The Napier Deltic engine had a totally unique sound to its exhaust because of the very unusual firing sequence of its 18 cylinders (more info after the jump). Here’s a few Class 55 Deltic locomotives at work; the best sound happens at round 3:00.
Cylinder firing order of the 18 cylinder Napier Deltic diesel engine: The grid represents triangular cylinder arrangement (banks A, B, C) and rows 1 to 6
The Deltic’s unique sound is not just because of the firing order though. Here’s an explanation from Wikipedia:
Being an opposed-piston design with no inlet or exhaust valves, and no ability to vary the port positions, the Deltic design arranged each crankshaft to connect two adjacent pistons operating in different cylinders in the same plane, using “fork and blade” connecting rods, the latter an “inlet” piston used to open and close the inlet port, and the former an “exhaust” piston in the adjacent cylinder to open and close the exhaust port. This would have led the firing in each bank of cylinders to be 60 degrees apart. However, it was decided to arrange that each cylinder’s exhaust piston would lead its inlet piston by 20 degrees of crankshaft rotation. This allowed the exhaust port to be opened well before the inlet port, and allowed the inlet port to be closed after the exhaust port, which led to both good scavenging of exhaust gas, and good volumetric efficiency for the fresh air charge. This required the firing events for adjacent cylinders to be 40 degrees apart. For the 18 cylinder design, it was possible for firing events to be interlaced over all six banks. This led to the even, buzzing exhaust note of the Deltic, with a charge ignition every 20 degrees of crankshaft revolution, and a lack of torsional vibration, ideal for use in mine-hunting vessels.
A bit complicated, but it’s what gives the Deltic the “edge” to its already unique sound. I can only imaging what the Superpumper sounded like at full chat.
So what’s your favorite engine sound? If you want to embed a YouTube video, just copy its url (from the browser) and paste it into your comment.
BRM v16
Daimler 2.5 V8
Triumph Stag
Group B Audi Quattro
Logged in on purpose to say “Audi 5 cylinder”, you beat me to it!
I thought you’d agree! The sound of the SportQ at full chat never gets old.
I’m actually trying to write a kind-of romantic novel where the main character, a petrolhead in college, drives a pearl white 1990 Audi Coupe Quattro 20V. Searched for sound clips of the 7A engine, and if I already loved those engines, I started loving them even more.
“It was a dark and stormy night. Our young protagonist thrust the wooden shift knob into third gear and reveled in the splendor of the deep warble of the 7A engine in his steed, a 1990 Audi Coupe Quattro in Pearl White (a $1200 option that year) while on his way to visit Lady Guinevere…”
I had a 1990 CQ, alas it didn’t see much use during my ownership. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1990-audi-coupe-quattro-i-averaged-under-two-miles-per-month-of-ownership/
Sir, I genuinely loved that quote. I don’t know, if the story doesn’t get too personal I might try to submit episodes as CC Fiction when I finish it. It involves his two best friends who are JDM-heads, one drives a F20C-swapped NA Miata, and the other drives a salvage title Evo IX. It also involves fighting over a girl with an idiot who drives a C6 Z06.
I had an Audi 5 cyl in my 1993 Eurovan.
2.5, right?
I used to enjoy the 1950s series ‘Cannonball’ as a kid. And became addicted then to the sound of the Detroit Diesel in the GMC ‘Cannonball’ COE. The star of the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geLkrg1HFTk
Sweet sounding restored ’59:
Awesome.
An old school 5.0L (302) Mustang (the pushrod, not the Coyote).
But that may be more about exhaust tuning than the engine itself, as the 4.6L and Coyote 5.0L have that distinct Mustang sound as well.
A video probably isn’t necessary. We all know what a Mustang sounds like.
Another one I like to hear is the burble of a big old 440 Chrysler engine.
Oh, and the classic Potato-Potato-Potato sound of a V-Twin on a Harley Davidson… I’ll say the 1460, since I got to ride a Dyna Wide Glide with one of these engines once or twice. It sounded great. ;o)
A second to the Ford 4.6 with the 5.4 nipping on its heels.
For what it’s worth, the one in my ’07 F150 sounds just like the one I had in both a ’96 Thunderbird and an ’01 Crown Victoria Interceptor, and the 5.4 in the E150 sounds like a more mature version of the 4.6 so me thinks there may be more to it than just exhaust tuning!
Wonderful engines and I like how you think.
Update: Here’s a Crown Vic accelerating to 130 mph.
I totally agree with this one, but I have to admit I’m biased. I drove these as a deputy sheriff and I really miss the distinctive sound of a 4.6 being wound out. To me, that will always be the sound of help coming when you’re in a fight with someone.
Agreed! I love the Mustang sound. Really, any American V8 with well done exhaust has always been my favorite engine sound. That classic muscle car sound at 3/4 throttle acceleration. Just can’t be beat in my book.
The Ford small block definitely has a more melodic sound than Chevy and Mopar.
I just love them.
Four JT3Ds at MTO
Classic! – I got to experience that first hand at the age of 14!
Porsche 911 air cooled.
