CaramelNougat

You're right of course. I should have qualified my original comment with the caveat of "street cars" or derivatives thereof. Part of the reason I like that F50 GT sound is exactly because it captures a bit of that Formula flavor.

06-Z0SICK

firing order....go buy a ferrari

CaramelNougat

Wow that's really nice!

Landru

Many of Ferrari's V12's displacement is less than 5.0 liter or < 302cu/in. Stroke has to be quite short allowing for much higher RPMs than the V8s; hence, the great sound.

C5 Frank

Here's my input on this thread. Ever since one of my buddies gave me a ride in his Carrera GT.. I think this is one of the most exotic sounding cars ever made bar none!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs6HsUvQst8

DJackman

You cant. Even the Ferrari's flat-crank V8 sound totally different than the cross-plane V8s, let alone a V12.

Viscerl

Agreed. I've been in a very large portion of the cars mentioned here... and if all you want is sound, you can't pay less than a used Carrera GT. Most of the folks I know in the Emirates have put straight pipes on. The cars arent as fast as a lot of the other cars on the road, but they sure sound far more like a F1 car. (IMHO)

The Z06 is a totally different animal. I started loving it the moment it was announced it would have a 427ci engine. Thats a number thats a special to me as it sounds like that sound is to you

goatts

I like the sound of a V8 much better. Straight Bullets on a vette is hard to beat. My V-twin Harley with straight pipes wasn't bad either.

goatts

Sorry. That doesn't even sound like a car. Sounds just like my Craftsman power drill. V8's rule.

Wanderer Z06

A lot of the cars mentioned in this thread and others I can think of all sound awesome IMO. To me one is not better than the other...Just different.

GEODON

Well what can I say, I guess I am just an interesting person.

vinniezx12r

Lots of really cool sound clips, but I think this ranks right at the top of the most killer sounding engines I have ever heard!

The BRM V16 - 1.5 liter supercharged making 600 hp @ 12,000 rpm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBKUQ...eature=related

slwhite

Besides the number of cylinders, high RPM, and firing order there is one other element. Most of the Ferraris I have seen are not 90 degree V engines. They are something like 60 degrees. This causes an uneven firing rhythm which accounts for some of the sound.

AtlBlkZ06

DJackman was onto it, and others may have said this too but here is a little something I had posted elsewhere on this subject:

So the Ferrari F430 uses a 4.3L V8. The V8 block configuration is the same as any Ford or GM V8 - 90* V8.

So why does the engine sound so incredibly different?
It seems that the answer is in the crankshaft:

Regular V8s use a cross-plane crankshaft (X) but the more exotic cars use a Flat-plane crankshaft (-)

CROSS PLANE CRANK:
Notice that the nodes are setup in an "X" or "+" configuration. The crank pins are 90* apart.

Assume the counter weight in vertical position is heavy enough to balance the crank throw, con-rod and pistons. When the crankshaft rotate 90°, the counter weight is repositioned to the right, but the piston doesn’t go to the left, and the con-rod just partially moves to the left. Only the crank pin moves completely to the left. Now you can see the system is not balanced. The counter weight will generate a net force towards the right.However, for 90° V8, when such a heavy counter weight moves to the right, the piston from another bank will cancel it completely, because their movement are exactly opposed at this moment. (see illustrations below) The same result can be found for the counter weight moving to the left. Therefore 90° cross-plane V8 employs full-weight counter weights can achieve near perfect smoothness.


DISADVANTAGES: The disadvantage of cross-plane V8s is also about the counter weights - not only increase the weight of engine, they also contribute to rotational inertia, thus making the engine less responsive and less revvy, dropping upper rev limit and top-end power. Moreover, the larger counter weights usually requires a larger crankcase to house them, thus raising the height (and more important, center of gravity) of the enigne


FLAT PLANE CRANK: The nodes are setup in an "-" or "|" configuration.
The crank pins are 180* apart.

