Funny thing is that I went through all the trouble to install a radio in the glovebox of my 440 powered car a bunch of years ago and have only turned it on about twice. The sound of the engine is the best music in the world! I also live in an area that has LOTS of military aircraft flying around. There are people who complain about it of course, but I LOVE the "free air show" every day when the F-22's fly over at low al***ude! For every complainer, there are ten people like me who want to say THANKS for the jet noise!!! I almost always stop whatever I'm doing to watch them p*** over the house, and actually missed it when we lived in Illinois for a while!!! I still remember the first time that I heard a fuel car run! Shirley Muldowney was doing exhibition runs at a little track in Iowa back in the early 90's... We watched them getting ready to run, and as they prepared to fire it up the crew chief puts the starter motor in place on the front of the blower and walks around looking at everyone and is making this cupping motion over his ears (his ears already covered in muffs, of course). All of the bad ***es were standing there watching with their arms crossed in front of them... until the freakin' EXPLOSION of noise and fumes when that thing hit! OH MY GOD I have never heard anything so damn loud!!! Even "the bad ***est of the bad ***es" jumped like a little girl when it lit off. THEN the guy reaches over to the bug catcher and blips the throttle once or twice!!!!! I felt like a bomb had gone off right next to me!!! And then the tears from the nitro fumes start running down my face... "Pants fittin' funny over here boss!"
Sounds. Oh boy, where do I start. Merlin - is there anything that sounds better than a Merlin in a Mustang or a Spit. Maybe 4 Merlins in a Lancaster, but I haven't heard one of those in person. One of the eeriest sounds I ever heard was a lone turbo Cosworth Indy car going down the back straight at Ontario. Bugatti Type 35 - 2 liter straight 8 that turns 6000 rpm. best described as ripping canvas. Matra 3 Liter V12 - I heard these at Long Beach when they powered the Ligier F1 cars. That sound reverberating off the buildings. You could literally feel it resonate in your bones. BRM V16 - 1-1/2 liter V16 (think about it!) centrifugally supercharged. have a listen.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMPDCNyQxE&feature=related I could go on and on... Kurt O.
The Jalopy Journal
