What is this obsession with youngsters (and some that are not so young) to make their cars pop/bang/backfire on the over-run and when changing gear?

When I was interested in engines, such a thing was said to be a bad thing, as the pressure waves from the mini explosion sent shock waves back to the exhaust valves,and impeded exhaust flow.
I presume it is done by ‘mapping’ the ECU, to over fuel, and probably advance the timing a bit too to give this appearance of a highly tuned engine, yet, highly tuned engines dont pop and bang!
Am I the only one mildly annoyed by this?

Does it annoy you on your way to pick up your pension grandad?

Actually I work with two 19 year olds who’s cars do exactly that and apparently it’s because it’s “sick man”

🤷‍♂️

Some of these do it from new too. I think the manufacturers are trying to make four pot turbo engined cars sound more interesting.

Nuffin new, my mates Severn Valley Motorsport Escort RS Turbo used to spit flames out the exhaust too. Proper rad shit an all that

My issue with it isn’t the pops and bangs necessarily, it’s more that it’s usually on a 1.2 Seat Ibiza that sounds rubbish whatever exhaust or remap you add to it.

I agree it’s annoying but I can’t decide whether it is more or less annoying than I was at 16 on my ER50 with Fresco exhaust minus packing?

Depends on the vehicle. If it’s a car that’s worthy of turning your head for I’m OK with it

I have a Mini Cooper S that does it from standard, apparently BMW tuned it to wash fuel over the pistons to cool them, no idea if that’s true but mine sounds fine it isn’t silly loud.

It’s irritating, it’s (presumably) a waste of fuel, but it’s just kids being kids as far as I’m concerned. Best approach IMO is to not give them the satisfaction of looking

I’d rather they had cars that are all noise and no go than the other way round. Some of these cars are comically slow, considering the amount of noise they put out, but that’s fine by me.

This made me think of the Barry Boys site with its shonky collection of horrendously modified corsas and suchlike, but it seems that they ran out of material and the site has shut down.

The whole popping and banging thing is probably the last fanfare for the 20 something petrol head – by the time they have kids they will struggle to get much popping and banging out of an electric motor.

My mini does it and it makes me smile.
My motorbike does it and is also makes me smile.
Im old enough to not be called young.

it started out as an actually useful process in an engine, but when the car scene got wind of it they started to manipulate it so the manufacturers realised that it’s a sales winner so put it into production on their AMG’s/RS’/M’s/ST’s etc etc.

Then it got so annoying they had to bring in soft limiters to stop the drivers having competitions to annoy the locals down at the local retail parks.

It’ll soon pass because we’ll all by taxed into boring milk floats real soon.

Embrace it whilst it’s here.

Its the job of young people to not be understood by old people

Its doesn’t make any sense because its not meant to. Cars for people that age are like peacocks feathers. Their job is to look like you have money to spend (and you do because you can’t afford to move out of your mum’s) and sound fast whilst driving slow so that the people who’s heads you want to turn you have plenty of time to look at you.

by the time they have kids they will struggle to get much popping and banging out of an electric motor.

The sound of bzzzzzzt as they discharge a car battery into the ground will become The Thing. You heard it here first.

It’s just the latest ‘thing’.

Years back it used to be dump valves, ‘psssht’ every gear change, before that it was cherry bombs, currently it’s crackle maps.

My focus st can a little pop on demand. 🤣
It’s got a stage 1 remap and a standard exhaust. It popped on standard power from the factory.
#chavlife.

You can get pops and bangs mapped in. You really need to be running with no cat though. Which is obviously illegal. But yeah, The odd pop is fun but “pop and bangs” maps on over run is just annoying. Our neighbour’s kid has an A3 with a decat, no mid box and pops and bangs map. Sounds like it’s got 700bhp. It’s got 120.

They use the retail park local to me to race between the speed humps, I’ve never seen anyone turn and say “whoah, cool!”, You just see everyone thinking or muttering “bellend”

So the they sound like they are like this under the skin

I did in the past develop a large industrial engine that occasionally shot 6-10 ft flames out of the exhaust on over-run. That wasn’t so well received and was pretty promptly calibrated out.

Presumably it’s illegal given there are limits on exhaust volume? I don’t really mind people doing their thing but it’s a regular occurrence where I live, and becomes more regular late at night and into the early hours of the morning, many of them as loud as gun shots. It’s really anti-social.

