Best engine idle sound?

Trans Am
Itala
Ferrari Testarossa
Corvette
Mustang Boss
 
[YOUTUBE]http://youtube.com/watch?v=9675TKafw3g[/YOUTUBE]

mmmm 4 rotors
 
Blind_Io said:
Sorry, but I hate the way most V8s sound at idle. I can't find any video, but back in the '30s Cadillac made a V16. I was around one when it was started at a car show - the car was so quiet it was eerie, but what little noise it made was glorious.
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Yea it's amazing how quiet some of those 70+ year old cars are. I was at the Concours and I didn't even know that an old Rolls Royce was driving behind me while I was walking because it was so quiet. But I guess the horn is deafening for a reason.
 
DarkReaper said:
With a carburator setup it is understandable that the idle may sound rough because of the limits imposed by only being able to swap some needles.
With a full injection setup though it should be possible to setup the low end perfect as well as the high end because of a pretty much infinitely variable injection map. Low end running like shit just shows that they don't even bother.
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I don't think it's a question of tuning. Your not going to get an engine with a huge cam to idle smoothly unless you crank it up really high. The cams not ground to give a smooth idle at a low rpm. But who wants their idle speed set at say 2000+rpm?

Personally the best sounding idle is a really nasty OHV V8. I love the whole barely idling, shitty off-idle throttle response thing. Idk why :lol:.
 
dissagree with you on that actually^^ that particular rotory reminds me of a crazy electric guitar ripping it up, not in taht video though
 
This is what a Corvette idle should sound like:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ANak8V7bo0[/youtube]

I disagree with your friend as well. The lumpy idle of an aggressive cam V8 is quite heavenly.
 
tigger said:
I don't think it's a question of tuning. Your not going to get an engine with a huge cam to idle smoothly unless you crank it up really high. The cams not ground to give a smooth idle at a low rpm. But who wants their idle speed set at say 2000+rpm?

Personally the best sounding idle is a really nasty OHV V8. I love the whole barely idling, shitty off-idle throttle response thing. Idk why :lol:.
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its not just the cams and the ECU, you would need variable intake and exhausts to make it work perfectly in all cases, and even with that it would be hard as ive never personally seen variable exhaust runners (headers) although long primary pipes on the headers are usually very forgiving as far as low-end power goes, downside is that the peak power is a little less and when you drop off the power band you really drop off the power band. Which is why long-tubes are soooo loved for pushrod engines that blow up if you rev a bit beyond the peak of the power-band
 
I have to say I love a flat four idle...even before I got my STI I loved it. That idle rumble just sounds perfect to me.

My GT on the otherhand...just sounds like it's coughing and clearing it's throat every lobe :D.

It's got a pretty aggressive cam and the exhaust is leaky. I know if I get the exhaust system fixed, I'll be loving it at idle :D.
 
My pick would have to be a Harley V-Twin.
I know, it's not a car but that lumpy idle sound is awesome.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs-2LBnslfE[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGMyAEW2nw[/YOUTUBE]
 
CraigB said:
Ugh, unmuffled rotary, most annoying sound ever...
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It's an aquired taste. Though I will admit 2 rotor engines sound like a pack of weed whackers.

This on the other hand sounds f-ing awesome at idle, and not to shabby in the revs.
[youtube=OT2MGLtyFpY]20b-BP FC[/youtube]

[youtube]bIGr0Oo8je8[/youtube]

Obviously I have no problems with the funky idle. I'm a big fan of the near wild cam SBC's. They sound very tinny, as if the fuel is still combusting with the exhaust valve open/in the header, bust still maintains a smooth (sounding) idle.
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpIUSiyiqYI[/YOUTUBE]

You gotta love the raw power of a 499hp 1,5L engine!!
i couldn't find a shorter version of this.. Sorry..
 
thedguy said:
[youtube]bIGr0Oo8je8[/youtube]
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intake sound was alright, still a bit goofy, but the later half of that really made me wonder why ANYBODY still puts fartcans on their cars. Hell its not just fart cans, any exhaust tip that is more then its own girth in length and is larger then the standard exhaust does it. Huge 3 or 4 inch exhaust makes it even worse, especially when most people just through parts at cars, im sure with the right headers 3-4 inch exhausts would work and sound fine (they do with F1 cars) but most people aren't reving high-enough to even need such large exhausts, and on Turbo cars people completely forget to adjust header sizing

PS: yay pink floyd!, first time i heard that particular song i was waking up and groggy, and it messed with my head bigtime
 
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Header tuning doesn't mean a huge amount on turbo cars, it's mostly about getting a clean hard pulse from the runners to the turbo, the quicker the better, longer tubes release more heat which reduces energy to the turbine.

That particular car is actually turbo, they were just playing with it before they threw the turbo setup. I believe it's supposed to rev to 12k and run upto 25psi+ of boost... but on on 13psi of boost it made 770 Whp @5500rpm. If there is one car that can use a 4" exhaust pipe it's a 700hp triple rotor.

One thing with rotaries is they use massive amounts more air for their given HP than piston engines, go look into what setup is run on a 700hp supra and then look at a 500hp 13b, they'll be oddly similar. And the 3 rotors I've seen all had very large exhaust pipes going from the turbo outlet all the way back... The first 3 rotor RX-8 had a 5" pipe.

RX7_20B024_jpg.jpg


More links to the car.
http://forums.streetfire.net/showthread.php?t=5809&page=1&pp=10&highlight=mps
 
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thedguy said:
Header tuning doesn't mean a huge amount on turbo cars, it's mostly about getting a clean hard pulse from the runners to the turbo, the quicker the better, longer tubes release more heat which reduces energy to the turbine.
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no disrespect meant, but i don't buy into that, i think its just that less people know the black-magic behind turbo cars as compared to N/A, so you get people doing instinctive and "common sense" things, rather then logical things

I mean most people in the high horse-power turbo race are usually more convinced by large numbers then finesse and attention to detail
 
Ottobon said:
no disrespect meant, but i don't buy into that, i think its just that less people know the black-magic behind turbo cars as compared to N/A, so you get people doing instinctive and "common sense" things, rather then logical things

I mean most people in the high horse-power turbo race are usually more convinced by large numbers then finesse and attention to detail
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No disrespect taken, it's a logical opinion to have. Part of the reason why I do agree with the policy is that it is logical. Why try and scrape an extra 10 hp from turning your headers and sacrificing turbo response when you can just up the boost a psi or 2 and be good. Plus there is still the problems of packaging, and I always think in terms of a high performance street car, rather than a dyno queen/showcar/race car.

Also looking at Honda's turbo v6 F1 engine shows a fairly tight setup.
http://www.gurneyflap.com/hondav6turbo.html

If you search up racing v8's (ilmore indy v8's from the early 90's) you'll see they do use tuned length headers fed into a collector, with waste gates set in the up/y-pipes going to the single turbo. But rules required single turbo's, and so they likely gave themselves the room, plus boost by that point was limited (and still is) to such a ridiculously low amount that the turbos are used for their muffling effect.

Also I have read a few engineering texts, and (briefly) talked with engineers about this and it's not worth the effort for the minor gains. They likened it to putting massive amount of effort into gaining a few more revs from a small engine rather than just bore the motor out a bit and take advantage of the torque boost across the entire RPM range.
 
The Supernatural Impala Wins By A Mile

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRZF8Q2mI3E[/YOUTUBE]

its about 18 seconds in.
 
What the bloody hell have they done to that Monaro (first video) to make it idle like that??? Must have the lumpiest damn cams ever!

For idle the Z06 wins, under load that other corvette video (above) wins!!
 
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