After Gymkhana 1 the Ken Block videos got a bit same same. For Gymkhana 7 there was nothing left for Ken to do except go V8. In this post I raise a serious question "What is about the sound of a V8 ?" I've searched the internet nobody can actually single out what it is. No scientific explanation that explains why it is so much better than say a straight 5. Maybe it's just cultural indoctrination?

Wow, what a car and what a driver!!!

Firing order of the V8 means the exhaust pulses come out a certain way. Cross Plane (US) and Flat Plane (Euro) V8s sound different. The Cross Plane V8 is what most of us are used too. Gives it that dramatic, bestial sound that human beings seem to acknowledge as symbolic of power.

For me Rolls Royce Merlin and Griffon aero V12s sound better, as do the big 2-stroke diesels in railway locomotives.

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ikw777 said..
Firing order of the V8 means the exhaust pulses come out a certain way. Cross Plane (US) and Flat Plane (Euro) V8s sound different. The Cross Plane V8 is what most of us are used too. Gives it that dramatic, bestial sound that human beings seem to acknowledge as symbolic of power.

For me Rolls Royce Merlin and Griffon aero V12s sound better, as do the big 2-stroke diesels in railway locomotives.

The Nissans & Mercs in the V8s are using flat plane cranks and sound very different to the fords and holdens.

Oh and Volvo

Modern sports cars have audio control, some have an additional exhaust pipe and some have speakers in the firewall that add to the engine noise, it comes into play especially when switching to sports mode.

Yep they're faking it.

Back when i had a tunable exhaust on my muddabike it proved loud isn't necessarily fast. Off Topic but one of the reasons I hate Harley's, oh and they can't corner and they're heavy and and Rant over.

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ikw777 said..
Firing order of the V8 means the exhaust pulses come out a certain way. Cross Plane (US) and Flat Plane (Euro) V8s sound different. The Cross Plane V8 is what most of us are used too. Gives it that dramatic, bestial sound that human beings seem to acknowledge as symbolic of power.

For me Rolls Royce Merlin and Griffon aero V12s sound better, as do the big 2-stroke diesels in railway locomotives.

Thanks IKW, by googling Cross plane V8 I came up with a plausible explanation.

" While the firing of the four-stroke crossplane V8 is evenly spaced overall, the firing order on the 'L'eft and 'R'ight banks are LRLLRLRR or RLRRLRLL, with each 'L' or 'R' ignition being separated by 90° crank rotation for a total of 720° for eight ignitions."

So each bank fires unevenly, then I'd guess that unless you combine the exhaust from each bank carefully into the one tail pipe, that distinctive sound will come through.

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Ian K said..

" While the firing of the four-stroke crossplane V8 is evenly spaced overall, the firing order on the 'L'eft and 'R'ight banks are LRLLRLRR or RLRRLRLL, with each 'L' or 'R' ignition being separated by 90° crank rotation for a total of 720° for eight ignitions."

So each bank fires unevenly, then I'd guess that unless you combine the exhaust from each bank carefully into the one tail pipe, that distinctive sound will come through.

Yup, but I don't have the spatial or other cognitive skills to make sense of that, so fall back on the old cross-plane = rumble, flat-plane = yowl explanation and leave it at that.

As to the question of why one sounds better to most people than the other, we'd have to go looking at the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and anthropology for an answer.

It's been well researched b4. That is why there is fake noises for sports cars. There is also an entire separate studies based on the noise when car doors close and another for the noise when you tap a dashboard. All of these effects and many more are carefully manipulated to sell more cars. It is becoming a big issue for the sales of electric cars.

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ikw777 said...

Ian K said..
As to the question of why one sounds better to most people than the other, we'd have to go looking at the disciplines of psychology, sociology, and anthropology for an answer.

Maybe it's a little more simple than that... i grew up with v8's like most aussie kids but now give me the sound of a turbo rotor/2jz/rb26/vg30 any day. I'm quite partial to turbo v8's too. Guess it depends on what form of motorsport you're into.

dunno about this V8 stuff, unless its an old school flat head lurking with intent - pity there aren't too many around any more,

The combination of the crankshaft harmonics / webers / Ford Essex 3 litre V6 and open pipes hurtling updriving sedately up the Great Northern Goat Track was awesome back in the day,

Same with twin-cam escorts and twin cam FIATs running webers, I can pick them from miles away - even though my hearing is shot

- and on a lighter note - everyone needs to be hit with the scream of an LJ50 doing its best to spread the goodness of Castrol R across the countryside


stephen

Huge fan, but the seventh album is always a tricky one.

hes an ameture ! :

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slammin said..