That R8 sounds lovely but I’d not want it driving past my house at 6am every morning thank you.

Just the latest sound, some good some poor like diarrhea LOL!

My car does this, relatively quiet but noticeable like a soft fart under certain drive modes. I wish it didn’t, however I asked if it could be stopped but was told by the dealer it’s the standard map so no..

Sorry, mine does it occasionally. I think when it’s properly warm , the wastegate leaks a bit where the gasses return to the main pipe. It’s a bit embarrassing when it does it.

A tyre fitter jacked the car up by the gearbox to change the rear tyres and broke the wastegate flange. Difficult to prove so I welded it up but it’s not perfect.

how do they get throuh an mot? its over fueling and decatted, or the cat is dead, so wouldnt the emissions pick that up?

Depends on the vehicle. If it’s a car that’s worthy of turning your head for I’m OK with it

The thing is, you don’t just hear it when next to a road, you hear it several streets away along with the rest of the silly exhaust noise, so turning your head is a bit irrelevant when you are relaxing in your garden or laid in bed trying to sleep.

There are a constant stream of cars on the roads, most of which pass by unheard, except the poppy bang crew who like to announce their presence.

how do they get throuh an mot? its over fueling and decatted, or the cat is dead, so wouldnt the emissions pick that up?

According to my 19 year old colleague with his decat BMW with stretched tyres on over size rims the lack of cat doesn’t stop it passing the emissions.

His insurance is 1.5k a year though

how do they get throuh an mot? its over fueling and decatted, or the cat is dead, so wouldnt the emissions pick that up?

You can get performance 🐈’s and pops/bangs are usually from retarded timing and a lean mixture, not overfuelling, which just makes flames and washes all the oil off the cylinder walls.

I’m sure we used to drive past bus stops to scare the ladies or one of your pals who didn’t have a licence, switch off ignition then back on again but you had to be careful not to blow your exhaust up with the trick, then Janspeed made fantastic sounding exhaust systems

Utter cocksockets. Living a bit too close to a main road this bugs me. Personally I would have them all crushed, followed by their shitbox cars.

My MK2 Golf would do it, but I assume having no cat and also being carb fuelled helped with that. You could dial it out by tweaking the mix, but where’s the fun in that?!

It was loud enough to notice it burbling a little on overrun, but quiet enough to not be obnoxious.

Not so fussed about it on modern cars though…

My Abarth 595 does it as standard. Not on overrun but changing up at 5000rpm gets a pop from the exhaust

My mate’s Urus doesn’t do it, even in “Launch Control, red button” mode. Neither does my diesel Passat.

Utter cocksockets. Living a bit too close to a main road this bugs me. Personally I would have them all crushed, followed by their shitbox cars.

+1

Uter ****.

We live within earshot of the A33, if the wind blows the wrong way then it can be heard at rush hour. But on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday night it’s like a firework display for 4 hours straight.

By 1 in the morning when the weathers like this I’m at my wit’s end and want to walk through the woods to the traffic lights, pull the little shits out of their shitbox cars and run them over with their own stupid stretched tyres. If I wore gloves it’d be the perfect crime…….

Years back it used to be dump valves, ‘psssht’ every gear change, before that it was cherry bombs, currently it’s crackle maps.

I’ve got a turbo 4×4 Panda, I’m going to get a dump valve and a crackle map. Gosh how the ladies will swoon.

Couldn’t help thinking whether you would be able to put a towbar mounted bike rack on that Audi and whether it would melt the bike.

Always removed the packing from my 350LC exhausts, but moved the Allspeeds on as I found them too tinny.

Really loud ones are annoying but I mostly prefer the occasional pop to the canal boat clatter of most diesels.

My 1974 VW Camper does it – mildly tuned with big twin Dellorto carbs and it pops and bangs a bit when I lift off the throttle. Sometimes get a bit of flame out the exhaust too – the ‘kids’ think its sick 🤪

I don’t find it annoying, just consider it a bit sad, along with bodykits and dump valves 🙂

What I do find annoying, is middle-aged drivers with shit tuning boxes or crap remaps on their T5’s/Golfs, which generally stink and belch out soot, not far removed from Rednecks and their obsession with ‘rolling coal’

Il keep my s13 and its flaming screamer pipe in the garage then…