It's true that people are partly linked to their 'era' in the dreams and aspirations they  have. I once spoke to Lee McKenzie (a much younger woman) about the sound of the current crop of F1 cars. I thought they sounded like electric cows and hate the mooing sound they make, nowhere near as exciting or as enthralling as even a good road car - hello Lamborghini, I'm looking at you  - but she thought they sounded great. I am of course blinked by have heard the V8s, V12s and V10s of the pure petrol era (as she had too but perhaps not in the nostalgic way i think of them) and the noise is pretty peerless compared to any pinnacle motorsport.

  So perhaps today's generation are happy with naff sounding V6s and Bleep and Booster wizzing noises from EVs and feel no special attachment or desire towards the dinosaurs that are soon to leave these shores (well new ones will initially). But then I think, everyone likes dinosaurs and if a thing is 'right', then it's 'right'. Maybe I also need to get a V8 before I retire, even though I said I would never buy another silly car before I retire...

I don't think it's really an era, as much as just the experience and associations you make with something.

A big burbling V8 on the dirty mustard-yellow GT California Special I sometimes work on is one hell of a lovely  sound on one hell of an ugly car. I detest almost everything about that car, apart from the massive working space inside the engine bay and the gorgeous noise of the engine/exhaust itself. That sound is up there with the signature Harley Davidson sound, which many people from all eras seem to like, even if they're not into motorcycles. It's like the big, growly animal noise of something that sounds like it can really do some damage... even if it's really just a soppy Labrador!

By contrast, I've been around race cars and bikes a few times, yet always hated those sounds. They're like outraged little flies ranting at a barista for using almond milk instead of oat milk in their Venti grande double skinny latte cappu-frappucino. 

 

The ultimate would be to have my bike or car sound like a jet engine going full chat right before it takes off. That's nothing to do with era, but simply the fact that I've been stood behind a Tornado when it did that. It's not the roaring sound you'd expect from the movies, but more like an overwhelming physical sensation of the air itself being rrrrrrrrrrrrrripped apart by the noise!!!!!

I have to ask, is that a real drink you can order, that Venti Grande? I don't drink posh coffee, a flat white does me, but I think I want one just to be able to say I have drunk it.

 

If I had a pure EV I would like it to make a pirate noise. Sort of "Arrrrrh" that changes in pitch (slightly) and volume (a lot) as I accelerate/decelerate and perhaps go "Shiver me timbers" when I hit the horn

4 hours ago, Ttaskmaster said:

the signature Harley Davidson sound

I know what you mean; I have impressed posh schoolgirls  (then half my age) by identifying a Hardley Ableson by sound alone.

They’re stupid Starbucks names for their size cups / drinks.

 

Grande is Italian, means large and is a 16 oz. measure

Venti is the Italian for 20, so is a 20 oz.  measure.

 

Therefore by the twisted logic of Briskoda Venti Grande must be 20 x 16 = 320 oz. (or2 gallons if you prefer)

 

The engine noise that makes the hairs on my neck stand up is the sound of proper 250 or 350 cc 2 stroke racing motorcycles from the Seventies running flat out on proper expansion chambers (or preferably about 30 of them) 

I am disappointed I can't order this mega sounding drink 😞 

The car d!ck in the Blue VW Sirocco on the M77 today should let someone drive it and follow his own car and hear how crap it sounds, and understand that making it loud in a tunnel and at every opportunity is just looking like a pleb when you actually floor it and it makes the noise and does not actually move off that quick. 

Ah, but then you get those days when you follow something exotic, if you are lucky, a V12 Lamborghini and you would be disappointed if the driver didn't put his foot down in a tunnel. I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth. I tried a 'foot down' in my M3 and apart from it accelerating quite quickly   it sounded rather, well, smooth. BMW have got the straight 6 sound back, but thanks to all the filters in the exhaust, the sound is rather muted and as there are a couple of turbos on the front, there isn't much induction noise. Times they are a' changin'  😞 

Edited 16 June, 20223 yr by Lady Elanore

Try living 50 yards from a junction where the 30 speed limit goes to 40 mph as it leaves the town and goes a mile to the village with a 20 mph limit but those with 'interesting sounding vehicles, or heaps of crap blowing black soot open them up before the  40 limit and to the first corner.

You will hear all sorts at all the hours of the days.

Wacky races is usually starting about now where i am sitting typing this.

Night time / quiet time the most interesting ones going for it can be heard for ages and they are miles away.  Some are just as we know it, like a wet fart.

@Aspmanknows the location very well and ti would think the scenario and the vehicles i am talking about.

Edited 16 June, 20223 yr by roottoot

I live about quarter of a mile from a roundabout on the A610 where it changes from SPECS controlled 30 to a so called 40 dual carriageway which was national speed limit and after a set of lights, the local ****s on two or four wheels use it as a drag stip as there are no side roads and speed traps are visible from a mile, in summer I can't have my rear windows open without being deafened and there are two thick rows of trees and a dirty great hotel to deflect the noise. When I walk down there at the weekend to get a paper, you nearly need ear defenders and the emergency vehicle sirens drive you mad in the specs area, one a minute. What these ****s don't realise is they are becoming the reason for their own demise, because they are pushing the limits, the law is cracking down but they are just too stupid to know or too ignorant to care.

