BMW officially sucks!

The new twin-turbo V8 M5 is so lame they had to record an engine and play it through the stereo: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/23/active-sound-design-enhances-v8-burble-inside-bmw-m5/

I can think of nothing more lame or poseur than having pre-recorded engine played over your speakers inside the car. I swear the first time the Javelin drives with open headers will be to hunt down an M5 and make the owner wet himself. Stupid!!!

Jealous?!

So you're saying the new M5 has Autotune?

haw haw haw

I think the new mustang has something like that. I was talking to one of the company reps and he was saying they had some sort of sound enhancers or something, I dont really know. But the think the idea was the same as this BMW thing. I was wholly unimpressed and thus didnt pay too much attention

fritzsch wrote: I think the new mustang has something like that. I was talking to one of the company reps and he was saying they had some sort of sound enhancers or something, I dont really know. But the think the idea was the same as this BMW thing. I was wholly unimpressed and thus didnt pay too much attention

The Mustang is different. It's mechanical and a little odd. The Ford engineers didn't like that all of the sound deadening took away the intake roar (they had plenty of exhaust), so they made a "snorkus". It's basically a plastic tube that draws some of the engine's air from the car's interior. I can live with that as it's functional, mechanical, and is the actual engine making the noise.

But piped in pre-recorded noise is stupid.

carguy123 wrote: Jealous?!

Uh, no? I can hear my engine just fine. It'll even drown out the radio. You know, like what a V8 is supposed to do.

In reply to Javelin:

Oh okay, I guess thats better than what I thought it was. They should just do away with the sound deadening though

Javelin wrote:

fritzsch wrote: I think the new mustang has something like that. I was talking to one of the company reps and he was saying they had some sort of sound enhancers or something, I dont really know. But the think the idea was the same as this BMW thing. I was wholly unimpressed and thus didnt pay too much attention

The Mustang is different. It's mechanical and a little odd. The Ford engineers didn't like that all of the sound deadening took away the intake roar (they had plenty of exhaust), so they made a "snorkus". It's basically a plastic tube that draws some of the engine's air from the car's interior. I can live with that as it's functional, mechanical, and is the actual engine making the noise. But piped in pre-recorded noise is stupid.

BMW did the same thing with some Z3's I think.

Not sure the M5 is pre-recorded - the sound does stop if you unplug the amp - I am told.

I find the squealing tires a definate distraction.

See obnoxious rubber smoke rant elsewhere . . . .

There was an M5 at an AutoX I was at last weekend. They do have a rather bizarre sounding exhaust at full throttle, sort of a Banshee kind of scream. I wasn't a huge fan of it, some might be, but it was certainly unique. Didn't sound anything like a "traditional' V8.

I don;t know about the V8.. but the V10 can make your ears bleed at full chat without a muffler

aircooled wrote: Didn't sound anything like a "traditional' V8.

Because it isn't one.

if only they had this feature on the E46 M3. Except with the speakers on the outside. So everyone at every autocross doesn't have to hear its disgusting stock exhaust sound (is a big rattle really a sound?). Pipe some good exhaust sound from a rear-bumper speaker. Win.

I wonder if one of the reasons for this is because of noise laws? I mean, I sort of doubt a company like BMW would "fake" the sound an engine makes...but hey, never owned, or even ridden in one, yet.

Are you sure this isn't like that deal, in reverse, that GM/Chevy was using that pipes white noise of a certain frequency into a car to cancel out "bad noises"?

Josh wrote:

aircooled wrote: Didn't sound anything like a "traditional' V8.

Because it isn't one.

Um, that's the previous generation car. The new one is indeed a V8.

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/22/2012-bmw-m5-first-drive-review/

I'm almost as irritated by the Mustang sound duct. It's an order of magnitude less lame for being its own engine's sound, though the fact that they added complexity to duct some engine sound to the interior is so anti-form-follows-function as to grate on my sensibilities like the proverbial nails on chalkboard.

But yeah, the BMW system is even worse. If I give the description a really charitable reading, I'm able to imagine that it's an electronic version of the Mustang's duct, basically putting a mic on the engine and playing the result in the stereo, but it sure sounds like it's basically a factory installed SoundRacer.

Spectacularly lame.

My M3 (e36) w/ a UUC-Corsa twin can cat back and a Conforti intake w/ an M50 manifold sounds completely bad ass, like 1/2 of a V12 Ferrari.

The noise thing is ridiculously stupid, but that motor sure looks dead sexy in that engine bay!

SlickDizzy wrote:

Josh wrote:

aircooled wrote: Didn't sound anything like a "traditional' V8.

Because it isn't one.

Um, that's the previous generation car. The new one is indeed a V8. http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/22/2012-bmw-m5-first-drive-review/

Yeah but to be fair, the new one isn't even really out yet, so it's highly unlikely it was the V8 one he saw.

Javelin wrote: The Mustang is different. It's mechanical and a little odd. The Ford engineers didn't like that all of the sound deadening took away the intake roar (they had plenty of exhaust), so they made a "snorkus". It's basically a plastic tube that draws some of the engine's air from the car's interior. I can live with that as it's functional, mechanical, and is the actual engine making the noise.

One of my friends is seriously going to get a new Mustang next year when his truck is paid off. (He gets X-plan) He was looking at the V6 models because of their silly fuel economy while still making great power, but now he's coming around to my egging him on and is seriously considering a GT. (Come on, how many new Mustangs are you going to buy? It's only about $6k more...) With the Brembo brake package, to boot. That surprised me.

He gave me that twisted-neck confused dog stare when I told him about the sound tube. They made the car's NVH so quiet that they ran a 1" tube from the air cleaner to the firewall to pipe intake noise into the cabin. No, really, they did. Seriously, I'm not kidding! Don't take my word for it, fine, go to a dealership and look under the hood.

I still don't think he believes me.

mad_machine wrote: I don;t know about the V8.. but the V10 can make your ears bleed at full chat without a muffler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqrgnyl0IeA

Hail to the king.

As a huge BMW fanboi I'll say, don't care, costs more than my house.

I'll stick to old cheap ones that sound like sewing machines.

The sound tube is an old trick.

Hell, even our beloved Mazda was tweaked into sounding like an LBC.

So a car makes around 500hp but doesn't scream is an issue? It is like the movie "Rendevous" where they substituted a ferrari V8 noise over the original soundtrack of a mercedes m100 69er. I've heard enough 100hp civics with fart can which is annoyingly loud and sounds like something is wrong in the engine that I like the idea of a "silent but deadly" car. All that noise is just lost energy and momentum. Reminds me of when I went to the classic races at infineon in april, the 4 cylinder cars basically screamed around the track with a very loud soundtrack while the jag 6 cyl were basically very quite. It appears european refinement is a bit too much for american sensibilities. Anyways if I want to hear a cammed big block I just go to safeway and listen to the freezer, sounds like it has a hemi in it.

^^^^^

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA American sensibilities, your funny.

Lame, yes, stop me from buying an M5 if I had that kind of money, no