The Merlin.
https://youtu.be/P2nlGN6aS8g
or two in a Mosquito.
https://youtu.be/vslbW0SHYDo
Or 4 in a Lancaster?
The throaty roar of a Ford FE.
Union Pacific FEF-3 steam locomotive (the UP844).
The clockwork sound of an OM616 or 615 at idle.
The only snag with the clip is that the loco is only working on one engine. One sounds good, but two together are magic as you get the throb of harmonic vibrations between the two. Hard to find any really good examples online, but this youtube video recorded in 1981 comes close in parts.
https://youtu.be/OUCdD4jd3P4
The bridge at the RH end of the station also shows why British trains aren’t as tall as Continental or American ones. There’s barely daylight as the train passes under. I suspect the bridge has since been replaced or lifted as the line was electrified in the late 1980s.
Curtiss-Wright R-3350 18-cylinder, four of them on a Connie or DC-7.
Memories from the summer of 1969: The exhaust burble coming from my friend’s brand new GTO (standard 400/4 barrel/auto/A/C/concealed headlamps,vinyl roof hardtop). I think that sound alone sold a lot of GTOs in the 60’s. Image more than substance as has been explained here but a fun car, good times.
I’ll go for the sound of four Merlin V-12s when our local Avro Lancaster takes off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMWNH3KCKE
The sound of freedom!
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/rampside-classic/1945-avro-lancaster-b1-even-more-than-the-sports-car-this-is-the-shape-of-freedom/
I’ll go with a big block Chrysler with dual exhausts and unsilenced air cleaner when the Torqueflite kicks down a gear.
VW aircooled flat-four. Surprised nobody ever mentioned it before.
https://youtu.be/0LApxF39c4I
I’ll go with the four Pratt and Whitney Hornets on the B-17. There was what I’m pretty sure was one flying over my house a couple of times last weekend, probably one of those preservation groups doing “experience” flights. I had to run outside and see what it was, because from the sound it clearly wasn’t an ordinary airplane.
https://youtu.be/j8MbJKziYSo
I’ll really take any classic radial aircraft engine, though, like the Wasps on a DC-3.
This is hard to beat:
https://youtu.be/YeEeyOCJ1OA
any 2-stroke SAAB. Ringa-dinga-dinga!
+1
-1
I can’t think of an engine by itself. Judging the starter, engine, and transmission together, plain old flathead Ford from early ’50s wins. Everything about it sounds confident and easygoing. Mellow starter, non-howling first, engine is complicated enough to ‘fill the rhythm’, but not frantically complex like a VW.
850 Norton Commando. Staccato of that parallel twin at idle out of the peashooter mufflers is soothing and mystical
My cousin is building a Sportster/Norton with yep peashooters.
Yeah, any old big vertical twin with a 360 crank. Norton, Triumph, BSA, even my old Yamaha 650 with a “sorta” muffler. The antithesis of an in-line 4 with a fart-can muffler.
Did you notice the change in pitch as that loco pulled out at 3:00? That’s “transition”, which is a switch from series to parallel.
I had Moto Guzzi loopframes, the engines on those had a large flywheel to be tractable at low end, one could merely release the clutch and glide away. And they could be ridden like a Harley, all at the low end.
But if pressed to the upper RPM range available, the sound changed to a ferocious scream, very racey sounding and not unlike a V8 doing the same thing.. I loved that second personality hidden in the rev band.
I’m a simple guy with simple tastes. Give me a small block Chevy or Chrysler with dual exhaust and flowmasters. That gentle rumble until you stomp the gas and it roars… that’s a sound that gets me every time
I miss the sound that any engine with a 4 barrel made when you stood on it. Always liked the 2 cycle Detroit diesels too.
It’s less exotic than most of the above choices, but I loved my Kawasaki KZ1300: 6 tiny cylinders, all in a row!
Any Audi 5 cylinder, either gas or diesel
Any Volvo 5 cylinder, also regardless of fuel
Volvo/Yamaha B8444S V8
Mercedes-Benz AMG 6.2l V8
Mercedes-Benz OM646 220 CDI
BMW straight sixes, gas or diesel
PSA 1.6 HDi (smoothness)
VW 1.9 TDI (sheer bruteness)
Ford Barra Turbo 4.0l I6
Daimler Benz DB605 in Bf109G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERo0lTyUvOk
I’ve actually got quite a few as well–
3.3L Diesel 3-cylinder from a Ford 345D Industrial Front-End Loader, well-remembered from when my grandfather was still in the chicken house business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNr6CHZkACk
ANY pushrod inline-6 at full throttle, but especially a Cummins turbodiesel unit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQYl2NVttwk
And who can forget the Jetsons’ car? (the car itself doesn’t appear in this video but all the sounds are there) :
A R8 Audi with the v-10. We were stopped in traffic and it was ahead of me.
When the road cleared he put his foot in it and that was a sound I’ve never heard before or since.
A high compression aircooled VW engine with dual Webers (or similar). Of course a big cam, exhaust, etc. helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYBS5Uy_kqg
I sometimes miss my built ’68 Beetle.
