Does McLaren know its cars sound crap?

[Never you mind]

Juno said:

rosino said:

andrew said:

RamboLambo said:

If I've got a Ferrari, Lambo and McLaren does that make me a triple prat then ? The fact that they are all great for different reasons is what appeals to me and I don't give a stuff what anybody else thinks

frankly, you don't need to own any of them

??

Talking of said person where is he?

Sure he popped up in a thread in GG about the F8. Noble1234 or something. He banged on about carbon tubs and what not so putting 2 and 2 together ...

[Thorney]

12pack said:

At the risk of a recent Mac owner dredging up an old topic, I maintain that Macs sound much better inside with the top down or backlight cracked open, than it does as non-owners hear it (on Youtube or on the outside).

Edited by 12pack on Tuesday 5th March 11:33

That is so true, we did a top deck exhaust for the 12c, on the spider its just too loud, on the coupe it was lovely. The sound deadening on these cars is just too much.

[jimmybell]

12pack said:

Juno said:

Talking of said person where is he?

At the risk of a recent Mac owner dredging up an old topic, I maintain that Macs sound much better inside with the top down or backlight cracked open, than it does as non-owners hear it (on Youtube or on the outside).

Edited by 12pack on Tuesday 5th March 11:33

When you say 'sounds better', do you mean 'is louder, thus more exciting' or is the tone somehow different with the backlight open?

I don't disagree - if i had to own a mac i'd certainly be buying the vert to enhance the experience. Imagine if the 600LT was a nice sounding engine - how awesome would it be!

[The Surveyor]

jimmybell said:

…... - if i had to own a mac ….

I think you'll be fine, I'm not aware of anybody being forced to have one

[br d]

Think I've said it before, on this thread probably but it won't do any harm to repeat it. The MSO exhaust on the 570 is lovely, much richer and gets really intense at about 5.5K. Mclarens have always suffered in the aural department but the MSO fixes that. IMO of course, don't expect everyone to agree.

Can't wait to get it in the Alpine tunnels!

[jimmybell]

The Surveyor said:

I think you'll be fine, I'm not aware of anybody being forced to have one

As long as my better half doesn't fall for the looks, i'm safe.

[12pack]

jimmybell said:

When you say 'sounds better', do you mean 'is louder, thus more exciting' or is the tone somehow different with the backlight open?

The latter. From a distance, Macs tend to have a sort of whooshing, vacuum cleaner like sound compared to say my V12 Vantage. But with the backlight or the top down, there’s sort of a snarl of more high pitched sounds added. Part NASCAR, part T Rex.

And like my V12 Vantage, my 650s has a nice rumble around town. My old 355 sounded great on the go (on the days that it did), but had this farty 4 Cyl vibe when dawdling.

Edited by 12pack on Wednesday 6th March 20:16

[MDL111]

V12 cars to a degree excluded (and i heard another Aventador today that sounded embarrassing in the city imo) no modern car sounds all that good, so don’t get why people are complaining about the Mclaren sound. It is all fake pops and bangs and some other noises anyway on all cars. People keep harping on about the 458, which imo again sounds rather crap at least compared to Ferraris of old.

[Matty3]

I love the understated McLaren sound thanks - don't need to forward post my journey or arrival

I leave that to lesser marques craving for attention

[garystoybox]

MDL111 said:

V12 cars to a degree excluded (and i heard another Aventador today that sounded embarrassing in the city imo) no modern car sounds all that good, so don’t get why people are complaining about the Mclaren sound. It is all fake pops and bangs and some other noises anyway on all cars. People keep harping on about the 458, which imo again sounds rather crap at least compared to Ferraris of old.

Agreed on the 458, having owned two of them, the engine was magnificent in performance and n/a throttle response but sound wise was just ‘noise’ to me. Always felt a bit “Emperors new clothes” where everybody felt obliged to say how wonderful it sounded on its way to the redline. I appear to one of the few who actually think the 488 sounds better! The Mclarens do appear to sound the worst of the current turbo batch on their standard exhausts though.

[jimmybell]

garystoybox said:

MDL111 said:

V12 cars to a degree excluded (and i heard another Aventador today that sounded embarrassing in the city imo) no modern car sounds all that good, so don’t get why people are complaining about the Mclaren sound. It is all fake pops and bangs and some other noises anyway on all cars. People keep harping on about the 458, which imo again sounds rather crap at least compared to Ferraris of old.

Agreed on the 458, having owned two of them, the engine was magnificent in performance and n/a throttle response but sound wise was just ‘noise’ to me. Always felt a bit “Emperors new clothes” where everybody felt obliged to say how wonderful it sounded on its way to the redline. I appear to one of the few who actually think the 488 sounds better! The Mclarens do appear to sound the worst of the current turbo batch on their standard exhausts though.

Oddly i don't hate the 488 sound at all - Ferrari have managed some decent noise from it despite the turbos. Quite boomy, but that means it sounds cool at low revs.

I'm sure the engineered pops/cracks/bangs on all cars get tiresome eventually, because we all know it's not real and it's artificial to create 'emotion'. That said - i suspect given the opportunity to drive a 675LT spider i imagine i'd be distracted by the handling capabilities and raw speed to offset some of the missing tonal reward.

Didn't i read in the past years McLaren would start to collaborate with BMW again on engines for the future? That's good, because the S55 sounds so brilliant.

[GTrr]

Just opt for the MSO exhaust, it is brilliant, spot on!

[Ex Boy Racer]

garystoybox said:

MDL111 said:

V12 cars to a degree excluded (and i heard another Aventador today that sounded embarrassing in the city imo) no modern car sounds all that good, so don’t get why people are complaining about the Mclaren sound. It is all fake pops and bangs and some other noises anyway on all cars. People keep harping on about the 458, which imo again sounds rather crap at least compared to Ferraris of old.

Agreed on the 458, having owned two of them, the engine was magnificent in performance and n/a throttle response but sound wise was just ‘noise’ to me. Always felt a bit “Emperors new clothes” where everybody felt obliged to say how wonderful it sounded on its way to the redline. I appear to one of the few who actually think the 488 sounds better! The Mclarens do appear to sound the worst of the current turbo batch on their standard exhausts though.

Absolutely bang on with this. I had a 458 Spider and the engine noise was not nice. High pitched and quite harsh in my opinion- probably sounded amazing to the pedestrian while passing them but hard to live with. Not a patch on the V12 Aston Martin I have now. It just seems to be one of those things that is accepted as true.