Does McLaren know its cars sound crap?
Discussion
jimmybell said:
Yipper said:
You see it when you go to multibrand car shows every Summer.
Crowds will gather round the rev-offs for Lambos, Nissan GT-Rs and Astons, while largely ignoring the McLarens and Porkers.
Yep, nobody likes to hear a car with Asthma revving. I'd probably add Ferrari V12 to your list, though.Crowds will gather round the rev-offs for Lambos, Nissan GT-Rs and Astons, while largely ignoring the McLarens and Porkers.
GTrr said:
Standard 570/720/650 indeed sound pretty poor. However the MSO exhaust on my Can Am is absolutely marvellous so it is possible. Not on par with a N/A V12 or V10 but very good.
Just to add: I looked at a 488 at that time but preferred the sound (and other things) of the Can Am so went for the Mac. 488 also great car and sounds good though.And I come from TVR's so sound is really important for me.
GTrr said:
Just to add: I looked at a 488 at that time but preferred the sound (and other things) of the Can Am so went for the Mac. 488 also great car and sounds good though.
And I come from TVR's so sound is really important for me.
what did they do to the Can Am? I think i missed it at FOS that year, but i do remember there being more pipes on the back in pics.And I come from TVR's so sound is really important for me.
I'll admit i think the 650s is my favourite non-P1 in the looks dept, and the best sounding MCL i've heard is that orange, number 8 wearing can am car that trundles up the hillclimb every year with great drama.
The Surveyor said:
jimmybell said:
Yipper said:
You see it when you go to multibrand car shows every Summer.
Crowds will gather round the rev-offs for Lambos, Nissan GT-Rs and Astons, while largely ignoring the McLarens and Porkers.
Yep, nobody likes to hear a car with Asthma revving. I'd probably add Ferrari V12 to your list, though.Crowds will gather round the rev-offs for Lambos, Nissan GT-Rs and Astons, while largely ignoring the McLarens and Porkers.
Nothing false about the lt popping,its simple they just cut the ignition on the gear change instead of cutting the fuel as well.
Yellow491 said:
Rev offs say it all!
Nothing false about the lt popping,its simple they just cut the ignition on the gear change instead of cutting the fuel as well.
Didn't realise - i guess that would mean the gear change crack is the re-ignition of the excess fuel after change? Though surely they'd be more accurate to cut the fuel to avoid this, as it's wasteful? Nothing false about the lt popping,its simple they just cut the ignition on the gear change instead of cutting the fuel as well.
I'm not complaining, i'm sure it adds drama - my old C63 used to do it when very hot on a downshift. Imagine it wasn't intentional there - that thing was pretty inefficient.
jimmybell said:
what did they do to the Can Am? I think i missed it at FOS that year, but i do remember there being more pipes on the back in pics.
I'll admit i think the 650s is my favourite non-P1 in the looks dept, and the best sounding MCL i've heard is that orange, number 8 wearing can am car that trundles up the hillclimb every year with great drama.
Yes 4 pipes. Not sure what they did to the exhaust but it's supposed to be the MSO option. It does rumble, howl and crack, I love it.I'll admit i think the 650s is my favourite non-P1 in the looks dept, and the best sounding MCL i've heard is that orange, number 8 wearing can am car that trundles up the hillclimb every year with great drama.
The point about it being turbo misses the point. A turbo V8 can be made to sound great: eg. the AMG GT. But the Mac's V8 is a flat plane crank (basically two 4 cylinder engines sharing the same crankshaft, so 2 cylinders fire at once). A flat plane crank V8 will just never have a 'proper' V8 sound which comes from the uneven firing order so if as one poster said, you're coming from TVR and expecting a rumbling / thunder type of sound, you're going to be disappointed. Although interestingly the AJP V8 was flat-plane and indeed has a very different sound to the previous Rover-derived V8s.
Ferrari V8s (348 onwards) are all flat-plane and have a distinctive sound which to my ears was always more about the high revs wail/scream; at low revs they sound ok, hugely overrated in my book, even (or especially) the Speciale.
AMG V8s have always been crossplane and give a completely different sound. It seems that adding a turbo doesn't stop them sounding good as the rumble is still there.
