Why do most American V8s sound terrible to me?

So my fabricator has been working on me for years now to put a V8 in the Datsun but one of the hurdles is most American V8s sound terrible to me so I haven't warmed up to the idea.

Meanwhile other V8s; Ferrari, Aston and BMW sound pretty good to me.

Is it the architecture perhaps or the exhaust type? 

I will tell you I was watching one of the car build shows and the guys had a 60s stock car that sounded fantastic. 

Basically most of the V8s I hear in traffic sound awful to me. Is this a case like the guys who put blat mufflers on 4 cylinder cars in that very few street car guys put decent exhausts on their cars?

So hive learn me / help me appreciate the good ole American V8 exhaust note or at least tell me how to make one sounds good or more importantly sound good to me. 

Your ears must be broken

Most European V8s are flat plane, that may be part of it.  Look up the new Corvette C8 and the most recent Shelby GT350 and see how they sound.  They are both flat planes.

Also, its cause you're a heretic

Small, usually multivalve engines, many with flat plane cranks will sound considerably different to larger, pushrod engines with different firing orders.

Regarding exhaust vs architecture. Probably a bit of both.

An LS truck motor usually sounds pretty bleh with loud exhaust while I'm pretty fond of the sound a C5/6 Corvette makes. I suspect it's a combination of the exhaust design mandated by both chassis' and the fact that the Corvette engines typicallly have higher compression, rev higher, and have cam shafts designed around making them rev higher and the more pleasant sound is a by product. 

You can also strap a Flowmaster to anything you want and make it sound horrible. And V8 people love their Flowmasters. 

EDIT: What Patrick said too.

I disagree on most non-American V8en using flatplane cranks.  Outside of Ferrari, I believe most V8's from ROW are still crossplane cranks. 

I think it's induction noise and general noise from overhead cam setups vs. pushrods that would cause this, and then it's down to the exhaust system components.  In today's environment of noise and emissions requirements, a bunch of Webers vs. a big Holley carb aren't available to make this difference.

I don't really like the typical sound of an American V8 blowing through large Flowmaster (or similar) mufflers.  When I had my old '95 Mustang with pushrod 5.0 V8, I went out of my to avoid that with an aftermarket exhaust.  I always thought that car sounded great, but I used a cat'd X-pipe and turbo mufflers which use packing and perforated pipe instead of baffles and walls to manage noise.  I don't know what V8's your considering for your car but it doesn't have to sound like your typical American hot rod.

Flat plane crank? Nah, not many of those outside Ferrari and the GT350. My guess is it’s mostly the overhead cams. 

I think the newer Mustang sounds pretty good. The Dodge and GM units sound terrible at aggressive throttle.

It’s funny you mention this because I heard a ZL1 Camaro rip today, and it sounded awful.

Elitism?

I'm a GM fan boy but Ford V8s sounds better. It's the firing order iirc. 

Guys.  I said many, not ALL had flat plane cranks.  Most of those would be Ferrari/Lamborghini/Maserati rather than ze Germans or similar.

If you notice the AMG cars have been steadily upping the size of their motors and they are sounding more and more American in the amount of rumble and burble.

I had a 740iL briefly that was a nice engine wrapped around a PITA car to work on, but would be a nice cruiser if you didn't have to fix it all the time.  That quad cam V8 was very nice and made some nice noises while pulling to 7 or 8000 without complaint.

European cars tended to compensate for engine size with more RPM capability due to the emissions and licensing fees there, so that's another reason for the differences in engines.  The other is that in the US, the V8 was mostly used for low RPM torque output and smooth cruising, so high RPMs were generally not desired.

In reply to Stefan :

They may be responding to me

Because a 5000 rpm redline is poopy. Look up videos of cup cars qualifying at Indianapolis. 9300 rpm sounds positively delicious.

Cactus said:

Because a 5000 rpm redline is poopy. Look up videos of cup cars qualifying at Indianapolis. 9300 rpm sounds positively delicious.

It's all personal opinion. I don't care for the sound of high rpm engines.

Sound inside the car is different than outside, unless it's an open car. I thought my Ram had a nice rumble with the stock exhaust, but I never spent much time on the outside. Same with the 5.0 LTD. I would agree that most or maybe half of V8 cars with aftermarket exhaust don't sound that great, but it's true of all cars, not just the V8 ones.

