Five generations of car noise

I love cars with a characteristic and well tuned noise, always did. So I certainly admire an Aston Martin DB9 or a Lamborghini Murcielago. But let's take one step back and look at the past. We probably have seen five generations of car noise.

A) Early stages
In the beginning cars often were equipped with low revving large pot engines often not delivering a great noise

B) Unlimited fun
Until the sixties countries didn't know noise emission rules for cars and it was more a comfort thing whether your car was making a lot or little noise. Cars like the early Astons made great sounds, but it's also surprising how quite a Jaguary SS 100 can be. Low noise was a luxury attribute. You bought a Rolls Royce or Cadillac also because it was so quiet.

C) Semi-silent fun
Beginning in the sixties countries defined noise regulation and cars had to get more and more quiet. More and more sophisticated rules on how to measure the noise were developed, i.e. enter with 50 km/h of speed, reach point A, then accelerate in the 3rd longest gear with max throttle input, measure after 20 or so meter at point B with a distance from 7 meters .... etc. These rules made cars more and more quiet and many Ferraries of that age actually have a quite disappointing sound. Also with the introduction of catalysts and fuel injections a lot of earlier car's sound quality got lost

D) Electronically controlled exhaust noise
In the late 90ies and the 200x the car industry developed new exhaust systems that changed their throughput in a way to fulfill the regulation, but still being quite noisy and well-designed for revs and speeds not measured during the noise emission tests. Good examples are the Aston-Martin DB9, but also the Ferrari 430 Scuderia, a car that reached more than 130 dbA measured by a German car magazine. That's actually so loud that on some race tracks the car which is legal on the road was banned because many race tracks only accept up to 100 dbA (measured differently though).

E) Silent generation
Soon we will have cars that actually make almost no noise, i.e. electrical cars. And to make traffic more save they will create artificial noise, i.e. imitate an 8 cylinder engine. The noise in the interior can be tuned to fit your taste and will probably come through your stereo rather than through an exhaust system.

So, in a few years we will be more than happy to buy some of these 90ies and 200x cars with engineered exhaust systems to create a nice noise. Take the Maserati Quattroporte GTS, what a sound! However, there's nothing better than real engine noise created by a straight six from the 50ies or 60ies, I find. But that's my humble opinion.

Lamborghini Bravo - the best Lambo design, but never produced

This weekend I discovered some old car journals in my "archive" and found a car, very few people actually do remember - the Lamborghini Bravo. It's a really impressive design by Nuccio Bertone, 1.035 meters high, shown 1974 the first time at the Salon Turin. It remained a prototype, but influenced probably a great number of other cars. Different to other prototypes this one actually could be driven, despite missing windscreen wipers or other comfort details. The basis for the Bravo was the Lamborghini Urraco and with this the V8 3 liters engine. 6 seconds for the 0-100 km/h acceleration were certainly good enough in 1974.
The journalist of the German magazine Rallye Racing at least was pleased with the performance and the wonderful noise the car generated. He summarized his article with the following words: "I am getting out of a future car, but it's future is probably already the past". Which makes sense given he wrote this in 1977 and emission, crash and noise regulations already had made a car like this impossible by then. Too bad- what a silhouette!

Fiat 850 Sport Spider - a highly successful 60'ties sportscar

On today's streets you very rarely can spot a Fiat 850 Sport Spider, despite the fact that they built 124'660 of them between 1965 and 1973!
It shared most components with the family version of the 850 and the coupé produced in parallel. With this is had its 843 or 903 ccm engine mounted in the back and was of course rear wheel driven. Independent suspensions for all wheels, disc brakes in the front made it fairly safe and controllable (for the time).
What was though unique about this car was the shape designed by G. Giugiaro (working for Bertone at this time). The Sport Spider was a very lovely two seater convertible car.
With a bit more than 700 kg and roughly 52 HP it was not extremely fast (0-100 km/h in around 16 s), but it was fast enough to overtake the Volkswagen Bug or other mainstream cars of that time. And it was affordable, which was a key success factor. It was cherished by women and therefore often called the "assistant's Ferrari".
The 850 Sport Spider was the first "classic" I owned. The blue one was a real wreck, I drove it only for a week and had then to get rid of it. The second one (in red) was already much better, but even this was in need for a restoration. When I owned it in the early 80ies people still greeted each other from convertible to convertible. One of the best things about these cars was the engine noise. The blue one could be heard much before it actually could be seen, it was so noisy.
Today Fiat 850 Sport Spiders in good condition fetch serious money in the five digit range.

Are super cars coming to an ending? The Aston Martin V12 Vantage

I just watched the last episode of Top Gear series 13. One of the cars driven by Jeremy Clarkson was the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. And he explained ... barely nothing about the car. He just drove it for 3 minutes or so, showing exciting roads, impressive landscapes and let us hear the more than amazing sound of the V12. He though made one point when he asked whether we are coming to an "ending" with this car and its peers. Even the new Ferrari 458 is said to be less noisy and more environmentally acceptable than its predecessor. While this is good so, of course, we probably will look back to the crazy 200x years soon and say, what cars the manufacturers were able to build before they had to switch to electrical and noiseless practical cars. If you get the opportunity to drive a car such as the rear wheel drive Lamborghini Gallardo or the Aston Martin V12 Vantage, then do it as this probably will create a memory you won't want to forget.

The problems with noise regulations for cars

Cars have always and to a certain extent will always produce noise. Usually it's a combination of sounds coming from the engine, the exhaust, the wheels and the air passing the car. Due to the fact that more and more cars were driving around, the authorities created laws, measurement approaches and maximum noise level thresholds to get the problem under control. Over time these laws and maximum noise levels were made stricter. The "machine" to create and update laws though is quite slow and inflexible, as for example in the EU consensus and agreement needs to be reached before a new or updated law can be published. Because of this technology advances much faster and the car manufacturers (and tuning companies) invent new technical approaches to deliver what (some of) their customers want to buy - a well sounding and not too quiet car. If you look at the latest Aston Martins, Maseratis, Porsches or Ferraris, they all come with a sophisticated exhaust system that uses different channels conrolled by flaps and gates to emit the noise, depending on the driving condition or a (sport) switch in the car. When the car is homologated and measured based the rules stipulated through the law these cars of course emit the minimum noise level allowed and nobody would hit the special (sports) switch in the car. As a result these cars are substantially noisier than some cars in the 80ies or 90ies that were ruled out by the laws at that time. Thanks to the fact that complex exhaust systems are expensive this hasn't become a major problem, but it illustrates the problems the legislation suffers from when trying to lay out rules for technology. Where it becomes very irritating is when you try to road register older cars (for example after having imported them from one country to another) and therefore have to comply with the rules from the date when the car was manufacturer (or registered the first time).
As a petrol head I love the noise that well engineered cars produce. I think that the new Maserati Grandsport sounds terrific and would really be disappointed if an Aston Martin DB9 couldn't show off its well orchestrated V12 noise. And I would consider the sound output of a Ferrari 250 GTO, Jaguary D Type or Porsche Carrera 6 almost as music. But I must also admit that life would be hell in cities if all vehicles produced the noise level of these mentioned machines and therefore understand the need to regulate noise emission very well. But ...