Best engine idle sound?

Ottobon

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Nov 27, 2005
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3,310
Location
Detriot Metro Area
Car(s)
2 Rust buckets and a confused 1999 American.
Recently went to the woodward dream cruise in Detriot. Basically its the most environmentally unfriendly car event ever. All it is is uncatted muscle cars spewing black smoke everywhere, in rush-hour like traffic, with lots of old people. Its alot more fun then it sounds though.

Anyways it brought up a interesting point, both me and my friend are pretty similar when it comes to what we like out of a cars sound under full throttle, but he actually hates the way alot of V8s sound at idle dispite driving a 5.0 mustang himself. He doesn't like the whole off-beat lumping idle, he likes a rather honda civic like "thud thud thud thud" Hes says a off-beat engine sounds like its broken, i say hes a idiot.

heres what he thinks sounds broken and what i say sounds brilliant

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOKgbHPw7F4[/YOUTUBE]

this is probably more of what he was thinking, ill state that i like the engine sound when revved just find, but i find the idle very boring
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y96LdXJFxGw[/YOUTUBE]

he mentioned the subaru, again, fine sounding under load, but the idle is a drain on my senses, no character at all
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPySTsT5mGQ[/YOUTUBE]


what do you think?
 
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I love the sound of a big V8 in a sporty car idling. For example: my brother's 84 Trans Am. It's got one of the best low rumbles I've ever heard from any car. You can feel it in your chest even when you're in the car. And I especially like the 60's muscle cars where it sounds like the engine is having trouble running because it's idling so low.

My motorcycle is weird with the noises it makes. When its just sitting there idling it sounds like an amusement park go cart. Not very impressive. But as soon as it gets above like 3000 revs it starts sounding like a sports car, which in turn encourages me to twist the grip a little more. 8)
 
How can you not like a Subaru boxe enginer loping at idle? It is very unique!

That "whump whump whump" sound...oh, wow.
 
Dream Cruise? Smoke?

http://img474.imageshack.**/img474/3510/1004823ya6.jpg

As for idle sound, the C6 definitely sounds the best out of those videos. But really, most cars have pretty boring idle sounds. Some sound better than others, however I haven't heard anything that sounds great at idle other than a handful of supercars.
 
slr v8

or a toyota prius!
 
Any Formula 1 car, purrring on the grid before the start... :D
 
+1. Subaru boxer FTW!

no problem with boxers, i just prefer old porsche idles "who-whomp who-whomp" is just better to me, the STI in that video is agitating to me for some reason, i need variations and some element of suprise, that doesn't have any

Dream Cruise? Smoke?

http://img474.imageshack.**/img474/3510/1004823ya6.jpg

As for idle sound, the C6 definitely sounds the best out of those videos. But really, most cars have pretty boring idle sounds. Some sound better than others, however I haven't heard anything that sounds great at idle other than a handful of supercars.


Yes very much smoke! not from our car though (5.0 Mustang) mostly bikes, one big suprise was how damn good this Porsche 928 sounded, even more suprising was that its sound wasn't completely out of place at such a event, i had to run over and ask the guy to rev it again (thats how slow the traffic moves) just to make sure it was actually him

anyways, i love the sound of the C6 in all of its variations, i spent a good portion my most recent lapping session behind a C6 Corvette and it was a damn good sounding car, i could hear a clear and beautiful tone over all the racket that is my mr2(lots of mechanical noise, but short on exhaust and intake noise) i just find "thud thud thud" much less entertaining in comparison to something that sounds alive
 
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I don't really like that muscle car idle noise. It sounds as if the engine is broken :|
 
I'm gonna have to go with a big block from the 60s/70s. Can't go wrong with that
 
Good:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba9HPsc8n4U[/youtube]

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

[youtube]mHdnN9_vf4[/youtube]
Sorry about the sound of the rain overpowering the engine - shows how quiet it is.
 
I've always liked the sound of a big, high compression V8 like in an NHRA Pro Stock car:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwUJM56Z7A0[/YOUTUBE]


Or a blown 392 Hemi (a REAL Hemi, not one of the new ones) on nitro:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CILlp39Bzs[/YOUTUBE]


Of course these videos don't do the actual sound justice. You have to hear them in person to get the real effect. Especially the nitro fumes... :mrgreen:
 
The way I see it, the offbeat idle just shows that the engine is perfectly tuned to work under high load, with no compromises. If it sounds like it's running properly at idle, what's being lost at peak?
 
i keep thinking the engines are drowning in water whenever i hear an american v8
(no, not flaming americans)
 
At least raise the idle rpm so it fits better to the hotter cams.

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.

Which is sort of understandable in a dragster, but not in a road car.
 
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