Just don't get my kicks from cars. Sorry, I always forget I'm on pistonheads.
Just don’t get my kicks from cars. Sorry, I always forget I’m on pistonheads.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying we need more cars/build more roads/kill polar bears, etc. But driving can be both a means of transportation and fun at the same time.
To be honest there is nothing more pleasing than the rumble, pops and bangs of a proper petrol engine. I think they sound magnificent.
Of course, seeing the stock Focus 1.4 Zetec with obnoxious exhaust language doesn't quite have the same effect.
I say enjoy for the final few years it'll be around - in the next 10/15/20 years we'll all be on electric, if we're still allowed to drive our own vehicles at all. (automation, transport-as-a-service).
Get it in now folks, it won't be around in a few years.
My Cooper S clubman does it as standard, has a ‘sport’ button which makes it do it more often.
I agree with the above.
On a proper sports car or bike it sounds ace, I’m not a fan of the underpowered drone from bog standard corsa. Making all the noises but going nowhere.
Nothing wrong with being a petrol head.
Can I get that 'Map for my Nissan NV400?
Driving can be fun yes. In theory. I mean, actually moving a car around is good. But there are so many downsides to trying to do it fast in most environments, it's just not worth it.
As for the noise - it's not really a pleasant noise, you just associate it with power and thrills. In 100 years' time when we're all used to blistering performance from electric motors, we'll be waxing lyrical over the whine of a motor and the smell of ozone, and people will wonder why anyone put up with the racket petrol cars make.
Slightly different (laborious) take on horns..
I'm somewhat ambivalent, the bloke who owns our village garage has a 1968 Dodge Challenger, with a sodding great ramcharger sticking out of the bonnet and it makes a rather appealing sound. You can hear it being driven half a mile away, but it's never driven outside of sociable hours so I'm more than happy that it exists.
On the other hand, we've a yoof in our village with some sort of tossermobile that is driven everywhere as though it's on a qualifying lap. I've no idea as to the make and model, as everything is obscured with badly fitted bodykits, spoilers and stickers. It's got the prerequisite farts, pops and pyrotechnics from the exhausts and I'd happily see it crushed.
For those who aren’t top flight rally drivers it makes a good noise, exhaust flames and reduces the life of your exhaust and turbo significantly.
It also tends to melt spark plugs if you're not very careful with it. I've a pal who just blew up his RS4 B5 650+bhp engine all because he missed a gear change whilst he was using the 'flat shift' feature....which works like anti-lag. Basically you can keep your foot hard on the accelerator pedal and then change gears as normal...the ECU recognises that you've hit the clutch so it kills the spark ignition but keeps fuelling the cylinders. If you don't get a snappy gear change...there's a huge amount of unburnt fuel in the system and it can all go horribly wrong.
Anti-lag...well the clue is in the name...it keeps turbo engines from dumping the boost between gear changes. Some like the sound of the piisstt between gear changes (that's the boost being released) and some just like that continual flow of power between gear changes.
My motorbike can shoot flames a good 5 feet out of the exhaust. But if anyone else does it, they’re dicks
Like Northwind...my mid-life crisis S4 B5 also has anti-lag & flat shift tuned into the ECU so if you give it a bit of stick it makes lots of bangs, pops & flames. If you drive the car normally, it sounds like any other car.
When I'm driving it with all those noises it makes me feel like a real man...everyone else who does it, well they're just tools.
Hmmm.. follows with interest....
So, as I've had my Pimp wagon* lowered** and new 'shoes' ***(that's wheels, granddad) put on it, I should now get an aftermarket 'exhaust popping kit' I guess...
DrP
*Octavia 2.0 TDI. In Grey.
** This is true.
*** This is also true. I'm like a child with lots of money....
Bloody hell, you sound like a right barrel of laughs.
More fun than a 'car person’ with their selfish attitude to the queens highway and other road users. Don’t get me wrong I think fast/beautiful/old/interesting cars are are great, but they are a nuisance when driven by cocks on the road. They have their place, the track. that way you drive like a tosser and nobody else suffers from your ignorance.
blouson rally jackets, manufacturer key fobs, names like 'scooby Ben' 'RS John' Cossie Mike' M3 Dave', and a log-in to PistonHeads. All the hallmarks of a car-cock.