Flat-plane V8 is named according to the shape of the crankshaft, which is in a flat plane. It is very much like two inline-4 engines mated together. In particular, it achieves end-to-end balance because the first piston and last piston of a bank is exactly in the same position, so are the center two pistons. This is just the same as straight-four engines, therefore the sound of flat-plane V8 is usually somewhat like a pair of four-pot engines screaming simultaneously, unlike the rumble-bumble of cross-plane V8s. As both banks run like an inline-4 engine, there is second-order vibration. For a 90° flat-plane V8, the sum of second-order force generated in the 2 banks is - by simple vector analysis - 1.41 times (root-2) of the force generated by each of the inline-4 it consists of. And the direction of vibration is left-right instead of top-down. In other words, while displacement increases 100% compare with the inline-4, the second-order vibration increases just 41%. That makes the flat-plane V8 more refined than an inline-4 although it is not as smooth and quiet as cross-plane V8.

To exotic sports cars, less refinement is not a big problem. Especially they usually employ short stroke and light weight pistons / con-rods, the second-order vibration is greatly reduced.

BORE X STROKE:

To reduce the second order vibrations and to give the engines a high degree of it's rev-happy tendency, the engines are usually over-square. The bore is much greater than the stroke.
An F430 engine has a 3.62" Bore but only a 3.19" stroke. Compare this to a 4.125" bore and an almost equal 4" stroke in the GM LS7.


SOURCE:
http://www.autozine.org/technical_sc...ne/smooth4.htm

C5 Frank

Actually it sounds more like a F1 car then any Vette ever will for sure. My buddy took me for a ride in his CGT one night. 11 guys eventually came over from their homes in the neighborhood just because they heard it going around the area.... THATS what I call an exotic sound. NOT American Muscle... but exotic!!!

If you like muscle, my 347ci blown Cobra has a radical idle with blower whine..... thats muscle.

Everett Ogilvie

Well, I suppose those of us with simple Chevy cross plane crank motors had better get rid of our cars because they are not exotic and can't sound good due to their design (in my opinion, my Katech race motor sounds as good or better than any engine posted so far in this thread with the exception of the top fuel cars). And I guess every naturally aspirated Nascar motor that makes 850 - 900 HP and revs to 10,000 rpm for 500 miles under extreme race conditions is junk as well because it is not exotic. It really doesn't matter if one likes or hates Nascar, you can't argue against the incredible power results they get. All this talk of exotics is one thing, but both types of engines are raced successfully. As far as oversquare engines go - that has nothing to do with the layout of the crank - the LS2 has virtually the same bore/stroke ratio as the Ferrari F430, 1.10 vs. 1.13 respectively. The simple fact is most every race engine is oversquare, for reasons that go well beyond crank design (the prime reason is for maximized valve area and breathing capacity of the engine).

By the way, for the engineers and gearheads among us, here is a REALLY interesting paper comparing a F1 and a Nascar Cup engine. It is quite interesting and the Cup motor power metrics may surprise you.


http://www.epi-eng.com/piston_engine..._cup_to_f1.htm

goatts

Mustang has a great sound with the right exhaust, Maybe better than Chevy V8. I don't like the blower whine or the exotic sound. F1 cars sound like my Craftsman power drill. It's all very subjective.

C5 Frank

It is subjective... I love the Muscle car sound too... but if you get a chance to hear a CGT in person. Its one of a kind!

slwhite

To me it is all about expectations and tradition. Would you expect a Ferrari to sound like a Corvette V8? Of coarse not. It just would not sound right. Likewise, I would not expect a Corvette to have a high pitched Ferrari sound. That would not sound right either. I like the sound of both. I used to prefer the Ferrari sound but during the last few years I have come to like the American V8 sound better.

I would agree with the other poster that the Mustang V8 with the right exhaust is probably the best sounding V8 that I have heard, regardless of its other characteristics. I don't mean the blower whine, that is obnoxious, just the exhaust.

KLLRVET

A set of 180 degree headers will bring the sound a lot closer to what you are looking for:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSZTbR6C6Lw