In summary, you can engineer out the turbo-ness but no amount of steel tubing can change the firing order and that is why Macs sound the way they do.
To be fair to McLaren, when Ferrari strapped a turbo on in the 488, they made the worst-sounding car they've ever made so McLaren are doing a respectable job within the confines of the engineering. Nobody makes a better sounding turbo flat-plane V8.
Ferrari V8s (348 onwards) are all flat-plane and have a distinctive sound which to my ears was always more about the high revs wail/scream; at low revs they sound ok, hugely overrated in my book, even (or especially) the Speciale.
AMG V8s have always been crossplane and give a completely different sound. It seems that adding a turbo doesn't stop them sounding good as the rumble is still there.
In summary, you can engineer out the turbo-ness but no amount of steel tubing can change the firing order and that is why Macs sound the way they do.
To be fair to McLaren, when Ferrari strapped a turbo on in the 488, they made the worst-sounding car they've ever made so McLaren are doing a respectable job within the confines of the engineering. Nobody makes a better sounding turbo flat-plane V8.
barchetta_boy said:
The point about it being turbo misses the point. A turbo V8 can be made to sound great: eg. the AMG GT. But the Mac's V8 is a flat plane crank (basically two 4 cylinder engines sharing the same crankshaft, so 2 cylinders fire at once). A flat plane crank V8 will just never have a 'proper' V8 sound which comes from the uneven firing order so if as one poster said, you're coming from TVR and expecting a rumbling / thunder type of sound, you're going to be disappointed. Although interestingly the AJP V8 was flat-plane and indeed has a very different sound to the previous Rover-derived V8s.
Ferrari V8s (348 onwards) are all flat-plane and have a distinctive sound which to my ears was always more about the high revs wail/scream; at low revs they sound ok, hugely overrated in my book, even (or especially) the Speciale.
AMG V8s have always been crossplane and give a completely different sound. It seems that adding a turbo doesn't stop them sounding good as the rumble is still there.
In summary, you can engineer out the turbo-ness but no amount of steel tubing can change the firing order and that is why Macs sound the way they do.
To be fair to McLaren, when Ferrari strapped a turbo on in the 488, they made the worst-sounding car they've ever made so McLaren are doing a respectable job within the confines of the engineering. Nobody makes a better sounding turbo flat-plane V8.
Decent response. Ferrari V8s (348 onwards) are all flat-plane and have a distinctive sound which to my ears was always more about the high revs wail/scream; at low revs they sound ok, hugely overrated in my book, even (or especially) the Speciale.
AMG V8s have always been crossplane and give a completely different sound. It seems that adding a turbo doesn't stop them sounding good as the rumble is still there.
In summary, you can engineer out the turbo-ness but no amount of steel tubing can change the firing order and that is why Macs sound the way they do.
To be fair to McLaren, when Ferrari strapped a turbo on in the 488, they made the worst-sounding car they've ever made so McLaren are doing a respectable job within the confines of the engineering. Nobody makes a better sounding turbo flat-plane V8.
I imagine McLaren will stick to that layout in future engines as it's what they're familiar with and able to generate crazy power with, so perhaps this is how it will always be.
The latest Senna vid sounds like it's had some rice krispies for breakfast (mclaren social media, today), but oddly not so artificial sounding (like the f-type does, for example). I wonder if differing header lengths could have an impact, as it's such a different exhaust setup to other 'normal' McLarens.
It depends what you expect from your supercar, many buyers will want mega drama with the loudest most dramatic sound possible as they will use the car for weekend cruising and posing and for showing off at car events and for this the Mclarens are not suited.
I think Mclaren have tried to emulate Porsche in building an un-compromised supercar which can be used as a daily driver and just like Porsche this means that the cars sounds, particularly exhausts sounds have to be relatively civilised, as many of us know it can become quite tiring doing lots of miles in noisy cars.
Having said the above my 570S with Sports exhaust sounds great for me and quite loud really particularly from the outside but when revving it out to 8K the whole noise experience I find very pleasing and exciting yet it can and is easily be used as a DD.
I am having a 720S built soon and pondered the optional sports exhaust, there is a useful comparison vid done by the Dragtimes guys which for me didn't reveal a great difference.
