Well I went for a spin in my local VW garages Golf GTD today and I was well inpressed. The quality was way ahead of my 08 Octavia RS CR. The materials where top class. The seating where the same as the GTi (excellent) Plus the seat goes a lot lower which is a bonus being 6ft3. The handling was also a lot sharper then the standard RS CR and similarish to my RS fitted with the Whiteline antiroll bar. The best aspect of the drive was the electromechanical sound generator fitted to the GTD. It sounded like a petrol GTI. I was totally blown away by it. It put a big smile on my face :-) .

I know its likned into the ECU (CanBus). I would love to be able to retro fit this to my RS and belive it should be in the RS CR as standard too!

Anyone know if this can be retro fitted?

Cheers

JC

Edited 15 January, 201016 yr by jcdub

electromechanical sound generator? care to explain

A petrol engine is electromechanical

Well I went for a spin in my local VW garages Golf GTD today and I was well inpressed. The quality was way ahead of my 08 Octavia RS CR. The materials where top class. The seating where the same as the GTi (excellent) Plus the seat goes a lot lower which is a bonus being 6ft3. The handling was also a lot sharper then the standard RS CR and similarish to my RS fitted with the Whiteline antiroll bar. The best aspect of the drive was the electromechanical sound generator fitted to the GTD. It sounded like a petrol GTI. I was totally blown away by it. It put a big smile on my face :-) .

I know its likned into the ECU (CanBus). I would love to be able to retro fit this to my RS and belive it should be in the RS CR as standard too!

Anyone know if this can be retro fitted?

Cheers

JC

Would be interesting to compare it to the FL vRS with the various dash updates, etc. I also find my FL vRS quieter, and that is not just due to the CR engine.

How much for the Golf though?

I also considered a Golf but it was too small for my requirements.

News to me too, but it is listed and explained a little in this article, under 'GTD Sound':

http://www.topspeed.com/cars/volkswagen/2009-volkswagen-golf-gtd-ar72387.html

Sound – sporty sound – has not traditionally been a particular strength of diesel engines. However, the GTD’s new common rail engine is different. Since it no longer has a superimposed “hammering” sound that was previously typical of diesels, engineers were able to fine tune its acoustics for the first time. This is accomplished by a special sound generator, which outputs a sonorous tone, especially in the lower engine speed range. The electromagnetic sound generator evaluates engine speed, momentary power demand and vehicle speed data obtained via the car’s CAN bus and tunes the engine sound that can be heard in the interior.

Edited 15 January, 201016 yr by Wardy

It sounds rediculous.

It reminds me of when you see yoofs in their chav chariots and they put on a pretend dump valve. Why try and make a diesel engine sound like a petrol engine? Why not just buy the petrol if it bothers you that much?

The reviews say that it is an electromagnetic sound generator which is what a speaker is!

So they just basically play the sound of another engine through a speaker??? :wonder:

It sounds ridiculous.

All car manufacturers are tuning the sound of their cars to suit the brand, model, customer requirements these days. It all started off with the Japs tuning the sound of their car door closing so it sounded like a more solid clunk like the german cars. Ferrari and Aston Martin do it with their engines through the use of exhaust valves and induction noise.

I dont think its Chav at all!

All I'll say is to those of you who doubt this and rate this as chav, Drive the GTD for yourselves, I'm sure you will change your view.

P.S Its also fitted to the TT TDI and the scirocco 170 TDI.

Each to their own at the end of the day. For me a car is enjoyable to drive and the more fun a car can be to drive the better and the electromechanical sound generator fitted to the GTD put a smile on my face when I drove it. It's their for the enjoyment of the driver. I'm sure if you bought a GTD you could unplug it if you prefer a not so silent / diesel sound.

Edited 15 January, 201016 yr by jcdub

'We designed an engine that didn't sound very good, so we play you the soundtrack of one that does instead'. You couldn't make it up! They're having a laugh.

Just depends whether you think a speaker is worth 3k over the cost of a vRS CR

Yup must agree chav in the extreme just like the fake turbo blow offs.

Novembers Performance Car magazine tested the Skoda vRS CR, Golf GTD and Seat FR back to back. Predictably, the Golf came out on top as it's as sporty as the Seat and as comfortable as the Skoda. It said if most of your driving was done on the motorway, then the Skoda would be the default choice

Would the TDi badge on the tailgate not give the game away then?

Is it April 1st already?

Does the one in the petrol engined version make it sound like a diesel

I thought ford putting a tube from the engine bay into the cabin was over the top so you could hear the engine but this is just pathetic, if its electromechanical the sound isnt even produced by the engine!

Think i'll get a cd of V8 engine noises and get off to the dealer for some badges

I thought ford putting a tube from the engine bay into the cabin was over the top so you could hear the engine but this is just pathetic, if its electromechanical the sound isnt even produced by the engine!

Think i'll get a cd of V8 engine noises and get off to the dealer for some badges

^^^^^^^^

ive got one with the sound of a ferrari enzo,

makes my car well fast innit

I thought ford putting a tube from the engine bay into the cabin was over the top so you could hear the engine but this is just pathetic, if its electromechanical the sound isnt even produced by the engine!

Think i'll get a cd of V8 engine noises and get off to the dealer for some badges

That's what the USA version of the Golf GTI has, they call it the noise pipe or something

This makes me chortle heartily!

Might have to have a test drive

Would be interesting to compare it to the FL vRS with the various dash updates, etc. I also find my FL vRS quieter, and that is not just due to the CR engine.

How much for the Golf though?

.

I looked at the GTD back in September. So I spec'd up the GTD I wanted and the same spec for a vRS FL. List price was £22.4k (vRS) vs £28k (GTD). Then I went to DriveTheDeal and got this down to £18.2k (vRS) and £27k for the GTD. And with the Skoda there are no discernable differences between the petrol and diesel versions, unlike GTi to GTD.

No contest in my mind; but if you have an extra £8.8k to spare I have no doubt that the Golf is a slightly better car (not that I'd notice).

That's old technology. They had that system on Top Gear about 12 years ago when they were still sensible and did road test that did not eminate from their rectums

I think they had a small hatchback (cant remember the car) and they had a stereo system where you could get a sound from the speakers to replicate a Lotus or a V8 TVR or a Ferrari or a Porsche or similar based on the engine revs and load. It was pretty naff at the time I seem to recall. Don't seem any better now by the sound of it.

I like the golf but as been stated above its alot more money than the Octavia and how much better it is really? Is it worth the difference? Plus VW lost a sale as I went to the dealership and asked for info pack, no we only and a limited stock we could be you on the list for it. Funny enough 2 months later still had not heard anything!

Going off topic but VW has lost a sale now 3 times because of how "snobbie" the show rooms are! Skoda has won twice now and seat won one..........still keep it in the family!

So will it be possible to remap the sound generator to load in a different sound sample...? :think:

It might though be the reverse of what you are thinking. Maybe its a noise cancelling system using an electromechanical device to play low frequency engine noise 180 degrees out of phase. If it works you would then hear only the more pleasing engine noises familiar to those who drive petrol engines.