Opinions on loud exhausts

[Clivey]

AC43 said:

Yeah but that's not cars getting louder, that's people buying diesels.

I realise my examples were both diesels but even older petrol family cars sound much louder than most recent stuff. We've just got used to "normal" cars becoming quieter and quieter these days, to the point that often the tyre noise is much louder than the engine / exhaust.

AC43 said:

M140i, though, now there a great sound although the exhaust can never sound quite as good as the older BM 6 cyls (one of my favourite all time exhaust sounds) because of the turbo(s) muffling it.

Thanks. One of the many reasons I bought one was because they're one of the few modern everyday cars that bucks the trend for being either utterly neutered or attempting to compensate by making stupid fart sounds with every gearchange.

[PH User]

I get that we don't want to annoy others, but at the same time this is a website for car enthusiasts, but there doesn't seem to be many enthusiasts on here, and yes I realise that there are many types of car enthusiast.

[ddom]

SidewaysSi said:

Jaguar steve said:

AW111 said:

SidewaysSi said:

I have a loud exhaust on my Lotus, a Larini Clubsport. Don't really care what people think as I love it - pops, bangs etc but is in keeping with the car so all good IMO. Of course, it is a stty 4 cylinder car so obviously some will think of it as the work of the devil...

You do realise that your pops and bangs probably really annoy some people, don't you? You obviously don't care about being a selfish dhead.


Not only is your car illegal, it almost certainly adds to the ranks of people wanting to ban all modifications.

Way to go, champ.

Yep. Well done.

More fuel for the Hippies and Haters bonfire of cars right there...

Oh well.. you may have to get rid of your wild, interesting and exciting cars too.

Oh wait..

[Sporky]

Probably repeating others, but I don't mind a bit of tuneful volume in an appropriate setting. Minor pops and bangs are OK too, where they're not annoying people.

Hatley sound stupid though, and the dick a few years ago in Bourton-on-the-water revving a Ferrari outside the post office deserved a slap.

[fooman]

How acceptable a loud exhaust is depends on whether the car is mine or somebody else's.

[ddom]

Sporky said:

Probably repeating others, but I don't mind a bit of tuneful volume in an appropriate setting. Minor pops and bangs are OK too, where they're not annoying people.

Hatley sound stupid though, and the dick a few years ago in Bourton-on-the-water revving a Ferrari outside the post office deserved a slap.

The worst I have ever heard was an Audi RS3. I was parking at Heathrow and this normal looking hatchback made the most noise I’ve ever heard, tbh unpleasant. All mine have modified exhausts, and all of them can be quiet, and are quiet when needed.

[robsco]

In my 20s I had a spate of extremely noisy TVRs. Some of them were decatted, which I still feel fits the TVR image. Some of them I went a step further and went for straight through pipes. At the time I thought it was hilarious but now, in my very early 30s, I look back in embarrassment. Not at the cars so much, as I still think they sound fabulous, but at my behaviour whilst in them. Driving in first through a residential area and backing off to a thunderous overrun might appear cool when you’re young, but it really isn’t.

[KingNothing]

My car is pretty loud, my bike is even louder than that, will leave straight away after starting if early in the morning/late at night.

[SarlechS]

320d is all you need said:

I don't mind loud exhausts as long as they are not obtrusively loud or used in an obtrusive manner.

For example if you have a loud exhaust on your car and leave for work early in the morning. If you start your car and drive off within a few seconds, that is OK.

If you sit there idling / revving for 5 minutes, that isn't OK.

Also some consideration to the car making the noise.
While I have no problem with someone putting a louder exhaust on their Corsa 1.2, I expect that if it's louder than a Corvette V8 then that is un reasonable.

Same for people flooring it around built up areas late at night, just to get their exhaust to make noise between the walls etc.

Basically I don't care how loud as long as its not "too loud" (and this is a staggered scale according to engine size) and usage (don't be a selfish prick!)

i live next door to someone with a loud exhaust, he'll keep his car on idle until the thermostat opens (around 4-6mins)... lovely stuff

[Stick Legs]

SarlechS said:

i live next door to someone with a loud exhaust, he'll keep his car on idle until the thermostat opens (around 4-6mins)... lovely stuff

I have a neighbour who has a stage 1 Land Rover and does this.

I sit there and say "6...7...6...7...8! We have 8 yay!"

