How a sports car gets its roar
Discussion
Great video - that second, longer rev the acoustic engineer did when he was sitting in it sounded ace. I can't believe that McLaren's brief was for an "extreme" exhaust noise though, if that is the truth then the first production cars fell well short of the mark. I appreciate it's difficult to get the character a NA engine has but the differences between the two are finer points really - I can name loads of turbo cars that have fantastic exhaust notes, McLaren failed full stop on getting the note right first time.
I'm glad to hear they are working on rectifying it though; the car sounds much better in sport and better again in track mode (so the journos say), so I'd imagine there are some diversion valves to open or close off additional silencing to keep the car quiet in street mode, to help it pass noise emission tests etc. Imo there should be an override function so that you can have the exhaust set to straight through even if you want the car in the comfort setting. Imagining if I could afford such a car, even if I was just cruising down a country lane and didn't want my teeth shaken out of my head, I'd at least want to hear a snorting, howling exhaust note bouncing off the trees!
I am an admitted exhaust junkie though, my dream job would be doing exactly what that bloke in the video does, tuning intake and exhaust notes. To me, noise is one of the most important aspects of a car. In times when opportunities to stretch a performance car's legs are not exactly everyday stuff, and rarer still for a supercar, I think the noise a car makes should at least remind you that it's something a bit special.
I'm glad to hear they are working on rectifying it though; the car sounds much better in sport and better again in track mode (so the journos say), so I'd imagine there are some diversion valves to open or close off additional silencing to keep the car quiet in street mode, to help it pass noise emission tests etc. Imo there should be an override function so that you can have the exhaust set to straight through even if you want the car in the comfort setting. Imagining if I could afford such a car, even if I was just cruising down a country lane and didn't want my teeth shaken out of my head, I'd at least want to hear a snorting, howling exhaust note bouncing off the trees!
I am an admitted exhaust junkie though, my dream job would be doing exactly what that bloke in the video does, tuning intake and exhaust notes. To me, noise is one of the most important aspects of a car. In times when opportunities to stretch a performance car's legs are not exactly everyday stuff, and rarer still for a supercar, I think the noise a car makes should at least remind you that it's something a bit special.
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