718 engine noise....confused!!

718 engine noise....confused!!

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Discussion

vernz

Original Poster:

179 posts

129 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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I had my 2.7 Cayman (981) in for it's first service last week and was given a 718 Boxter (2.0) as a loan car to make the journey down from Towcester to Milton Keynes.

Having been one of the people that couldn't see any an good coming from Porsche dropping the flat 6 for the new model, I must admit that I was surprised that the engine actually sounded quite good.

I had previously listened to the engine sound on the Porsche configurator and wasn't impressed.

Part of this may have been that I'm used to the slightly muted sound from inside a Cayman and was experiencing the engine noise of the Boxter with the roof down, but even from outside the car with a work mate having a bit of a rev, it still sounded good.

The car had a sports exhaust but sounded ok with it on or off.

Maybe at full chat, I would have noticed that the 'howl' of the flat 6 was missing.

The car obviously went well and felt quicker than my car, which was to be expected, but I must be honest and say that if I was considering this car without any prior knowledge of the whole 6 v 4 cylinder issue, then I would have been more than happy with the way it sounded.

Are my ears broken??

V800MJH

503 posts

156 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
quotequote all
your ears are broken yes

Dyffed

114 posts

96 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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Ho no their not.

shost

825 posts

142 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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We have 2.0 without PSE. Not driven the previous gen but both ones before that.

I made my mind up that sound was fine just different. Only afterwards reading reviews thought my ears were broken.

Doesn't seem strained either. It's a bit beetle on start up but soon settles and smooths out within a minute or so.

Interestingly my gfs who owns the car detests loud exhausts and has no interest in all the racket it can make in Sport and Sport ×

engineermk

96 posts

126 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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I drove 718 for two hours at the Silverstone Experience and was surprised that I didn't mind the Turbo Flat4 note, it was different to my 981, but not objectionable.

PS - I'm also in MK, the grid is well suited to our choice of car

Sparkyhd

1,792 posts

94 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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I like the sound too. Roof down and in Sport mode it makes pleasing noises.

Because of endless threads ridiculing the sound I've booked myself in for therapy which should encourage me to trade back to my previous 981.

Scotty982

148 posts

89 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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Vernz for once a 981 owner who hasn't jumped on the band wagon over the different sounding engine you will probably be disowned by the 718 haters club wink

ghiblicup

605 posts

213 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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He means nothing to us now.....

Hashtag dowelooklikefourcylinderguys

Pinball

456 posts

129 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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I too enjoyed the sound of the PSE and non PSE equipped Caymans I drove at PEC the other week. I think the repeated criticism of the 718 exhaust sound is a perfect example of an information cascade TBH.

brakedwell

1,229 posts

198 months

Wednesday 22nd March 2017
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Pinball said:
I too enjoyed the sound of the PSE and non PSE equipped Caymans I drove at PEC the other week. I think the repeated criticism of the 718 exhaust sound is a perfect example of an information cascade TBH.
Same as old mindsets which said Gaydon built cars were not real Aston Martins or anything after the MGTF was not a real MG

LiamH66

670 posts

90 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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Scotty982 said:
Vernz for once a 981 owner who hasn't jumped on the band wagon over the different sounding engine you will probably be disowned by the 718 haters club wink
Yet somehow, you'll probably still live. I like the sound of both the old engine and the new. I'm possibly just weird, but will also probably still live. I had a load of insults thrown at me when I decided flat plane and 90 degree V8 cranks resulted in engines that both sounded great, but in totally different ways. My opinion on that and other matters has not changed in the intervening years.

Liam

bcr5784

7,103 posts

144 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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LiamH66 said:
Yet somehow, you'll probably still live. I like the sound of both the old engine and the new. I'm possibly just weird, but will also probably still live. I had a load of insults thrown at me when I decided flat plane and 90 degree V8 cranks resulted in engines that both sounded great, but in totally different ways. My opinion on that and other matters has not changed in the intervening years.