2 hours ago, roottoot said:

The car d!ck in the Blue VW Sirocco on the M77 today should let someone drive it and follow his own car and hear how crap it sounds, and understand that making it loud in a tunnel and at every opportunity is just looking like a pleb when you actually floor it and it makes the noise and does not actually move off that quick. 

 

I had a boss with a 3 series auto like that - made a huge amount of noise but with very  little to show for it...   he thought it was great, we just thought he was a ****.

2 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

if you are lucky, a V12 Lamborghini and you would be disappointed if the driver didn't put his foot down

A82(T) out of the roundabout at 55.931864, -4.503334 Lambourghini Countach LP500. Driver realised the West-bound was clear and he had an audience, so gave it full bore. On his way back we were still there, and 

^^^ That coordinates are my usual cycling routes.  Not near the A82 though. 

 

 

Edited 16 June, 20223 yr by roottoot

17 hours ago, roottoot said:

Try living 50 yards from a junction where the 30 speed limit goes to 40 mph as it leaves the town and goes a mile to the village with a 20 mph limit but those with 'interesting sounding vehicles, or heaps of crap blowing black soot open them up before the  40 limit and to the first corner.

You will hear all sorts at all the hours of the days.

Wacky races is usually starting about now where i am sitting typing this.

Night time / quiet time the most interesting ones going for it can be heard for ages and they are miles away.  Some are just as we know it, like a wet fart.

@Aspmanknows the location very well and ti would think the scenario and the vehicles i am talking about.

 

Used to be a 60 as well

22 hours ago, Lady Elanore said:

I have to ask, is that a real drink you can order, that Venti Grande? I don't drink posh coffee, a flat white does me, but I think I want one just to be able to say I have drunk it.

 

If I had a pure EV I would like it to make a pirate noise. Sort of "Arrrrrh" that changes in pitch (slightly) and volume (a lot) as I accelerate/decelerate and perhaps go "Shiver me timbers" when I hit the horn

 

As BJM said, this is Starbucks only, and in order to qualify I believe you have to be a hipster who spends lots of time vaping in coffee shops while writing your novel (on a Macbook, of course), and drinking beverages that can only be described by long strings of pretentious adjectives (ideally peppered with foreign terms). You will also be the type who goes to a Chinese restaurant and tries to order (or even converse) in Mandarin, but can only speak words and phrases you picked up from watching Firefly... and you play a simplified form of Mahjong, but pronounce it "Marrr Yong" instead of 'Ma-Jong'.

 

In this case, the Venti-Grande is sometimes a real thing, but opinions on exact manifestation do vary - Some say it is a 20 x 16oz volume, being 9 litres of coffee. Others say it is 20 + 16, making a 40oz or just over one litre, and that it is in fact an exact litre that you get, so it fits perfectly into the 1.0L models of Thermos.

My personal favourite is that it's 16oz of espresso poured into 20oz of milk, for a ridiculously powerful latte. I've never ordered one though, as I refuse to give Starschmucks any business.

 

I like the idea of a pirate car - So many phrases that you could include, it'd be like designing a sound profile for early versions of Windows. "Shiver me timbers", "Splice me mainbrace", "Fasten me fo'c'sle"...!!!

 

Another sound I love is that Tik... Tik... Tik.. Tik.. Tik. Tik. Tik.Tik.Tik.Tik.TikTikTikTikTikTikTkTkTkTkTkTkvTkvTkvTkvTkvTkVVVVVVVWWWWWWWWWW of a jet turbine starting up.

I'd buy a MTT Y2K motorcycle purely for that noise... and because it's a flippin' jet turbine bike!!!!!

 

Personally though, when the wheels of time doubtless force me into getting an EV, I want the thing to sound like Airwolf - THAT might make me fall in love with it!!!!!

 

 

Plenty will offer to make them sound as annoying as anyone wants and maybe a MOT examiner will have no reason to fail them as the the DfT / DVSA will not bother to specify what they should sound like.  

 

Have them sound like a diesel or a petrol with a misfire if that is your choice.

 

 

 

 

 

More annoying than car noises. I hope his voice breaks soon.

 

 

 

Edited 17 June, 20223 yr by roottoot

They might fake the lambo sound, but there is a funny video of  daft quick Tesla on the Nürburgring and it starts losing it's brakes after around a third of lap and totally pedal to floor at around 2/3rds, no brakes at all. The power goes into a semi limp mode at roughly halfway round because of overheating, I think. 

 

No, if I have to have an EV and it makes fake noises I want it to be something I'm not ashamed of, such as the Jetsons 'weeble weeble' noise, or a Horn that goes "Oi, soppy bo0ll0x, avast!" or some such.