The Sound of a Car:
All of you have experienced it… Everyone has been awakened in the morning to what sounds like an oversized mosquito or perhaps an angry chainsaw set to take over the world. Your neighbor just got a Honda Civic, and he just wanted to make it his own. He went and bought a muffler for his new car! To him, it is special. To you, it is a memory embedded in your mind that keeps you up at night, praying that the car explodes the next time he turns the key.
Most also have good experiences with the sounds of a car. It may be that you are a die-hard fan of NASCAR or Formula 1, and you have been at the track and experienced the rumble of thousands of horsepower rocketing down the track. Maybe you have turned up the volume on the TV if you know you can’t be at the track. For me, I try and crack the car window as I see a certain car coming toward me on the highway. Sometimes, I even shamelessly, just roll the window all the way down at a traffic light when a Mustang, Corvette, or Porsche stops beside me.
Hearing is one of our senses. It tells us a lot about our surrounding environment. It’s also one of those things that allows even those who don’t appreciate cars to receive and impression about a particular car. Today, most “normal” cars… let’s just say these include vehicles like the Toyota Camry, Honda CR-V, and Hyundai Sonata… they don’t produce much sound at all. That’s kind of the point. People that buy those kind of cars aren’t looking for sound. The goal is to have a gentle, quiet ride.
Think about it though… Most “sport” versions of a car are tuned differently to provide the driver with some more sensory enjoyment. The Honda Civic is actually pretty good example. The normal Civic is a quiet, comfortable car meant to be an affordable, efficient family car. The Civic Si, the “sports” variant of the Civic, is tuned differently to handle better, go a bit faster, and of course, to sound a little louder. The buyers of the Civic Si would appreciate a car with a louder exhaust as that is usually seen as a sign of performance, and it gives the car a little more character. It also provides an experience. In this case, it provides the experience that a budget-minded, younger enthusiast may enjoy.
Sound enhances the experience of a car. Noise does not. Just like everything else, there is a right way and a wrong way to produce the desired sound of a car. With that in mind, an inline four-cylinder engine will never sound the same as a big block, Chevy V-8 engine. Additionally, you can definitely ruin a good V-8 engine by putting a terrible exhaust system on your car. Even making it too loud could really ruin it for everyone, including yourself. If you use your car as a daily driver, and the exhaust drones on the highway, you may regret the decision you made to buy the car or the system you just purchased.
In order to eliminate drone and unwanted noise, many newer performance cars also have what is called an “active exhaust system”. This means that the sound of the car can be made louder or quieter based on the driver’s preference and ride settings. The Corvette Z06 that we reviewed last week is a good example of this. It has a quieter and louder setting for the exhaust depending on whether or not the car is in comfort or track mode. Either way, that car sounds amazing, but when you do drive the car in comfort mode, the exhaust note is dulled in order to provide just that… comfort. Cars like the new 2018 Mustang GT and Jaguar F Type also have this “active exhaust” system.
The sound that a car makes is part of the experience of the car, especially for enthusiasts. There is almost nothing like hearing a good clip or seeing a video of cars exiting a show. It is very satisfying. The sound of a car is also an art. It is a delicate balancing act. You want to show of your car and let people know it’s there, but you also don’t want an annoying exhaust drone on the way to work or on a trip. Some people get it, some people don’t, but either way, you have to admit that you wouldn’t mind taking a ride in that Lamborghini you just heard, even though you didn’t see it.