The kind of blokes who's idea of conversation is “so what do you drive?” And thinking the answer somehow defines you.
More fun than a ‘car person’ with their selfish attitude to the queens highway and other road users. Don’t get me wrong I think fast/beautiful/old/interesting cars are are great, but they are a nuisance when driven by cocks on the road. They have their place, the track. that way you drive like a tosser and nobody else suffers from your ignorance.
blouson rally jackets, manufacturer key fobs, names like ‘scooby Ben’ ‘RS John’ Cossie Mike’ M3 Dave’, and a log-in to PistonHeads. All the hallmarks of a car-cock.
The kind of blokes who’s idea of conversation is “so what do you drive?” And thinking the answer somehow defines you.
I agree with what you say - my tongue in cheek reply was in response to cars can't be fun.
Fun doesn't mean fast - my most "fun" car was a clapped out 1964 Land Rover. 0-60? It couldn't reach 60 under its own steam unless aided by gravity.
And those who judge on the car you drive? Well judge away as I really don't care.
...and there was I thinking there seemed to be a lot of people with poorly adjusted spark timing, overfuelling and burnt valves...
I understand that James Hunt in his retirement either cycled everywhere or drove an old A35, at least in part because he could drive it with entertaining verve without much fear for his licence. There was a man who gave zero f***s what anyone thought of him or his wheels - top man. 🙂
My mildly-tuned 74' VW camper does it - 1641cc with twin Weber carbs - I wind the window down when driving through sleepy villages and lift-off the accelerator and it pops and bangs quite a lot. Startled a few biddies coming down the hill into Arundel yesterday.
When the knob measuring goes a bit wrong
Ouchy - I guess the effect they were after was more like this;
It just means the engine is running rich . So it's running a bad ecu map, or it's done on purpose to sound loud.
Outside of professional racing it's just fashion really.
A bit like when turbo dump valves were a thing, a really loud "PppppThssssss" after every gear change.
A bit like when turbo dump valves were a thing, a really loud “PppppThssssss” after every gear change.
And still is, with some people. I’m not sure what’s making the bangs, there’s a road past our site, with a roundabout a few yards away and other roads running into other parts of the estate, and I’ve seen a small open-top car going past at some speed which appears to cause the bangs, might be an old MX-5, but there are others doing it. I’ve not noticed it happening in Chippenham, oddly enough.
Did Matt, err... Just post an advert?
My car pops at certain revs and engine loads, it’s embarrassing/pleasing/childish.
Thing is the car is nearly as old as me so has a few foibles. It doesn’t get used much as I only get 200 miles from 80 litres of Shells finest.
Noise wise it’s almost silent compared to the local lads on their peds.
Exhausts should sound like this
Antisocial noise pollution. Loud motorcycle exhausts are a similar problem.
This.
Any vehicle that sounds louder than a sparrow farting should be crushed as the owner watches on, then catches the bus home.
As for motorbikes revving like they’ve got rickets, crush them too except make em’ walk home.
And still is, with some people.
14 year old boys who still wet the bed?
Our old 944 would if being pushed particularly hard.
The silver shed (Octavia) is just a bit loud due to weak standard Flexi joint and a lack of caution across fields and up forest tracks. Mostly weld currently, but still a gap somewhere. Stainless mid-pipe and back box could be quieter, but was cheapest option for the 4x4.
Exhausts should sound like this
TL:DL
Shame people see “food” as something to which flavour can be added, as an occasion to enjoy time with bourgeoisie “friends”, instead of just a means of providing sustenance to allow the individual to produce for the furtherment of the glorious Mother State.
Nearly PMSL
Christ you lot are old.
Where's the under 50s forum.
My old 1997 impreza sti type ra pops and bangs after a good few minutes of full boost. It was mapped to run a little bit rich high up the rev range to help cool the pistons. The removal of the cat helped as well. God I miss that car 330hp in a 1200kg ish car, not much could keep up with it.