I find it technically very impressive that Mclaren have managed to design an exhaust to flow ~740PS from a 4 litre lump which can sound so civilsed, on a Porsche turbo one has to have a fair amount of gases dumped straight to atmosphere post cat to be able to flow such hp.
Looking at the standard v sports exhaust above (standard on right) I really like the design of the standard and have opted for this with the view that if it is really too boring there are some nice aftermarket things one can do, Thorney Motorsport do a simple but no doubt effective cat back set of pipes for example.
I think Mclaren have tried to emulate Porsche in building an un-compromised supercar which can be used as a daily driver and just like Porsche this means that the cars sounds, particularly exhausts sounds have to be relatively civilised, as many of us know it can become quite tiring doing lots of miles in noisy cars.
Having said the above my 570S with Sports exhaust sounds great for me and quite loud really particularly from the outside but when revving it out to 8K the whole noise experience I find very pleasing and exciting yet it can and is easily be used as a DD.
I am having a 720S built soon and pondered the optional sports exhaust, there is a useful comparison vid done by the Dragtimes guys which for me didn't reveal a great difference.
I find it technically very impressive that Mclaren have managed to design an exhaust to flow ~740PS from a 4 litre lump which can sound so civilsed, on a Porsche turbo one has to have a fair amount of gases dumped straight to atmosphere post cat to be able to flow such hp.
Looking at the standard v sports exhaust above (standard on right) I really like the design of the standard and have opted for this with the view that if it is really too boring there are some nice aftermarket things one can do, Thorney Motorsport do a simple but no doubt effective cat back set of pipes for example.
Edited by TB993tt on Thursday 8th March 11:51
Just a little video of what I think we are missing when we think supercar!
https://youtu.be/yUABlTSDNJ8
https://youtu.be/yUABlTSDNJ8
nicklambo said:
Just a little video of what I think we are missing when we think supercar!
https://youtu.be/yUABlTSDNJ8
That made me giggle. Driving that must be a scream although I think you may become deaf after a 100 mileshttps://youtu.be/yUABlTSDNJ8
nicklambo said:
Just a little video of what I think we are missing when we think supercar!
https://youtu.be/yUABlTSDNJ8
Do the younger members of our fraternity get that, or do they turn up their noses as it doesn't connect via bluetooth and there are no cup-holders? https://youtu.be/yUABlTSDNJ8
Gameface said:
Noise is the sole reason I haven't bought a McLaren. It's one of my primary buying parameters.
I'm used to Lamborghini V10's & V12's with Larini Clubsport exhausts.
Very little compares to those.
If the 720S sounded like them, I'd already be in one.
Agree its a major factor but I've come to the conclusion there is not the absolute perfect supercar for me built at the moment and probably never will be.I'm used to Lamborghini V10's & V12's with Larini Clubsport exhausts.
Very little compares to those.
If the 720S sounded like them, I'd already be in one.
Lambrorghini Huracan Performante Spyder with a metal folding roof would be as would a McLaren 675LT spider that sounded like a N/A V10. Its always a compromise
If only Carlsberg built Supercars
In response to the OP you are indeed correct, They sound like utter garbage and there is nothing you can do.
I have just thrown a full quicksilver exhaust from the turbo back on my 570 and it sounds atrocious, I have actually taken it back today to ge my old back box put back on in the hope it quietens it down sum what and can still keep the performance gains of the race cats, In comparison my 720 doesn't sound too bad with a sports exhaust however, with a the race exhaust and remap it pulled a 5.8 second 60-130 the other day which is almost as quick as the standard 720.
I have a PF spyder coming later in the year for the Aural experience but i'll try to refrain from asserting my dominance and boring the life out of everyone by mentioning it on every single thread I post on.
I have just thrown a full quicksilver exhaust from the turbo back on my 570 and it sounds atrocious, I have actually taken it back today to ge my old back box put back on in the hope it quietens it down sum what and can still keep the performance gains of the race cats, In comparison my 720 doesn't sound too bad with a sports exhaust however, with a the race exhaust and remap it pulled a 5.8 second 60-130 the other day which is almost as quick as the standard 720.
I have a PF spyder coming later in the year for the Aural experience but i'll try to refrain from asserting my dominance and boring the life out of everyone by mentioning it on every single thread I post on.
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