Off Topic but one of the reasons I hate Harley's, oh and they can't corner and they're heavy and and Rant over.

Yeh well it took Buell to make something of a Harley engine, then Harley saw they were being made fools of so bought out Buell and shut them down.

Harley Davidsons are just a phallic extension.

Regarding exhaust notes, I will take this one any day and twice on Sunday.



And this howls better than a V8, out grunts it too.

I love turbo straight 6's but you can't say out grunt, twin turbo v8/10's are regularly making street driven 16-1800hp in the US.

Fastest of each there is less than 0.5 sec & a little over 10mph on the quarter.

1100hp in above vid sounds impressive, lose half of it at the wheels though & i'll bet that figure was attained with race fuel. Still it'd make a weapon on the street provided you can find a gearbox that'll hold up.

But perhaps i'm biased i'm aiming for similar figures out of a little 2 rotor, or rather i'll be happy when it hits a real 1000hp on race fuel (i'd say stop but turbo's are getting better by the day at the moment).

Don't mind Ken Block's vids but in american fashion uses horsepower to overcome everything, in this one too much smoke for the sake of it & reverse entry... pfft stack on another 100km/h & do it properly like the master...

I know I'll get red thumbed for this, but I wish this guy was doing stuff in some more fuel efficient cars. It's time to change the perception that a car needs to guzzle gas to be cool. There is some amazing new technology coming out in terms of hybrid and electric supercars that needs to be showcased, not throwbacks from the past burning as much fuel and rubber as possible.

If you are interested check out the Jaguar CX-7 electric supercar (yes I know it's just a concept, but it does exist) and have a look at the new BMW i8 hybrid. Both are awesome cars. I won't put up the links, just have a look on youtube if you haven't seen them before.

But it isn't just about going fast, it is about the noise/smell/feel... sit 5m away from a top fueller doing 400km/h or having your eyes & ears burn from having a turbo monster tuning the two step, watching a blown v8 disappear in a cloud of smoke or keeping the revs or boost just so to nail the perfect corner & you'll see that these are things electric engines will never replace. Yes in almost every way electric motors are better, for people that see cars as a way to get from a to b then perhaps that is all that needs to be considered but for the rest of us fossil fuel consuming motors are an almost organic thing, each has it's different attributes, temperament, ways to make it perform and keep it happy.

Yes the stuff that is happening with supercars & f1 & manufacturer R&D is fantastic but I will bet that in 20 years the best and most expensive hypercar won't be a hybrid or electric drive, it'll be a good old fashioned fuel guzzling proper drivers car.

Personally I like the thong slapping V8 sound best. Followed by a 250 2 Stroke dirt bike at full noise!!!

Like MK says, its what you have grown up with.

the Mercedes supercar engine sounds insane. at the gold coast it was the best sounding to me.

similar to the old F1 cars at times but with less volume.

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mkseven said...
But perhaps i'm biased i'm aiming for similar figures out of a little 2 rotor, or rather i'll be happy when it hits a real 1000hp on race fuel (i'd say stop but turbo's are getting better by the day at the moment).

Turbo's might be getting better every day but the little wankel is still going to need a rebuild after 7 or 8 seconds

$800 of seals & 3 hours of my time, may as well do it each service

Dont be so shore about the every 7 8 seconds, they are running 6.19 @ 230mph, new world record in the last
month, has the same engine not rebuilt yet, nearly up to 100 runs.
my std engine has had 3 turbos, 3 gear box's & 2 rear diffs in 14years & runs 10.6 & no signs of getting old. mayb
people just dont know how to own rotarys.

^^^^ agreed.

V8 guys always complain about rotary reliability as they are annoyed the guy spent haf the $$$ and blew the doors off the V8.


I just love all of them, for me it is the 38,000 rpm and nitromethane smell in RC ..... it is on par with a proper V8 noise ..... but nothing wrong with a turbine engine either

i'm with remo

imho if it's not a v8 sound, then it's just a big fart, no matter how much hp it generates

but the turbines sound cool too

V.12 interceptor.the noise of these old skool cars are insane.

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busterwa said..
hes an ameture ! :

video

i was waiting for them to finish putting the car together to then realise they had just built a skoda