There was a 70 chevelle yesterday at the gas station, it had a mean lumpy idle, but when it pulled away, it sounded horrible.

I think there are not these 'cut-outs' that even the OEM use, which make the engines sound terrible hollow tinny.

Me thinks you need to post video examples of the bad ones and the good ones and see if 'the hive' agrees with you.  :)

Like I think this one sounds bad..

Those cars from the 60s sounded awesome because they had glass packs. You need some cherry bombs. 

I was responding to Mr. Asa, yeah.  Agreed that most LSen don't sound that great.  Somehow Ford doesn't seem to have made a V8 that sounds that bad to me.

My old man used to drive a 79 c30 for work. 350 th400, no emissions and dual 2.5" blowmaster 40s with no crossover, 4.56 rear. Sounded fantastic. New work rig is a similar vintage van, 350 th350. Using the very same intake and carb, and one of the mufflers from the old truck. 3.24 rear. Sounds lame. Both engines are stock replacement truck motors with stock internals and cams. Probably 7.5:1 too. I used the other flowmaster on my otherwise stock S10 tbi 4.3. Sounded great though every other NA 4.3 I've heard sounded like the trash they are. 

In reply to Tom1200 :

Here's my American V-8 with 180 degree headers - maybe explore that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Jt3K3SU9Y

Forrest

In reply to nimblemotorsports :

I think that stang actually sounds pretty decent. 

I agree that it is the revs and multi cam/valves that give european V8s that distinctive sound. Having said that, my Disco with it's 4.6 Buick derived engine with a full stainless magnaflow system sounds much different from most american V8s.

The 'new' hemi that is in the Charger/Challenger doesnt sound good to me. The aftermarket exhausts that many people buy doesnt help.

Old V8s with carbs and high compression sound better. When a stout big block goes by and the exhaust has a ring after each blat, its perfect.

They probably sound terrible because of the aftermarket dreck some folks put on their vehicles. If they still sound bad to you with a sorted exhaust then there's always 180° headers. 

I like me some V8 sounds, but they generally aren't American in origin...usually German, Italian, or British. 

1 will say that special BRM 1.5L V16 motor from the late 50s makes some of my most favorite car sounds along with V10s and the quad-rotary R26B powered Mazda racecars.  American V8s just not really my preference - the Shelby 350GT though, that has a nice sounding V8!

Daylan C said:

Regarding exhaust vs architecture. Probably a bit of both.

An LS truck motor usually sounds pretty bleh with loud exhaust while I'm pretty fond of the sound a C5/6 Corvette makes. I suspect it's a combination of the exhaust design mandated by both chassis' and the fact that the Corvette engines typicallly have higher compression, rev higher, and have cam shafts designed around making them rev higher and the more pleasant sound is a by product. 

You can also strap a Flowmaster to anything you want and make it sound horrible. And V8 people love their Flowmasters. 

EDIT: What Patrick said too.

The flaw in V8's is the firing order.  Adjacent cylinders may fire between 90 & 270 degrees apart which require a perfect designed set of headers at exactly the right rpm to sound sweet.  By that I mean where you can hear all 8 cylinders cleanly.  At engine speeds above or below that you hear 6 cylinders and a stumble where the pulse of two cylinders merge together.  It's much worse when you have side pipes where you actually hear 3 cylinders and a stumble and fractionally  delayed weaker repeat of the other side.  ( delayed because a slightly further distance to travel from the far side) 

Circle track cars typically have both of the exhaust on the passengers side, which allows you to hear all 8.  ( but that configuration is putting the exhaust out on the high pressure side of the car slightly lowering power output).  Right hand drive would make more power because the exhaust could then exit on the left hand ( lower pressure ) side. But that would put the driver that much closer to the wall.  
On a different matter can you go over the weight differences again?  I seem to remember the lightest V8's as being in that 400 pound range while the 1200 was about 1/2 that ? Then you add the weight of 8 bigger exhaust pipes   Instead of 4 smaller and added cooling, transmission weight plus rear end weight. Seems like you're going to add several hundred pounds which would remove some of the nimbleness of your car. 

I personally think the loopy idle of a cross plane crank sounds better with 180° headers then a flat plane does.  But, I grew up around drag racing, so that's my bias.

https://youtu.be/pNTh6sRnYlM