DE SOTO,you are so right!!!Nothing like an engine that makes lots of cylinder pressure,due to a good combination of parts and big compression.
Some of my favs... - Ford GT Mark IV with 427 and pit of snakes. Was lucky enough to help a friend install this engine just rebuilt back into the Sebring winning car a couple of years ago. You could hear the history bark out those pipes. - V12 from race spec 60's Jag E-Type - makes a screaming sound that just sings (a friends was unanimously voted as best sounding car by all track workers at Road America during historics). - I get goose bumps hearing diagnostic checks in the F1 pits at the American Grand Prix. Six 19k revs in a row and then shut down, wow... My favorite though? The first engine I ever rebuilt by myself at age 15 (good ol' 350 small block). No idea what I was doing, no direction, just a few books and mags. Nothing sounded better to me that day...
Coolest/most unique sounding engine I've heard was a '68 351 GMC V6 with straight pipes in my grandfather's old grain truck.. It was retired 8 years ago when the elevator quit hoisting trucks so it drove itself to a fence row where it sits today. If i ever stumble across an old truck to build i plan to use that engine... It gets some unique points at least.
Ferrari v-12 231 chevy 6 thru split manifolds and glass packs 57 TVR Fiat roadster 4 cyl thru a glass pack ( first car ) Novi at full song on the brickyard back stretch. I sure miss it!
im not particular to any company but i think ford has the nicest sounding engines flathead y block 302- ugly motor but it makes up for its nastyness and hopefully after my fe 390 is done with new exhaust will sound good i never really heard one rap its pipes
A big cam SB mopar doin 6200rpm http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f171/mirada-man/?action=view¤t=ba5994a8.pbr
How about this Packard supercharged inline 8 in this Model A You have to listen to this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opJilgQDZyo
Hard not to pick stuff you've had personal input on 1. 540 cu. Keith Black,w/ Brad Anderson Fatheads and a PSI Screw Supercharger at 225% overdrive on alky. 2.160 cu. PRP V-Twin (t/fuel h-d) with 98% nitro in the tank.
My list 1.1952 ford flathead v-8, duals, glass packs 2.any allison or merlin (especially on a low pass) 3.any
......until you stab the throttle and unleash the hounds of hell... #2 A Rolls Royce Merlin set on kill at Reno....until shit happens. #3 Ducati superbike at Daytona. #4 any of my vehicles when they run. I'm sure I'll have a new favorite or six after the trip to Bonneville next month.
Hate to say it, the late model Ford 4.6 engines sound damned good. I like the old 302 V8 '80s Mustangs too. With the right exhaust, they sound better than most "muscle era" cars. But I'd have to say a turbocharged car at full yell takes the cake. Don't tell me they're not traditional, take a look at the Mallicoat Bros Willys circa '65. Modern run, but you get the idea - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrbeioC9wng&mode=related&search=
I like my five ohs.................so killl me... although thats no excuse for me to have 5 mustangs.....
the 500 ci Caddy V8 with cherry bombs..you can feel that rumble in your stomach when you're standing behind it.....
Really OT, but all the good American engines have already been covered. I love the sound of the Mazda 787B at idle, it's rediculously lumpy, then at higher rpm, sounds like a jet plane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgstvDmmVc0&mode=related&search=
I was going to say a 301 at Fernando. My second would be that Fiat 600 with a 1,000CC Abarth running low 12s at 90mph. Sounded like an .049 Baby Bee.
Man.. Awsome variety! There have been some very amazing sounding motors brought up in this threat.. Its cool. Myself Im pretty partial to the nailheads, I have 2 of them. The top secret SBC in my 54 sounds pretty un-godly up at the top too.. makes me giddy like a schoolgirl.. Yeah.
Full race air cooled VW, Auto Union V16, 03-04 SVT Cobra some old Ferrari, some new Lamborghini. lots of Porsches, and probably some I can't remember.
Surprised nobody mentioned the Buick "nailheads" Back in the 60's a Super Modified dirt track racer named Gene Hensen ran a CT stroked 454 cube Buick on alky it would drown out the Chevys and kick ass on them too! My old high school hot rod, 296 cube Flathead,Weber cam and Walker Continentals, that baby could talk!
One for the kiwis... Fully worked Ford Zephyr Six,triple Su's,hot cam,bedford valves,valinat ( slant 6) pistons .Full bore they sound just like Ferrari boxer getting nailed. Worst sounding Engine?/ Suburu imprezza turbo with fart can, I always want to get in and fix the misfire when I hear one of those poser cocksuckers go past.
Hemi's and flathead V8s with glasspacks A Chevy six with dual Fenton's An air cooled VW with a nice exhaust I also love the sound of an LS1 but only with a Magnaflow catback!... that's my daily driver... very very sweet, sexy sound!
There is a lot of great sounds,blown sbc's,blown hemi's,sbf's with webers,merlins and radials but listening to a field of 500cc speedway bikes on full throttle has always been one of the best for me.Another one is the sound of triple header GM diesel locomotives working up the grade at the back of the school where I work.13500hp makes me stop and listen everytime,even during class.You can feel the ground move,not quite like a topfueler but it lasts a lot longer. Keep on roddin'
Anything with pistons (sorry you rotary guys, I just don't like them). I would say my favorite though would be standing under the wing with an R2800 Pratt with the water on doing a takeoff RPM check from like 4 Ft away. Yes, any metaphor you please, the ground shakes, your chest hurts, your head hurts, the radiant heat from the flame trail out the pipes and the ejector stacks (DC6) all aglow, nothing like it. Pop's old road race SBC (copied from one of Smokey's buildup articles), the 331 SBF I built with 10.5:1 Comp 266HR and an aluminum flywheel, and if I can find the guy in town here running that green Dodge diesel. I don't know what he's done to it but it sounds like a twin turbo Porsche, only meaner. It don't smoke and you can't hear any diesel clatter, WTF
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