigadier in the Youtube clip does sound very impressive too - I would imagine that hearing it roaring past you in the flesh, rather than through tinny computer speakers, must be quite an experience.As regards plane engines, call me unimaginative but I just don't think you can beat the sound of a Merlin at full chat.

[wuvvum]

Actually this one's even better sounding!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArH_2kbS ... re=relatedmuch as I love these old Ruskies, I'm certain I'd be throroughly shitting it flying on one of them!!and listen to this terrifying monsterhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrUylLXsppE&NR=1absolotely NOT ALLOWED in the civilised west!all jets used to sound like this

I love the IL86. It looks all modern and high-tech like a Boeing 777 but it uses old low-bypass jet engines which sound (and smoke) like an old 707. I can imagine the central computer being an old '70s style mainframe in the hold somewhere. I love it when the Russians try to make things look more high-tech than they are - like when they grafted that rounded Daewoo-esque nose onto the Volga. Great example of aeroshite.

[j-j]

I just don't think you can beat the sound of a Merlin at full chat

agreed, and something I've never heard in real life but Spitfires etc just can't be called shite? unless it's a triumph that is