So why does the V8 sound so damm good?
Discussion
Big_M said:
Nothing really sounds like a V8 engine does it? It is so distinctive even with the factory fitted exhaust or marque. So why does it sound so much better than a V6?
Please explain to an engineering numpty.
Not sure but i totally agree! If i could get my V12 to sound like a V8 i probably would...
A v8 rumble appeals to everyone because it sounds like the mother's heart beat to a foetus in the womb, so we are all preconditioned before birth to the comfort and security associated with the bass tone and resonance 
(unless it's not your v8 but you live next door to someone who owns a v8 and then it can become a source of intense irritation initially mediated by envy
)
(unless it's not your v8 but you live next door to someone who owns a v8 and then it can become a source of intense irritation initially mediated by envy
)
Lots of lovely V8s of course, but Tony's Diablo did sound particularly awesome 
Big_M said:
Nothing really sounds like a V8 engine does it? It is so distinctive even with the factory fitted exhaust or marque. So why does it sound so much better than a V6?
Please explain to an engineering numpty.
burble, burble, burble, burble,
Still not as good as an old British single cylinder Velocette under heavy load....
It's the weird firing orders you get... I remember trying to sort out the firing order on a Yank tank that had its HT leads mixed up, took ages, turned out to be something like 1-3-5-6-8-7-2-4 - ie. three pots on one bank fire consecutively, then two on the other bank, then one off the first bank, then the other two off the second bank. So one exhaust is going DUH-DUH-DUH-...-...-DUH-...-... and the other is going ...-...-...-DUH-DUH-...-DUH-DUH (if you see what I mean...) - the result is it always sounds like there's something wrong with it even when there isn't, and exhaust tuning is a bitch.
There's V8s and there's V8s though. The traditional "Yank" V8 (or Rover V8) has crank pins at 90 degrees to each other but there are other V8s (like TVR's AJP engine) which have "flat plane" cranks. These sound like two four cylinder engines running at the same time - because effectively, that's what they are. To my mind they don't sound anything like as nice but it's a purely personal opinion. If you give one 7000RPM they sound a bit nicer though! I was once told that the reason engines with larger numbers of cylinders sound nicer is that the exhaust "note" (a function of engine speed) has a more complete set of harmonics to it with 8 cylinders so the note sounds "fuller". There are twice as many pulses making up the note for each crankshaft revolution and they are more equally spaced with a 90 degree crank (well, I know what I mean anyway!)
I don't know if the Jag V12 is effectively 2 sixes running at the same time or whether it is more like the Rover engine. If it's the former, that might explain why it doesn't sound as nice. Obviously, for it to work, the exhausts from each bank must join at some point.
I don't know if the Jag V12 is effectively 2 sixes running at the same time or whether it is more like the Rover engine. If it's the former, that might explain why it doesn't sound as nice. Obviously, for it to work, the exhausts from each bank must join at some point.
the V8 has to be the nicest sound an engine can make... it also is the only sound that to *me* comes from the engine and not from the exhaust!!!
and the sound is infitably tweakable like the high-pitched wail of a 360 to a gruff TVR or the american-muscle car sound of a bi-turbo Merc
one of the nicest sounds:
http://home.tiscali.nl/fdegroot/
(you need sound but its so worth it!!!)
and the sound is infitably tweakable like the high-pitched wail of a 360 to a gruff TVR or the american-muscle car sound of a bi-turbo Merc
one of the nicest sounds:
http://home.tiscali.nl/fdegroot/
(you need sound but its so worth it!!!)
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