Re: More sound comparos for Guenter

4 cylinder 919:

[www.youtube.com]


V8 RS Spyder (Typ 9R6):

[www.youtube.com]

Bonus, on board the Spyder:

[www.youtube.com]

Saw it and Number 6 (that won) at Lime Rock a couple years ago.

I was fortunate enough to be standing in the Road America pits (behind the wall0 when the Muscle Milk Spyder was fired up. The crew laughed at me for plugging my ears, but it was LOUD. Great. but LOUD. I was standing maybe 2 feet from it, and the left exhaust was flapping my pant legs.

Thanks for that, Jim.

While I agree with what others have said in recent posts, that the most important part of the Sports Car is the way it handles. It's even better if the sound matches the performance. You get that with the Flat Sixes and the V8's. Note so much with the turbo 4. The first F1 race I watched this year, I had to check my sound system a couple of times. It was OK. It was the cars. Even the F1 drivers complain that they don't sound like F1 cars. I kept thinking it was a bunch of sewing machines on the track.

We'll see what happens with the turbo fours. Maybe Porsche can work some magic to make them sound good - not like the Civics with their soup-can mufflers.

I just consider myself very fortunate be able to order a 981. It's (and it goes for 986's and 987's as well) just the whole package. It's got the handling with the looks to match, and, it's got the engine/exhaust sound a sports car should have. I remember looking at the configurator and seeing that the PSE cost as much as the '68 KG cab that I bought new, but every time I fire up the car and activate PSE, I know it's worth every penny, to me at least. And, of course, I know that I was still able to get a manual.

Sounds like the new 919's are a real handful to drive (I know any high powered car is). I can't imagine what it would feel like to have the rear wheels pushing through a curve and then suddenly have the front wheels kick in to also pull you. I have a lot of respect for what those drivers are doing.

The 997TT didn't have any sound fans, it had a big, undistinguished vacuum cleaner type woosh. It's tough to get an exhaust note sound good when it's been chopped up by the turbo impeller.

I realize Porsche is stuck between very unfriendly motoring regulations and demanding customers. I don't know what percentage of their customers are enthusiast hard core like us, but I don't see me spending 981-type prices for a F4. If I wanted an econbox, I'd buy one.

Racing is being warped to an adjunct of green PR. F1 2014 car specs being a debacle of the first order. The racing has been good, but well, the Mercedes Safety Car now sounds much better than the race cars -- something very wrong with that picture. Fuel flow meters in racing? Fuel usage specs on screen? Is this Formula 1 or the Mobil Economy Challenge?

I guess I should have archived the F1 races from the pre-KERS era, I didn't realize I'd need to re-watch them instead of new races. The part that gets missed there is not that the 2014 cars aren't loud enough, it's just the sound like crap. They don't need to be loud to sound good, e.g., the Safety Car. As it is, they sound like a electric screwdriver in a sewer pipe in the next county.

The ACO has long had strange ideas, and most recently had the table so skewed that gasoline engines couldn't really compete with the diesels. However, when the RS Spyder started beating the Audis in ALMS for outright wins, the next year the Spyder got a more restrictive air restrictor. To give you an idea, I've been reliably told that the Spyder made 700 HP on the dyno. Depending on the year, it was either restricted to 440 HP or 500 HP in race trim. That's a lot of restriction.

Jim