Was a thing before but over the last year it seems to have gone really popular. Get a mix round my way, this being rich Surrey, of decent performance cars that are loud but sound nice and loads of really shit cars deliberate backfiring and attempting to wheel spin and donut at the junction down the road.
Last time we went through this it went away, maybe because the cars fell apart or the kids got locked up. Seemed to coincide with the police helicopter not frequenting the nearby estate so much.
I'm pretty sure it's standard feature on hot hatches now.
Back in the day my little AX would do it on a down shift with a throttle blip, young and didn't know better I guess!
My Cooper S does it from standard, lift off/change gear and it pops and bangs
Mrs DoDs Clubman does it as well and tbh it gives it a bit of character.
The jag F types rather mental if you hear one in the flesh.
I do find it ironic thou that it’s once perceived as the preserve of the antisocial chavvy type but then gets whacked on the jaaag as standard.
My faves the Ferrari 430 on the Miami Vice movie doing blue flames thou.
Christ you lot are old.
Where’s the under 50s forum.
You need Kik.
Theres an app for it.
TBH remember regularly helping to weld up my mates MK1 RS Turbo exhaust back in the day they were new and only white unless you were Princess Di.
We were always getting a good bang and flames out of that, so tbh it’s a bit retro IMHO.
Lots of the “classic boy racer” cars around here + a surprising number of M series BMs, AMG Mercs and RS Focus
one of the local meet places is the “wee”Tesco(chased from “big “ Tesco which now has speed bumps)which makes our local paper due to complaints about the noise at nights on a regular basis....
There is also the practice of hitting the Rev limiter, some appear to dip/slip the clutch to achieve the end result. I’m just waiting on a rod through the bonnet moment.....
We live in a quiet residential street that is used as a shortcut by people who think they are clever but don't realise it's actually taking them longer. After 30 years of campaigning we got speed humps and a 20 mph limit last year. At 1.30 in the morning it's no joke when some *rs*h*le blasts through at 60 mph with their exhaust banging and popping, waking everyone at 72 addresses.
I'm a bit conflicted on this one as I'm a massive petrol head and my M135 does make burbles and bangs on the overrun in Sport mode. However, there's a time a place for it.. Namely not in built up areas or later on in the day.
Some absolute * launched his RS3 through a tunnel I was walking through (literally 10ft from Newcastle Police station!) and then lifted off the throttle which basically sounded like a machine gun going off in an enclosed environment with plenty of pedestrians. I was away up the street after him hoping he'd hit a red light as it had just sent my tinnitus into overdrive. It didn't sound good, it was just an extremely loud set of bangs that pissed me off no end after a shite day at work.
We live on a main road in a blanket 20mph zone but it doesn't stop bellends doing 60mph then slamming on their brakes for the sharp bend (next to my house) and then accelerating hard again. Normally get 1 car/year in someones garden. Last time it happened, they cleared two decent sized curbs and missed the paper boy by about 6ft. All four wheels were neigh on snapped off and the dickhead driver asked if I would push them out. *
Am I right in thinking it's a purely 'engineered-in' effect on modern cars? With precision fuel injection, the car doesn't need to burble and bang on the overrun, as it would with an old carburettor set-up.
They might as well just have it as a sound-effect through the stereo as they do with other engine effects, so the petrol heads can get all fizzy in the crotch & pretend their doing a Welsh rally stage, while everyone else sits undisturbed in their gardens....
My car just makes a weird burbling noise at about 2k revs (Seat Leon petrol turbo). Just sounds like a massive Bong.
It looks and sounds stupid on any modern car not FIA/MSA log booked.
50 years of progression from inefficient dripping carbs to ECU managed direct injection and ignition meaning very little fuel should reach the exhausts to gain maximum road efficiency (rather than outright speed, power and torque of a competition car) and these eejits want to set fire to expensive fuel...
I'd probably still win best backfire with my 1980s motorhome if it came to a competition.
I’d probably still win best backfire with my 1980s motorhome if it came to a competition.
Our 1920s Ford Model A would give it a good run for it's money - I've a selection of blown apart silencers as evidence 😆
Nothing wrong with a bit of flame/pop and crackle on overrun but the AK47 sounding maps that seem to be popular at the moment are the shittest things I've ever heard.
