What in your opinion is the best sounding powerplant?

Oh yea they DID ! !
Big law suit over that crap back in the 90s.
Look at all the metric cruisers that copy the antiquated ( my ass) looks of the classic Harleys.
'62 hell, my buddy has an '82 (bless his heart poor guy) maxim that needs parts.Yama Dealer said sorry SOL "can't help you. Maybe its time to get a new bike." Nice huh ?

 

You know what they say...... If you can't beat 'em, copy 'em!

 

now that you mention it , a Honda CL77 305 Scrambler sounds sweet too

 

I was gonna say bevel drive Ducati, but well, even they cant hold a candle to the old Guzzi V-8 for sound.

Well, it IS Italian. I'm sure at some point Julius Ceaser probably said something like "nothing another 1000 rpm wont cure".

This post is useless without video. Skip the musical interlude, and go straight to 0:40. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0Yu-G0A2cBc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Not to get into a motorcycle discussion here but, For 3 decades I toured with a Top Fuel car and there is nothing on earth that compares to the sound of a blow fuel hemi on the starting line when the driver stands on the throttle (IMO).
Somewhere along the way I got involved with Top Fuel bikes and did a lot of tuning on the fuel Harley's. Even though there was not a factory part on them they did follow the 60 degree vee twin design. We ran the 200 inch Top fuel and 150 inch nitro funny bike all on injected nitro. We ran a best of a 6.25 @ 230 MPH. The thing I never cared for on the vee twin is the way it fires, one cylinder has to rotate a few more degrees than the other one and that led to a separate tune up for each cylinder. It was always hard to get them both working together.
I later spent some time around a top fuel jap bike and I must admit that the inline engine design is superior to the 45 vee twin like it or not. Now back to the show, my vote is still for a blown fuel Chrysler. JC

 

Well, I guess I dont have to say I'm not much of a harley guy, but I'll admit this much. A couple years back, I watched a guy warming up a nitro burning harley in the pits, and when he switched it over to pop, and it started cackling and raxing and bouncing all over the damn place on that stand, great big ass chain whizzing around, my first thought was "No way in HELL would I put that thing between MY legs". Bad mutha.

 

Way off topic, but as long as we're talking Harleys, something you can (could??) walk into your local Harley dealership and buy. 150+ horsepower off the showroom floor-mid 9's.
Doesn't sound much like a bucket of bolts either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SArI5_3LxVM

 

My short list:

Offy
Banger Bentley with Brooklands can
Any round engine, especially with an inertia starter
Flatty with steel packs
Kelvin
460 Ford
318, with home built open stacks, in a Farmall, and I didn't believe it would sound good either.

 

Are the harleys that hold the NHRA records V rod engines? Hmmm who designed them?

 

Damn Larry, that bitch has got some torque!

Oh and please let us not forget our Jap-scrap rice burnin' brethren.........

 

Now that I wanna see and hear.

 

I'm partial to the A10 Warthog myself! Especially on a gun run!

 

I've never had a Ferrari and probably never will It's called $$$$$!
I've owned a LEAST 10 Corvettes with the side pipes from the original L-88 white sheet optioned ones, thrush pipes, original fuellie 327's, 67 BBC 427 with stock sides, Hooker headers, and the old Hooker dummy one tubers. Try driving all of the way back and forth from Missouri to Florida and return a few times with several of those cars!!! Talk about headaches!!! I LOVE THEM FOR CRUISING AT NITE for fun or to impress a rider. COOL! But I was single most of my life and the ladies do not like them and also get tired of getting their legs blistered or burned. So it depends on how long you are going to run them and how far. Also with whom?
A flathead motor at idle with a 3/4 cam or at slow cruising speed with a pair (duals) of glass packs (Smitty's) or steel packs really do have a beautiful sound to them!
A Pantera or the Lamborghini mid-engine Jalpa with the Borla exhaust really have a neat sound of POWER at night in 3 or 4th gear at about 100 to 120 MPH before 5th! I only can take just so much of that though (less than a mile or two and then I need comfort Zoned hearing again thank you1 BUT OH that sound!!!!!
This is a good thread as it IS the sounds that we get hooked on in life too.

 

I'm not really into the bikes, but My son-law raced harleys and his uncle has one they start with a caterpillar starter. For a 2 cylinder this thing has a deep throaty growl. One you feel in the ground.
But I vote
1) 427 cammer
2) 427 wedge on injection
3) Any chrysler Hemi with short pipes and a huffer

 

WowJim!!!

 

I've never had a Ferrari and probably never will It's called $$$$$!
I've owned a LEAST 10 Corvettes with the side pipes from the original L-88 white sheet optioned ones, thrush pipes, original fuellie 327's, 67 BBC 427 with stock sides, Hooker headers, and the old Hooker dummy one tubers. Try driving all of the way back and forth from Missouri to Florida and return a few times with several of those cars!!! Talk about headaches!!! I LOVE THEM FOR CRUISING AT NITE for fun or to impress a rider. COOL! But I was single most of my life and the ladies do not like them and also get tired of getting their legs blistered or burned. So it depends on how long you are going to run them and how far. Also with whom?
A flathead motor at idle with a 3/4 cam or at slow cruising speed with a pair (duals) of glass packs (Smitty's) or steel packs really do have a beautiful sound to them!
A Pantera or the Lamborghini mid-engine Jalpa with the Borla exhaust really have a neat sound of POWER at night in 3 or 4th gear at about 100 to 120 MPH before 5th! I only can take just so much of that though (less than a mile or two and then I need comfort Zoned hearing again thank you1 BUT OH that sound!!!!!
This is a good thread as it IS the sounds that we get hooked on in life too.

 

Ever go to Indy? NOVI... screamed like a banshee. I used to get 356 Porsches to sound like a small scale of that...at 9,000 RPM...

 

My old SBC on 95% NITRO......

 

I have one with a 347 small block with a little help 14 lbs. my dye in the wool chevy friend says the thump through pipes is unmatched.

Its all about the motor and exhaust don't care what it is

 

Sounds like Peugeot and JA Prestwich have grounds to go after Harley Davidson...

 

Since side pipes were mentioned, my brother in-law's 427 side oiler Cobra sounds pretty Damn Awesome!

Kinda' like this...
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pAxjhYBxQT4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

<label for="rb_iconid_14"></label> yea!!

 

I think the one in Baltimore on Friday or Saturday nite, can't beat a live band and the food is great. http://www.powerplantlive.com/

 

A old Detroit diesel screaming through straight pipes and some WWII aircraft motors.

 

I got to go FT-4A if we are talking Pratts

 

For me it has to be any blown fuel hemi the moment the pump is flipped on. There is just something about hearing the chaos once the fuel is lit.
This sound is mechanical utopia, fuel on, rpm drops, each cylinder struggling to overcome the forces of nature, a world in which the very principals of physics are challenged.
Has to be the sweetest sound of all.

 

Don't know about sound ....but best wrote

 

I'll go along with that.

 

Absolutely Correct!!!
.
I take mine full strength from 6 feet, or as close as I can get. No earplugs, or covering my ears.
Stand there as long as I can, eyes tearing up, and until till the fumes get to be too much.
Gots to have my Nitro fix!

 

Beautiful color on your B I L's Cobra
Any idea what it is or a paint code?