good sounding small engined petrols

[Calza]

Ok so it's not that small but the old dear used to have a 1.8 astra (Mk4) and was always impressed by how grunty it sounded!

(I did have a 1.1 punto at the time though so my opinion may not be valid!)

[jcelee]

My Caterham with pushrod Ford Kent Crossflow 1.7 with twin 40 Webers and side exit exhaust sounds pretty cool

[bodhi]

Not driven any of their recent cars, but Fiat used to be past masters of this. The 1.1 lump in the Cinquecento Sporting sounded great, only out done by the 1.2 16v out of the Punto Sporting. Lightly silenced with a sports cat on it it sounded awesome, screamed and rasped like an Alfasud. Only way I could get a better noise to replace it was to change to an E36 328i.

[Pappagallo]

The 1.7 Yamaha unit in the Ford Puma was always pleasing to the ears.

[idibbers]

FD3Si said:

How small is small? The 1.6l Toyota 4AGE is an utterly wonderful engine

Beat me to it, one of the best sounding engines in the world IMO, a sound that truly never gets old.

The 1.4 K-series as suggested above is also a good sounding car, we own one (with cat-back and induction) , sometimes sounds better than our Golf R, although the Golf coughs when upshifting in the higher revs and that sound is just...

[Daston]

RX7?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-iOGaVI6YQ

I even got around 20-25mpg out of mine whilst I was running the engine in....it isn't that good now I can use the full revs

[MarkRSi]

I suspect any (small) engine with some breathing mods can (but not necessarily) sound good.

I fitted a Pipercross (foam) filter to my old 1.0l Nissan Micra.

Under idle/light loaded it sounded normal, but at wider throttle opening (which was a lot with only 998cc) it sounded fking awesome like a rorty Elise

[dieseluser07]

MarkRSi said:

I suspect any (small) engine with some breathing mods can (but not necessarily) sound good.

I fitted a Pipercross (foam) filter to my old 1.0l Nissan Micra.

Under idle/light loaded it sounded normal, but at wider throttle opening (which was a lot with only 998cc) it sounded fking awesome like a rorty Elise

does swapping air filters make much of a difference to noise?

[LiamB]

My 1 litre 3 cylinder Corsa B makes a funny noise when revved high, quite like it

[aka_kerrly]

dieseluser07 said:

does swapping air filters make much of a difference to noise?

Yes. Manufactures spend a fair bit of time/money/effort into making most air filters as quiet as possible by installing all sorts of flaps, channels and silencers into the intake system.

Even drilling a few small holes in the standard air box (below the filter and on the wing side or into cold air side) can increase the noise levels by a pleasing amount.

Fitting a completely different air filter box is another upgrade but there is a balance between having a open filter eg a cone design and it sucking too much hot air from around the engine bay which although sounds better harms performance which is something we want to avoid.

[CarAbuser]

I don't think I've ever heard a hatchback with a small engine and thought "that sounds like a Ferrari".

I'm sure if you take a small engine and butcher the exhaust system you can make it loud. But not nice.

To me these engines sound nice;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B-oQCAwet4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf1bk0TGyoU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzXs11YctnY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYVvzcJt4Kk

There's plenty more out there. But I'm yet to hear a 3 cylinder hatchback sound anything like these cars!

[ghibbett]

idibbers said:

The 1.4 K-series as suggested above is also a good sounding car, we own one (with cat-back and induction) , sometimes sounds better than our Golf R, although the Golf coughs when upshifting in the higher revs and that sound is just...

1.4k in Super Sport level of tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-iiMP27xac

[ghibbett]

JakeT said:

I like the sound of the sigma in any of it's applications before the current shape fiesta. Has a nice sound.

Here's the 1.6 Sigma in my Caterham Supersport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBie7Tt6zQY

[dieseluser07]

any other suggestions?

[Simes205]

small enough?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjm9lkFOu7o

[gvij]

The 1.6fsi Mk5 golf engine has a very nice track to it. The noise alone makes up for the rest of the disappointments-ie poor looks, handling, poor acceleration and dodgy dashboard plastics and low quality carpets.

[R12HCO]

x14xe vauxhall lump.

[benedwards64]

Agree with the Aygo/107/C1 three-banger, has a nice rasp to it.

And, if it still counts as small, the 2-litre 8v Fiat twin-cam in my Westfield sounds pretty bloody awesome. Especially with bike carbs

[inabox]

I like the old a series, it's Siamese inlet ports give it a really throaty, lumpy sound that gets a bit addictive.

[divetheworld]

Exception noted.

Rawwr said:

divetheworld said:

oxymoron.

ikarl said:

dieseluser07 said:

BL Fanboy said:

My 2002 1.0 litre Corsa Club.

3 cylinders punching like Mohammed Ali.

haha i used to have one of these, sounded almost like a ferrari at high revs

I'm sorry, I know you're new, but really?? a Ferrari?

with you there.

Edited by divetheworld on Tuesday 23 September 22:26