What in your opinion is the best sounding powerplant?

When I see a old car while im driving the minivan, I always roll down the window to get a listen. Old Corvettes with side pipes always sound amazing. My favorite is the Flathead..

 

Ferrari 365 GT4 V12
It may not be traditional but it is the ultimate mechanical music, IMHO.

 

Instrument: Ford V8 Flathead
Composer: Henry Ford

 

I don't run them but I have to agree, Flathead....

 

The Y block with straight pipes makes wonderful music

 

As a GM fan, it's gotta be a Ford with Smithy's!

 

I don't think I have heard one in person.

 

High compression anything usually sounds pretty good.

 

Easy...JW's vid. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxAW3oV8tw8

 

I am just a little partial to Offenhousers.

Street engines, hard to guess in stock or near stock trim I like the sound of a Y block. Built engines it is more dependent on the build and the builder than the engine itself.

 

Sweet Jesus! your right. That does sound fantastic..

 

On land....a SOHC
In the air.... a P51

 

i'm not into noise, but to answer the question i like the gmc 60 degree 6.

 

Gotta love them 'special-effects'

 

Pratt & Whitney R-985

 

Enuf said-- Bitchen !!!!!

Sent from the payphone in my bathroom.

 

TMI buddy, TMI.

 

No question! At least in my slightly porous memory, with 11:1 comp too.

 

You've got to go even bigger. I once put a thousand gallons of 100LL and three cases of oil on a Convair 440. Two P&W 2800's. Then I ran the start cart, under the wing right behind the number one engine. The sound was amazing, and getting splattered with oil was never so much fun.

But I am kinda partial to the mopar flathead 6's too.

 

Pratt /Whitney R-4360 set up for Reno Air Races, nuthin' beats the sound of Round!

 

Lucky you! I worked on the Convair 600/640. Which I think was nicked named The Whistling Shitbox. Dart II engines..I would classify the worlds shittiest sounding powerplant.. The old round motors sure did sound good.

 

A flathead ford,with glasspacks and duals. Second is a y block. as for planes, gotta say the best sounding, hair raising engine I ever heard was in a P-51 when he buzzed my tractor at 100 feet.

 

Man you were flyin' pretty high on that tractor.

 

Blown 392 with Al Teague legging it through the 5 mile. Still makes the hair on my neck stand up remembering it.

 

My favorite, A flathead on nitro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLFTO0Bx9-E

-Mitch

 

Gotta agree with this one. My first experience with the 'sound of round' was watching a family friend light up his P&W in a '41 Stearman using a hand-cranked inertia starter. The whine of the starter, the bellowing smoke from the exhaust stack on contact, and the rumble of the engine ..... my God, what an experience -- I was hooked forever after that! And the front seat ride in an old biplane just made the addiction even worse. Forty five years later, my ears still perk up when I hear a radial engine passing overhead.

 

blown fuel hemi,15 oz comes to mind

 

i think an old flatty or y block are hard to beat. they just sound great

that said, a blown early hemi is just a sweet sound all its own

and as far as o/t, allison v12's are sick, i like the old detroit diesels, and a lot oh european v8's, 10's and 12's are very good sounding and rev to the moon

 

Until you hear one with a GM second design off road cam (3965754). It'll stand your hair on end.

 

Well I thought we were talking about on the street but if we're going there....

There's nothing like a 392...........