Exhaust note

So, how does that saying go: one man's music is another man's noise? A sport bike just flew past the office which got me thinking about that subject. Too bad it's not super-easy to compare exhaust notes online.

For me it's more about where and when I hear it rather than the specific exhaust note. A gaggle of vintage Trans-Am cars running down the main straight at Lime Rock ... beautiful. A Harley running straight pipes past my house at 3:00 in the morning ... nay nay. (Actually I can barely tolerate the noise of Harleys running straight pipes any time, but especially at 3:00 am).

I like almost anything at WOT. Loud at part throttle makes me crazy, though.

I think the worst sounding exhausts are tired, mostly stock pickups and SUVs with large diameter dual exhaust. They seem to be extra popular around here.

I like the way my 1800S sounds pretty much...

Dyno pull video

It's a little snarly around town, but I hardly hear the exhaust on the highway. It's certainly not fatiguing in daily driving.

I think it is clearly in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. I love the sound of a big-cammed V8, (Can-AM cars) but can't think of one Honda car that has ever sounded good to me. Obviously the kids with the "fart cans" think their Civics sound bitchin......as do the guys in the jacked up pickup trucks running straight pipes.

to each his own I guess.....even if that means they are all wrong!

I had a glass pack main muffler on my BGT and the stock resonator. I liked to roll down the window when I went through tunnels, it sounded so cool!

Dave

Most cars sound good. Fart can Honduhs don't. Poorly muffled rotaries don't. Uncorked Harleys really don't.

My nominations are the Audi motors from the Group B era, most classic six cylinder engines and, of course, the soul stirring Merlin aircraft engine from WWII.

Alfa V6 easily one of the best, but most cars can have a good exhaust note with the proper tuning. That doesn't include a fart can Honda though.

There's very few sports or performance vehicles that have a well tuned engine that I wouldn't like, but my Solstice GXP sounds like a mail truck with a hole in the muffler.

I love the exhaust note of my 911 on a standard can but I'm not a big fan of massively "uncorked" ones. But then again I'm of the "walk quietly, carrying a +5 big stick" school.

I am a big fan of a well tuned exhaust note. I like a little bit of volume to be available when the throttle is opened up, but constant noise is bad. I really like the sound quality of some of the newer Aston Martin and Jaguar cars I've encounterd on the street. For some reason, well modded V8 Mustangs often sound great as well. I hate most aftermarket exhaust applications (fart cans) on small imports I've been around. They sound terrible, both tone and volume are unacceptable.

My brother has a WRX with lots of aftermarket bits, including an exhaust. While not the classic fart can, I didn't like it at all. It sounded okay out and about, but not so much at idle. I let him live in my basement for a short period when he was taking summer semester classes and was between apartment leases. That damn car woke me up every morning, with what I felt was an unacceptably loud and farm tractor like exhaust note.

My exhaust note is quiet with the resonator removed and a standard type of muffler. On the other hand I have a performance air filter that offers a nice tone when at wide open and the secondary opens. At cruise it is quiet as possible in an old sports car.

Cheers Ron

WilD wrote about his brother's WRX:

"That damn car woke me up every morning, with what I felt was an unacceptably loud and farm tractor like exhaust note."

I've noticed that a Subie with an aftermarket exhaust sounds a lot like a VW Beetle. Must be the flat four configuration.

In reply to VClassics:

I'm kind of partial to my big Healey at full song on the track or a Sunday drive up the Oregon's beautiful Columbia Gorge. The neighbors aren't too happy with me though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PmVU_8sHbI

Dougie

In reply to dougie:

Yep, there's not too much that beats the sound of a big Healey

what's the difference between a big cam v8 vs. a tuned 4cyl both with exhaust. They both hit just about the same level of decibels as one another. I've got a 59 Chevy P/U with a 350, hooker headers, and basicly 2.75" pipe running through to the back (muffler is shot so I don't count it). Then I've got a Honda prelude 2.2L with 3 inch pipe, hi-flow cat, no res, magna flow oval single in/dual out muffler. Now I've started both of them up to prove a point to my retired CHP officer neighbor of mine that, the V8 is louder, if not the same, as my honda. During Idle my honda was just a little bit louder, but when playing on the gas with both the v8 was much louder then my honda. I'm a fan of all cars, both new and old, trucks and bikes, all having a decent sounding exhaust. But when there are "Old Foogies" out there complaining specificly about any import sounding to loud, it irritates me. Because if it was a nice sounding classic starting at 4am in the morning, it wouldn't bother you. Just remember you were that age once and prolly fixed up a car or two during their time, and I'm sure it sounded pretty bad ass. So why can't we fix up our imports like you did with the now classics of your time?

My uncle (MGA owner) has an old record called "Sounds of Sebring" that is pretty much all exhaust notes. Jags, Ferraris, Porsches, etc. I haven't heard it in years. I wonder if it's floating around the web somewhere in mp3 form...

BTW: I told one of the neighborhood kids that his Honda sounded like a lawn mower. He didn't find it funny...

In reply to firetyrant:

Absolutely nothing wrong with kids fixing up imports -- I encourage anyone who wants to mess around with cars to do so, whatever kind of car appeals to him or her. It's just that most of the "tuner" exhaust kits I've seen on Hondas and the like sound like a robot hollering down a megaphone. It's not how loud it is, it the tone quality that doesn't exactly grab me.