Mentioned by others, I’ll still run outside and look up when I hear a round engine ( I grew up about a mile from the end of one of the runways at a now closed Naval Air Station, lots of P2V Neptune’s went over my head low enough to see the numbers with a pair of big radials at takeoff power in the late ‘60’s. Not to mention the occasional military version of the DC-6.)
In the car world, someone local has a newer GT 350 with the flat plane Voodoo engine and it sounds soooo nasty. 
Ain't nothing in the world sounds as good as a pissed off Big Block Chevy.
I Hear your V12, and up it 12 more cylinders.
I love the sound of an uncorked small block ford. Big block Chevy pissed off? YES. Nothing sends chills down my spine, and makes me weak in the knees like the sound of that aircraft.
Totally bummed when his son crashed it, glad to know it's still flying under the red bull teams care.
I grew up on Air Force bases, the sound of military aircraft is like a lullaby to me. No other ONE thing makes me feel like a kid again more than closing my eyes and just listening to a busy military airspace. Even today living less than a mile from a rural runway, when we get the occasional military traffic it just makes me smile. The local Otter that runs constantly for the drop zone, and the GA traffic don't make me look up that often. But the sound of a military jet engine or round motor will snap my head up in a heartbeat to scan the sky. The Flight of A10's that rolled over a few a months ago made me so giddy I thought I might need a moment. (we were stationed at a base with 3 wings of them at one point)
In reply to Mr. Lee :
Enzo Ferrari understood racing. Accordingly he made the pipes on his V12's slightly smaller than optimum for hp because that increases torque. Torque out of corners usually beats peak horsepower.
A side effect is that produces a higher exhaust note. That sound has been frequently called a scream but in actuality it's very melodious. Listen to any of his 3 liter V12's from the 50's through the early 60's. There is a reason Opera's are sung in Italian.
Mr. Lee said:I grew up on Air Force bases, the sound of military aircraft is like a lullaby to me. No other ONE thing makes me feel like a kid again more than closing my eyes and just listening to a busy military airspace. Even today living less than a mile from a rural runway, when we get the occasional military traffic it just makes me smile. The local Otter that runs constantly for the drop zone, and the GA traffic don't make me look up that often. But the sound of a military jet engine or round motor will snap my head up in a heartbeat to scan the sky. The Flight of A10's that rolled over a few a months ago made me so giddy I thought I might need a moment. (we were stationed at a base with 3 wings of them at one point)
The Navy uses round engines because they take up less hanger space. So early on in flight training you start using round motors. Back in the 60's everything was pistons and propeller.
I have slightly over a 1000 flight hours with a pair of unmuffled Wright radials in either ear. I'd return from a 7 hour flight with my ears ringing. When you add the 14 tons of a plane slamming into the flight deck at 130 mph and taking off right over my bed plus all the engine run ups on the flight deck and hanger bays a miracle I can still hear at all.
Now add several decades of racing not only unmuffled but a pair of megaphones, it's no wonder I have tinnitus.
But yeh! I still get excited when I hear those military engines overhead.
Lexus LFA, all day, every day.
Runner up to the BMW and Lambo V10s. The shrill wail of them is just awesome.
gearheadE30 said:I'm a sucker for anything that revs, and I'm a sucker for inline sixes, but the best sounding engine I have ever owned is the LC8 in my KTM 950 Adventure. I know it isn't a car, but that 75 degree V twin just sounds incredible. It never gets old, and it's one of those engines that is happy all the way up to the 9800ish rpm limiter, all day long.
I used to have a Honda CX500 with an 80 degree V-twin that liked to spin past 10,000 RPM. I'm with you that high winding, oddball V-twins have some great music.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
10k in a V-twin just seems like a bad idea, but if you done did it, it can't have been that bad.
Mmm, the sound of a Chrysler starter. What a sound!
Nothing beats the sound of a pissed off big block Chevy.
Keeping it automotive related, best car sound I've ever heard in person, LMP1 Panoz. Granted it was the roadster and not the GT1 car, at the Grand Prix of DC in 02'.
In reply to JesseWolfe :
A big yes to those Panoz race cars.
A memorable one for me: About 20 years ago, a C Prepared early Mustang at Solo Nats. It screamed like a Trans-Am car (which, I guess, it kinda was). But there was something memorable about it.
1 - Leon Mandel (C&D) wrote that listening to a 4 cylinder Porsche was like hearing ducks farting in tall grass (so they are out) The flat 6 sounds a lot better.
2 - I have a vinyl LP of engine sounds. It includes the BRM V16 F1 car - sounds like a demented chainsaw. Raced by Fangio, 72 psi boost, 1.5 l, 585 bhp @11,500 rpm in 1953
I just listened to several of these, and I'm in a way better mood now. Thanks everyone.
MadScientistMatt said:gearheadE30 said:I'm a sucker for anything that revs, and I'm a sucker for inline sixes, but the best sounding engine I have ever owned is the LC8 in my KTM 950 Adventure. I know it isn't a car, but that 75 degree V twin just sounds incredible. It never gets old, and it's one of those engines that is happy all the way up to the 9800ish rpm limiter, all day long.
I used to have a Honda CX500 with an 80 degree V-twin that liked to spin past 10,000 RPM. I'm with you that high winding, oddball V-twins have some great music.
Oddly enough, I have one of those too! It is crazy to me that a pushrod 2 valve V twin with zero performance pedigree should be so happy revving like that, but it is, and will do it all day long. The way they are geared is something like 7000 rpm at 75 mph going down the highway, too.
Mine, with the only WOT redline pull right at the end:
Attainable: Volkswagen VR6
Less attainable: Mazda 20B
Exotic: Lexus LFA
Motorcycle: Yamaha YZF-R1 (crossplane crankshaft)
While i like a lot of things, to me not much is better than a rowdy SBC that a little over cammed.
I note that Subaru is nowhere on the list.
This makes little sense to me since it sounds like a caricature of a crossplane V8's lopsided blop-blop-blop, so one would think that there must be some vocal minority that approves of it.
Given that my new project is very much Subaru powered, I've been watching a lot of Group A rally footage trying to steel myself to the sound of a low revving uneven sounding engine, but it all comes back to this:
Fits the bill, I bought a perfectly good* WRX for its drivetrain and suspension to set into a perfectly good** Mini Cooper S so that we could roost*** at rallycrosses.
* Not.
** Also not.
*** Between the two of us we have a heavily overpowered RX-7 and a heavily overpowered Miata, roosting is already represented in the field of activities
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Subarus used to sound great. And I'm sure they still can. But it's what people do to them now, probably trying to accentuate or magnify that sound that makes them sound so horrible. When I was rallycrossing 20 years ago there was a competitor who's daily driver Legacy sounded incredible. It wasn't loud, but it was deep, you knew it was there and it reminded me of half a V8.
In reply to frenchyd :
The big reason the Navy used radials was reliability. No coolant system = increased combat reliability.
Best v8: Ford 302
Best i6: toyota or nissan in the 80s/90s
Best 6: air-cooled Mezger
Best dorito: 787B
Best 10: Anything from the v10 f1 era...so much drool
I once met a Testarossa with my Cayman just south of the mexican border. The flat 12 sang a high rev duet with the flat 6 to over 7k rpm (for me). It was amazing to hear.
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