The noises old shite makes that you recognise.

[Richard]

My diesel 940 manages to make all the same noises as the petrol ones, despite having one of the noisiest diesel engines available to humanity.

 

The clunk that front-handbraked SAABs used to make when reversing was quite distinctive.

[Cavcraft]

How could I forget the wonderful sound of the Transit 2.5Di? Spent so many years doing so many miles in them I can recognise them anywhere.

[fotorabia]

My mums Mini Van when i was a kid..her boss' Boss 302 Mustang we could hear from miles away.. strangely i can identify old Holden Commodores..Beetles naturally..Bambinas..Land Rovers

[seth]

I've only skimmed this but I don't think anyones mentioned the sound of an Alfa Romeo returning to nature.

 

[forddeliveryboy]

A Moggie Minor starting up then setting off - over-rich mixture in winter - then burble from tailpipe and sometimes the whine of the gears. Also a lady with a 435cc 2CV who would be between 2nd and 3rd as she passed our house, she would wring the neck off it from cold, but ony sold it when the main dealer refused to weld it. She bought a 600cc one which never sounded as good, even though it was at full chat in 2nd and the gearchange came further down the road.

[garethj]

A Beetle with a proper exhaust system is actually fairly quiet, I went to buy a Beetle that was lovingly kept and it had a great engine sound. Today when they’re all equipped with GSF cheapy ones that rattle with vibration and leak after 6 months, they sound quite different.

 

The Volvo’s fan is quite noisy when you start it up, some old 4x4s have the same sound, my Land Rover V8 certainly had it.

 

The Rover V8 is another distinctive noise – even when they’re muted with a quiet exhaust they give off a lovely woofle when you accelerate from very low revs. Reminds me of Rover P6 autos going up the hill when I was a kid

[barefoot]

A Beetle with a proper exhaust system is actually fairly quiet, I went to buy a Beetle that was lovingly kept and it had a great engine sound. Today when they’re all equipped with GSF cheapy ones that rattle with vibration and leak after 6 months, they sound quite different.

 

My T2 has worn an auto jumble £20 Supatrapp for 10 years & sounds like nothing else on the planet.

While we're on exhausts, I'd like to remind you of the distinctive sounds of a Volvo 340 & a Riley one point five.

 

How about manual Zodiac 1V's with the V engines that used to sound painfully in need of an autobox?

[wuvvum]

I've only skimmed this but I don't think anyones mentioned the sound of an Alfa Romeo returning to nature.

 

Actually, speaking of Alfas, the old flat-four engined cars, especially with the 1712cc engine, had a very distinctive rasp to the exhaust note, and a sort of guttural gasping howl on the overrun, usually punctuated with the pops and bangs of the engine backfiring, which sounded quite unlike anything else.

[wuvvum]

The loud whoosh that most four-pot Volvo 200s, 700s and 900s make when they are revved just after a cold start, due to them being fitted with viscous fans and massive fan cowlings

My dad's 240 estate, that he had for years when I was a teenager, was fitted with aircon, which made the whooshing noise three times as loud - I used to love that noise, I thought it made it sound like a 4-litre straight 6 rather than a 2-litre four-pot. I'd drive the car with the windows down just to hear it better.

[RoadworkUK]

Can't believe it's been three pages and nobody's mentioned the Stag.

 

The old silt-omatic 3-litre V8's unique sonic signature makes identifying Ford V6 and even Rover V8 conversions really easy.

[Rocket88]

Can't believe it's been three pages and nobody's mentioned the Stag.

 

 

 

They're usually making the same noise as a k series, a sort of whistling noise, followed by muffled oaths.........

[forddeliveryboy]

Had a schoolteacher with a 120Y Coupe with the amazing hubcaps, the exhaust note was quite unlike anything else. If fact it sounded like half the back end of the car was resonating with it. Silent mechanicals probably highlighted it. So much the opposite of a rustling A series with growling gearbox. Minis probably the most missed sound of all to me in the UK, just as France will never be quite right without the whine and whirr of 2CVs puffing along in the country, or being driven on their doorhandles round the large pave roundabouts in Paris, at about 8000rpm in second, outpacing anything except a Regie16.

 

Saabs too, sounded beautifully made and distinctive (triplex chain driving the gearbox?). Too young to remember the 2 strokes or V4s.

[forddeliveryboy]

While modern cars don't make distinctive noises,

IIRC the BINI gearbox was designed to emit some whine in first - not a lot, but enough to nod to tradition.

 

Thought gearboxes were only noisy if poorly/cheaply made. That would be BMW sales technique at its best - lets make it sound a bit like the original by making it cheap as chips! Saleman:- "BMW even managed to engineer in a little of the original sound"

[forddeliveryboy]

As a child i also remember I used to try and recognise cars in the dark by their headlights, pug 505s were easy.....

 

Yep, most cars were completely identify-able by the size and placing of the sidelights in relation to the headlamps in the 70s. And Wolseleys by the illuminated badge on the grille. Only foreign shite with sidelamp bulbs in the headlamps, in the main.

[Shep Shepherd]

The loud whoosh that most four-pot Volvo 200s, 700s and 900s make when they are revved just after a cold start, due to them being fitted with viscous fans and massive fan cowlings

My dad's 240 estate, that he had for years when I was a teenager, was fitted with aircon, which made the whooshing noise three times as loud - I used to love that noise, I thought it made it sound like a 4-litre straight 6 rather than a 2-litre four-pot. I'd drive the car with the windows down just to hear it better.