Liam
Might be interesting to correlate liking the sound of flat plane cranks with 718 approval (and a liking for heavy metal?) . I don't like the sound of flat plane cranks or heavy metal much either. But as you say you will probably live.

Cheib

23,113 posts

174 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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Pinball said:
I too enjoyed the sound of the PSE and non PSE equipped Caymans I drove at PEC the other week. I think the repeated criticism of the 718 exhaust sound is a perfect example of an information cascade TBH.
It sounds a lot better than the current M3/M4 does at idle....that sounds bloody awful if you are standing near one when it's started up.

vernz

Original Poster:

179 posts

129 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
quotequote all
I didn't get a chance to really open the taps on the Boxter and as I suggested in my post, I think that the flat 6 'bark' at high revs may have been lacking.

The power obviously comes in lower down the rev range than a NA engine, so if you want the VTEK driving experience like the 981 then it won't possibly be as satisfying.

That said, it did sound as if there was something different back there.....dare I say something a bit special and certainly not just a standard 4 cylinder turbo, which over the years I've experienced with a few cars.

At times when I can't be arsed to rev the nuts off mine, I do miss the torque from my old C2S 997 and I suspect the 2.0 turbo will be offer more options to more people, which I suppose is all that matters for Porsche at the end of the day.

I'm intrigued as to what the Cayman sounds like now!




ooid

4,049 posts

99 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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confused? You either like a car or not..imho.

I can understand people would ask questions in terms of reliability, maintenance or things to look out but asking other people to see how it sounds it's quite bizarre. Sorry rolleyes

PhantomPH

4,043 posts

224 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
quotequote all
ooid said:
confused? You either like a car or not..imho.

I can understand people would ask questions in terms of reliability, maintenance or things to look out but asking other people to see how it sounds it's quite bizarre. Sorry rolleyes
I think the OP means he is confused as to what 'people in general' are hearing (or not as the case may be) that he seems to be missing. I don't think he is actually confused - more questioning of the accepted '718 sounds st' mantra. wink

vernz

Original Poster:

179 posts

129 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
quotequote all
ooid said:
confused? You either like a car or not..imho.

I can understand people would ask questions in terms of reliability, maintenance or things to look out but asking other people to see how it sounds it's quite bizarre. Sorry rolleyes
I was sharing a light hearted view that IMHO the car sounded quite good. Like most people we read reviews and other peoples opinions until we hopefully get the chance to experience things ourselves and most of the journo's had given the 718 a glowing review apart from the sound that it makes.

It wasn't intended to be a long term heavy duty review and all indications so far suggest that the car(s) will be a very good owning proposition for those prepared to look beyond the 'missing' two cylinders and for what's it's worth I was pleasantly suprised!!

P1 PET

37 posts

85 months

LiamH66

670 posts

90 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
quotequote all
bcr5784 said:
Might be interesting to correlate liking the sound of flat plane cranks with 718 approval (and a liking for heavy metal?) . I don't like the sound of flat plane cranks or heavy metal much either. But as you say you will probably live.
Now there's an interesting question. Best sounding cross-plane V8 of all time for me? Probably a TVR Griffith, maybe Chimaera. Best sounding flat plane V8 of all time? Probably Judd EV, but DFV is another classic. Totally different sounding, but I just don't know how anyone can't think they both sound great.

Liam

Urowho

30 posts

94 months

Thursday 23rd March 2017
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Your ears aren't broken they're just different from mine. My test drive, where I really tried to convince myself the 718s they were offering me at a good discount was great failed on two counts; mostly the turbo lag. But it was totally killed off when I sat at some lights next to a 10yr old Vectra with a big bore exhaust and both cars sounded the same. £68,000 to sound like a souped up vectra with a sense of disconnection from the throttle. I've got other ways to spend my cash.

But if you like it then brilliant! hopefully people will stop finding the old ones at all appealing, especially the BGTS. But please let that happen soon, it's nearly summer.