Cars with the best exhaust notes.
 

Exhaust Notes - A Blog from MSN Autos - MSN Autos

We as 911 owners have a love affair with the sound of the flat 6. While I enjoyed this article, I reallly doubt much research went into it. Seems someone when on a Youtube search and found 10 cars in 20 minutes. Seems most have modifications which makes it hard to compare. Some are being driven, other at a stop. My 911 with SSI's and a Magnaflow dual exhaust would give any of these a run for the money and its not costing over $100k:D

Like music, exhaust notes are subjective. The air cooled flat 6 in a 911 sounds like heaven to me, and in-line fours (rice) sound like cats being raped. Other people think those sound great.

I love a good deep tone American V8 and any normally aspirated Italian 12. Seldom do I like the sound of a turbo car - any number of pistons, any configuration.

angela

Flat format (Boxer) engines seem to have something special - be it a Flat 6 of a Porsche or a 4 of a WRX or a 12 of a Ferrari Boxer - they are all distinctive.

However, the best I have ever heard as a standard exhaust is the Aston Martin v12 Vantage - one lives out nearby me and on occasion I have followed him through a short tunnel where he likes to drop the gears back one and give it a boot - I think he loves the sounds too.

Tim

+1 Aston Martin although any 4 cam Ferrari 12 sounds good to me.

Very subjective.

Some people hate rotaries but I loved mine on headers and an aftermarket muffler.

My 86' IROC with 4 inch pipes was awesome.

AUDI A8 has a nice howl.

Couple of Astons around here, agree they sound sexy.

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Pagani Zonda R TakeOff + Huayra Sound! - YouTube

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Pavulon, that's fantastic!

GT40s are beautiful...the Christy Turlington of cars, IMO.

Ferrari. The sound is like the sum of all human longing.

Not sure who said that, but I believe it's true.

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Original 356 Carrera w/ the 4 cam engine

Hands down, Ferrari in full song.
Next, big block muscle car with big headers and glasspacks.
Porsche CGT wound up tight

I hear (saw) a McLaren MP4-12C today, going to be hard to beat that.

Inline 5's, inline 6's, V10's, or V12's sound best to me.

A Group B Audi Sport Quattro sounds good.

audi sport quattro s1 - YouTube

Big displacement American V8. Through sidepipes

Road & Track once did a nice analysis of exhaust notes -- complete with 3D plots showing power spectrum info.

They included a 993 in the mix of cars tested, so it was during that era.

Sadly, I cannot find the article anywhere...

I have to agree with the MP4-12C. If you've ever heard a 72 degre V-12 F1 motor, you'll never forget it.

Edit: Oops, the McLaren has a V-8. I was referencing the previous gen F1 cars. The Judd ALMS car also had one.

two of my favorite porsche sounds:

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any of the other supercars sound pretty good. the pagani, etc.

Evo magazine did a great iPad issue on the topic, they awarded "Best Sounding Racecar" to the Le Mans winning Mazda 787B. Really hard to argue with that.

YouTube - Mazda 787B onboard lap with Johnny Herbert at Le Mans 2011

I'm a big engine sound person, if it doesn't sound good it doesn't do it for me regardless of how good the car is. I've seriously considered several V6 Alfas just because of the fantastic engine noises, even though the rest of the car is pretty sad. While I love the sound of a good American V8 or a Porsche with a flat six, but how can you argue with the Italians? They can make normally drab 4-cylinders and V6s sound awesome, and their V8 and V12 motors are without compare.