 

Totally understand where you're coming from. One of my guilty pleasures is winding The Volvo's windows down and hearing that glorious whoosh

[Vinylseats]

Also a lady with a 435cc 2CV who would be between 2nd and 3rd as she passed our house...

 

I remember an old lady who lived down the road from us would drive up our road in her bright yellow (snapdragon?) MK3 Allegro, I'm sure she stayed in 1st gear all the way up the hill, driving incredibly slow, and it made the whinyest sound ever! I can remember being of about nursery age and waiting in our lounge window for her to go past.

[CreepingJesus]

While modern cars don't make distinctive noises,

IIRC the BINI gearbox was designed to emit some whine in first - not a lot, but enough to nod to tradition.

 

What the hell was that weird whine they used to make, like a cat being stretched on a rack? I haven't heard it so much on recent Bini's, but I read it was something to do with the electric power steering. The sound of the supercharger on the Cooper S kinda made up for it a bit.

 

Can't believe it's been three pages and nobody's mentioned the Stag.

 

I'm sorely tempted to help the guy at the end of my street restore his, just so's I can hear that again! But he's done f-all to it, in the couple of years it's been sat there, so not much hope there.

 

And the latest DAF LF 7.5t motors (the grandson of the old 6-pot Roadrunners), do make an odd whooshing noise when gearchanging. It sounds uncannily like a boy-racer dump valve...

[STUNO]

Is no-one on here old enough to remember the noise of a two stroke Commer, that was a real noise!

and

[Andrew353w]

My Wartburg made THE strangest noise both on tick-over and when running along-amazing! The engine would return to idle once you released the accelerator as it had a free-wheel and the "burbling" sound it made was unique! When you were waiting at lights other drivers gave me many a strange look... It also had a delightful 2 stroke smell, too! I took it to a car show in Croxley Green a few years ago & an old Hungarian guy asked if I'd start the engine for him, just to remind him of his childhood; he had a good sniff and began crying (NOT from the emissions) as his family had owned a Wartburg in the Iron Curtain days & he'd not seen one since moving to England. Happy to have brought the memories back for him!

[Albert Ross]

Opel Kadett RWD around 1978/9ish, I had one with the 1200 pushrod, and it had a wonderful little crackle/rasp on the over-run. I'd love to hear one again. It would make ME cry.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

While modern cars don't make distinctive noises,

IIRC the BINI gearbox was designed to emit some whine in first - not a lot, but enough to nod to tradition.

 

Thought gearboxes were only noisy if poorly/cheaply made. That would be BMW sales technique at its best - lets make it sound a bit like the original by making it cheap as chips! Saleman:- "BMW even managed to engineer in a little of the original sound"

 

The original MINI was mostly developed by Rover and has a Peugeot designed gearbox.

[Minimad5]

As for the Fiesta engines, the best description I can think of, is "A skeleton wanking in a biscuit tin"

 

My MK1 doesn't (thankfully)

 

The Talbot engine in the 309 does though - which reminds me Service.

 

I can tell a crossflow or Valencia from a distance, and strangely the 2.0 DOHC fitted to sierras' and granadas.

Don't laugh, but i like the sound from tranny disiesels

A new one is the sound of the Audi B5 engine (1.8 20valve) - When they start up.

[Albert Ross]

I hear that sound every day. At least 3 times before I set off..... They just don't fit right. Factory standard.

[Mash]

Other than Beetles and Minors, Mk1 and 2 Fiestas are one of the only cars I can recall being able to immediately recognise only by the exhaust note.

 

The sound of an E-series engine in an Allegro or Maxi gives me goosebumps and immediately takes me back to my parents' Agg.

 

Rover K-sereis starter motors are very distinctive too.

[Angrydicky]

Ford Zetec diesel engines have a very distinctive whine. Rattly engines on Mk1/2/3 Fiestas are also unmistakeable. Minor and Beetle have already been mentioned.

 

I've never heard a Talbot Alpine or Solara on the road, I hope I do soon so I can hear the famous rattly engine

[CIH]

Ford Zetec diesel engines have a very distinctive whine. Rattly engines on Mk1/2/3 Fiestas are also unmistakeable. Minor and Beetle have already been mentioned.

 

I've never heard a Talbot Alpine or Solara on the road, I hope I do soon so I can hear the famous rattly engine

 

Zetec isn't diesel. Probably a Duratorque or something ?

[Angrydicky]

Ok, all the modern Fords that have TDCI on the back, Transit, Mondeo etc. Can tell one of them miles away, no idea what the engine is though in that case.

[eddyramrod]

I'll stand and listen happily to any V8. In our club we have three Stags and a Jensen Interceptor... The Interceptor is particularly pleasing to listen to. ("It's got a cop motor, a 440-inch plant. It's got cop shocks, cop tires, cop suspension, whaddya say?") Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm rumble!

I was on vacation in Georgia in 09 and couldn't relax, as the motel pool was located beside a busy junction, and every couple of seconds I sprang up thinking I was hearing the General Lee. 99% of them turned out to be beat-up work vans... Now that's what I call traffic!

[warren t claim]

Here's a noise that gets my juices flowing...

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source ... tg&cad=rja

 

The Scania V8 and the web simulator lets you rev the bollocks off it!

 

(Sorry if it's a re-post)

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Good choice warren! I don't know how they get away with making such a noisy, 'offensive' sounding engine today.