Bear with me, I havent slept in a couple days and Im a little off my rocker. Maybe this has been covered before, sorry if so. OK. every motor has a sound of its own, and THE SOUND is a big part of a hotrod or custom... SO who likes what? yeah different Cams, Headers and such can change the sound, Im thinking generally but whatever.. So HOWBOUTIT? Which engine sounds the coolest??? ok. GO!
The sweetest sounding engines; the ones that made a kid into a rotrodder, were the unmuffled sounds of a '57 392 Chrysler Hemi, and a 327 Smallblock Chevy. Those engines were ones that were near perfect right OOTB.
302 Chevy, best sounding of the solid cammed motor's. Buddy Ingersol's Pro Stock Regal back in the early 80's, turbo V6 before the GN craze, and before they banned him. That thing sounded better than anything I've ever heard.
A high compression ,Duntov cammed 327 chevy, at high lumpy idle, then, running HARD through all 4 speeds,hitting high C note at the finish line at ol' San Fernando!!!!!
Too many to choose from. A mild hot rodded Flatty A huge hemi AA fueler A destroked 265 Chevy D or E gasser (talk about winding some Rs!) One of the wildest sounding engines that made me hunt to see what was making all that noise turned out to be a 38 Ford dirt track coupe with a flatty! It didn't look like much but what ever cam he had in it made it talk some shit. Since we are talking sounds... I love the sound of a flathead starter motor and the distinctive sound of an early 60s Chrysler B engine starting. You can tell from 20 feet what engine they have. On a more modern note... I do love a big CI flow master thumper engine that vibrates your feet as it goes by...just as long as it's coming from a mid-50s sleeper sedan.
Cool sounding engine??? nothing in the world better than a 1650 Merlin at full song. Every day? a 256 or 283 shifting at about 8500 or more.
you should try and get "The Sounds of Goodwood" CD - Nick Mason at Goodwood motor racing circuit listening to race cars going around the track - BRM V16, Jaguar D-type - amazing!
lots of COOOL sound ing engines out there merlins, griffins and a big P&W radial always get the blood rushing. and that distinctive flathead lope with the one lifter that always has just a little clack to it. just the other day my neighbor asked me to take his 16 year old son for a ride in my roadster. I gladly agreed and yanked the dumps and took him for a wild little ride around town. His old man's building him a 65 mustang with a 289. after 3 or 4 full throttle runs through the gears he wiped the shit-eating-grin off his face enough to say his ole man needed to get something with a flathead in it cuz it just sounded MEAN. also, gotta add the full race v8-60 to the list. sounds like a big flathead that somebody lit it's ass on fire!
I agree with the many different great sound engines. For me-a flathead with a nice cam does it hands down
Sweetest sound for street use: 1. The moan of 3 deuces on early hi-perf 60's GM cars (348 Chevys and 421 Pontiacs) 2. The engine and sound of speedshifting a 4 speed as the car caught rubber in all four gears. 3. The sound of factory solid lifter cammed 409 Chevys and 406 Fords. We nicknamed them "thrashing machines" for the clatter they made. 4. The idle of a small block Chevy with an 097 Duntov cam and glass packs. 5. A Cushman Eagle gearing down with the baffle removed from the muffler
Aside from some that have already been mentioned, like a nicely modified flatty Ford, Hemis, etc. I've also always loved the sound of a healthy FE Ford engine. I also really like big block Mopar wedge engines, no mistaking them.
What? Nobody loves the lope on a 401 Buick nailhead tickin over at about 400 rpm thru straight pipes? The firing order makes em sound a LOT like a HD or other v-twin. Least mine does anyway.
OT but If you have ever heard a Mercedes Benz 540/500k startup when the blower is cool it is the coolest thing. For about a minute the blower whines until the oil is thin enough for the clutch disks to separate and it quites down. This audio doesn't give you the blower but still neat for a factory car: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3SFss22u1k
I myself have a fondness for the cyclic, surging, blown-alcohol grinds...392, or any blown, big block...The 427 Ford. No one said Cammer yet?!
You and me are both gonna' get banned, but........ I've got an 88' BMW M5 with a 400 hp twin cam inline 6 with individual throttles and a road race exhaust that sounds like I'm flying for the Luftwaffa'. Sounds f'n incredible! Its soon for sale BTW I love the indiviual sounds that different engines make. Its one of my most favorite things about cars. When I was a youngin',my cousin had a Roadrunner that only ran on race gas. I dont know what it was runnin', but that sound! I can still hear it. I can't wait to get my 401 Nailer rompin' and thumpin'!
flatheads...ford, caddy and diamond t are my fav rotarys...there's something about them that i can't get enough of any v-12...need i say more? the best is soon to be a high compression olds 455 with straight pipes and 30" packs with a quadrajet. there's nothing like the sound of a qjet opening up the secondaries...it's like a black hole opening under your hood...then running that through several hundred cubes and out those pipes, it's gonna sound like the end of the world when i get my foot in it
Solid lifters RULE! The love of my life; 301 chevy!!!!!!!! 327 block, steel 283 crank, full dome TRW's, 30-30 cam, in a first gen camaro, those Thrush straight through's got a lotta attention.
standing the pits with a 500 in.. nhra pro-stocker idling...those short big tube step headers and talk about revs when they blip the throttle they are so crisp and responsive makes those dz302 seem like they rev slow ! and my 711 hp pump gas bbc on the dyno works for me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ49kwUdVUQ
The Jalopy Journal