My Mrs. still finds it amusing as it obviously needs properly setting up and runs like a bag of st cold, nothing that holding it at 2000 rpm won't fix.

[Clivey]

PH User said:

I get that we don't want to annoy others, but at the same time this is a website for car enthusiasts, but there doesn't seem to be many enthusiasts on here, and yes I realise that there are many types of car enthusiast.

Too many Helen Lovejoy types on here nowadays, whether they be those that think anything but a grey repmobile is "outrageous" or whether they're fully paid-up members of the Greta Thunberg fan club.

[Ferruccio Fan]

PH User said:

there doesn't seem to be many enthusiasts on here,

Are you counting them ?

[PH User]

Ferruccio Fan said:

PH User said:

there doesn't seem to be many enthusiasts on here,

Are you counting them ?

Yes

[SarlechS]

Stick Legs said:

I have a neighbour who has a stage 1 Land Rover and does this.

I sit there and say "6...7...6...7...8! We have 8 yay!"

My Mrs. still finds it amusing as it obviously needs properly setting up and runs like a bag of st cold, nothing that holding it at 2000 rpm won't fix.

if only they knew!

[bigothunter]

Loud exhausts are antisocial and unnecessary. They provide fuel to the anti-car brigade to justifiably complain even more.

[anonymous-user]

As a younger chap I regularly fitted louder exhausts to whatever hot hatchback I owned.

Now I’m in my 40’s, and far more selective, I only fit louder pipes to stuff that I think sounds good enough to warrant it. Air cooled 911, that sort of thing.

The last set of fruity sounding pipes I had fitted were to my wife’s daily driver Cayenne V8 S. I fitted a Fabspeed system and it sounded pretty epic after that. She loved the sound of it after that. Complained it “didn’t sound good” before the new exhaust.

I still like to hear ‘the kids’ enjoying themselves with silly exhausts. Only yesterday I watched a youngster rag his Fiesta ST down the road making an absolute racket via a set of loud pipes. It made me smile.

[AC43]

SarlechS said:

320d is all you need said:

I don't mind loud exhausts as long as they are not obtrusively loud or used in an obtrusive manner.

For example if you have a loud exhaust on your car and leave for work early in the morning. If you start your car and drive off within a few seconds, that is OK.

If you sit there idling / revving for 5 minutes, that isn't OK.

Also some consideration to the car making the noise.
While I have no problem with someone putting a louder exhaust on their Corsa 1.2, I expect that if it's louder than a Corvette V8 then that is un reasonable.

Same for people flooring it around built up areas late at night, just to get their exhaust to make noise between the walls etc.

Basically I don't care how loud as long as its not "too loud" (and this is a staggered scale according to engine size) and usage (don't be a selfish prick!)

i live next door to someone with a loud exhaust, he'll keep his car on idle until the thermostat opens (around 4-6mins)... lovely stuff

I've got one neighbour with an XFR and an XKR which both sound wonderful on fast idle. I don't mind them at all, in fact they cheer me up. He also has a Toyota IQ which I just can't hear at all. Which, again, is fine.

So much better than the four pot diesel XC90 (aarghh!) across the road or the thankfully scrapped 54 plate diesel Mondeo thing next door which vibrated my house and stank the place out. Awful, hateful racket.

[SarlechS]

AC43 said:

I've got one neighbour with an XFR and an XKR which both sound wonderful on fast idle. I don't mind them at all, in fact they cheer me up. He also has a Toyota IQ which I just can't hear at all. Which, again, is fine.

So much better than the four pot diesel XC90 (aarghh!) across the road or the thankfully scrapped 54 plate diesel Mondeo thing next door which vibrated my house and stank the place out. Awful, hateful racket.

when i'm awake i'm the same, i actually enjoy it too! The question is, if he fired up the XKR at 530am in the morning and woke you up from your sleep, leaving his car singing (droning) at idle for 5mins before the thermostat opened before he drove it off, would you enjoy it then?

[bigothunter]

You're ringing your own death knell with loud exhausts. All the more justification to force the transition to silent electric cars as quickly as possible

[SarlechS]

bigothunter said:

You're ringing your own death knell with loud exhausts. All the more justification to force the transition to silent electric cars as quickly as possible

not really, just some common sense to drive off quickly and discretely when firing up the car in the morning if pre 7am