Car guys: Best-sounding 4 and 6 cyl engines?

**CAMagnussen** · 12-14-19, 15:35

Car engine sounds.

**Ron3** · 12-15-19, 14:48

Even if a heavier car makes better numbers (re: handling) the lighter one will feel more fun at lower speeds assuming it has good handling characteristics.

**Mjolnir** · 12-15-19, 16:46

Originally Posted by Bulletdog

I am a performance enthusiast. I just don't understand what the sound has to do with performance. Like wise, weight doesn't matter, unless your looking at the exact same horsepower and torque specs in two vehicles of different weights. The Chevy Spark is under your weight limit, but its power to weight ratio is not what you are looking for.

I'm just trying to explain my curiosity at why the sound would matter. I find it more akin to saying "Which of these guns sounds the best when I fire it?"

Changing the subject back to your original question. I once stood next to a 2003 Aston Martin Vanquish when they fired it up. That was the most amazing sound I've ever heard come out of a muffler. That car truly purred. Its double or triple the number of cylinders in your original question, but the sound was so impressive, I thought it worth mentioning on a car thread about sound.

You do not get it because you really are not as much a car guy as you believe.

It’s about sensory excitement.

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**Mjolnir** · 12-15-19, 16:55

Originally Posted by pinzgauer

Survived and hated some flowmasters that were the worst drone of anything I've ever heard of. And they were the mild ones.

Found a take off factory exhaust and put it on.

Next we can all talk about our favorite car in terms of tip in response. Another area manufacturers game, same engine, same performance, same everything but they changed the tip in response and the people think it's faster. Where in fact the only thing that changed was fuel mileage.

Drove one Toyota based econo box made for boy racers that the tip n was so nonlinear it was almost impossible to start from a dead stop without scratching the tires.

Porsche would beg to differ with the engines that go into their GT3 cars. Well, let me rephrase all of that... the 911 Carrera 3.0 RS had the same engine as the 3.0 L Carrera but Porsche essentially balanced and blueprinted it. Yet they claim it still had 231 bhp. (Yes, this was a long time ago). It was marginally quicker everywhere - and markedly so on throttle response.

I’ll say this: 99.999% of us who own sports cars cannot extract 75 percent of the capability of the car. If you think about it it really makes sense.

So what would I need with a Porsche 911 GT2 RS?

Not a damned thing.

If I fell into a $500M lottery win I would consider one but I know a Cayman GT4 would be the better purchase: handling, steering, throttle response and sound quality.

If I were still at Ford I’d push to pull weight out of the Mustang platform. I’d want the same brakes and suspension of the GT on one of the V6 cars and I’d take a good look at the air induction and exhaust to modify the Sound Quality.

It would sell like hot cakes.

Why?

Because we cannot use the power but we can play with the handling and it’s ALL perception!

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**Mjolnir** · 12-15-19, 16:58

Originally Posted by pinzgauer

On a Camaro with low interior volume the "growl" might be fun.

I bought a Suburban that had been nicely tricked out, but one of the tricks was 'Cherry Bomb' mufflers.

So I thought I'd go with the mild flowmaster. The "Growl" with the interior volume of the 'burb led to very bad droning/resonance.

Which is a regular complaint on the flowmasters. And has something to do with their construction, there are other low back-pressure mufflers that are not as bad. Some folks correct the drone by adding mass to the can with welded weights.

What works on race car, or even lightly driven muscle car can be a grind in a daily driver.

I'm all for performance mods that increase performance. And hate mods done just to make noise. Open pipes on harleys come to mind. As do buzzy rice boxes boy racers with tiny engines and loud exhausts. And often, big wings.

What you describe is the vehicle body acoustic mode.

Each section of the exhaust has an acoustic resonance. We add expansion chambers (resonators, mufflers) to break up the low frequency “boom” that you perceive.

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**Mjolnir** · 12-15-19, 17:02

Originally Posted by Sry0fcr

Electronic throttles aren't something that I think ever needed to actually ever be a thing...

If you want to fully exploit the Vehicle Dynamics software (something damned few have the skills to safely approach the limits of anyway) you would want the steering position, throttle position, brake torque, engine torque/engine load, gear selected, yaw, pitch, roll, shock absorber load or the displacement of the piston in the shock absorber.

While that car will be potentially much easier to drive at the limit you and I could not fully exploit it anyway.

BTW, Ferrari has the best Vehicle Dynamics Software Package.

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**Mjolnir** · 12-15-19, 17:04

Originally Posted by Bulletdog

I think you missed the "unless..." part.

Worded another way: Say hypothetically, I was deciding between a Corvette or a Porsche. The weight of either wouldn't matter to me. I would look at the performance specs. 0-60, 60-0, 1/4 mile times, and lap times with comparable drivers on the same track on the same day. While weight is obviously a factor in how either car will perform, I'd be looking at performance of the overall car, and not the number on the scale.

Does that make more sense? Lap times and performance matter. The actual weight doesn't. Not to me anyway.

Weight ALWAYS matter - especially if you’re talking bout doing laps for time: Tire wear, brake temps...

Also, a heavier car will FEEL heavier; it will not FEEL as nimble and it may not be as nimble.

Those are the facts.

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**pinzgauer** · 12-15-19, 17:29

big difference with two different engines where one is blue printed and balance yet nominally is the rated same horsepower.

What I'm talking about is they take the engine out of a Camry, put it in an Xb, change the tip in response, and all the boy racers think it's faster. Add a buzzy exhaust with 5-inch swollen tips and you're in business.

It's a common amateur fuel injection tuning mistake to oversize the throttle bodies, which gives you an exaggerated tip-in response. But has no effect on power.