Whatever high horsepower car is conjured up as an embodiment of the song Turbo Lover by Judas Priest
Nothing like playing a high octane song while opening up the throttle on a open road.
That song gets mentioned a lot here. It should have it’s own Rock Classic write-up. The high-octane song I liked when I was a yoot was “When Passion Rules The Game” by The Scorpions.
I am a big fan of the two stroke diesel, the Deltics are awesome. On a smaller scale the Rootes TS3 is pretty awesome. Detroit Diesels of course too. Anybody remember the GMC Toro Flow diesel? (4 stroke) The Nissan/UD two strokers have a nice bark also.
Yeah Erik I remember TS3s, I also remember the lack of any sound insulation in those cabs, Ive also watched a TS3 powered gen set running an electric boiler to power a 100 year old steam engine at a show running hard out in almost total silence, the muffler on it was huge like the one on the tarcutting truck I worked on the waterblaster was powered by a 450hp 2 stroke Detroit that ran at 1800rpm all day and it was barely audible, but again the muffler was immense.
Modular 4.6s used in SN95 era Mustangs. I’ve had the very same engines in my Cougar (both 16V and 32V) but there’s a magic sound to them with the middle mounted mufflers those Mustangs use I just cannot get(nor do the 05-current Mustangs). Though I may favor Rick’s choice that the foxbody 5.0 H.O. is possibly the best sounding traditional V8 ever, and one of the only cars where Flowmaster 40s seem to perfectly suit.
A big turbo diesel six @ 1000-1100 rpm bottom of the green pulling 45 + tonnes at the bottom of the top box while you force it to hang in there rather than split the range into low box, an eaton ultrashift auto wont let you do that, the roar from a Jake brake on a steep downhill holding 45= without using the service brakes is pretty cool too.
That Deltic sounds great.
Maserati Gran Turismo. Had one go past me at full chap once. Best car engine sound I ever heard. Deep metallic growl unlike anything else. I could listen to it all day.
Any time I fix my car and it starts well is the best engine sound to me, actually.
The ’85 Suzuki DS 80 without the baffle I had when I was 15 was the sound of freedom.
Loud, loud freedom.
If y’all will indulge me I would like to share a story.
When I was 15 in 1987 I had the above-mentioned dirt bike. I used to get up in the morning and drive it as fast at I could down my street to do whatever I was going to do that day. (Usually work that summer.) Half a block away lived a Lake County (IN) cop who was a K9/Narcotic officer. He had one of the beige and brown boxy Crown Vics. Well one day I raced past his house and as I slowed for the stop sign, I happened to look behind me and saw him run out of the house, in his underwear and white T-shirt, get into his squad car, burn-out toward me with the flashing lights on. He got out of his car and said something like “You’re always racing that damn thing past my house in the morning! I work nights and I’m trying to sleep!” I said I was sorry and didn’t know that, and so on. Then he got in his car and went back home.
He never had to tell me again.
From then on I went the other way, lugging it at low revs until I got far away. He freaked the hell outta me, and I deserved it!
Oh, and for extra-loud sounds the F16 Falcon on afterburner is pretty impressive.
…and that graphic is the hardest game of Simon I ever played…
Just about any V8 still sounds good to me, but especially smaller Audi’s, as the cognitive dissonance of an A4 that sounds like Detroit iron is certainly not aural dissonance. Alternatively, a Ducati 90° V twin with exhaust loud enough to drown out the dry clutch rattle (or a newer wet clutch Duc), but not too loud.
Old, big V8 Astons
https://youtu.be/it6Hny77PPM
Busso V6 Alfa Romeos
https://youtu.be/SS_Im-XJZl8
And Johannes Dutch really opened my eyes to the throaty roar of the Scania V8s.
https://youtu.be/l8xuaLWRcb0
My first motorcycle, Kwacker KH400 2 stroke triple.
Lovely howl when it got on the power band.
Today, of all days, it has to be the Rolls-Royce Merlin. Perhaps the most significant piston engine in the history of the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZIBjXz3Cqs
Honourable mention to the Avro Vulcan RR Olympus as well
You may have seen my earlier comment, but how about its contemporary, the Daimler Benz DB605 ? 🙂
https://youtu.be/ERo0lTyUvOk
And there’s the Ford Cosworth DFV, which ruled F1 for so many years..
I love the v8 sound, just like everybody else here.
But the in line six also sounds marvelous
https://youtu.be/Htrw2sai0Mo
I am in a different mood today, and will choose one that nobody else has mentioned. I just love the sound of a Ford Model A at slow idle, with the timing retarded and the throttle all the way back. You can hear every. single. cylinder.
Injected nitro Hemi. So crisp, so powerful.
13B-REW twin turbo Wankel in a 90s RX-7. Heard one at an autocross event many years ago and will never forget it!
• 1960-1980 225 Slant-6. The 225 specifically; it sounds different to the 170 (long enough since I heard a 198 that I don’t recall whether I’d thumbs-up or -down it). Stock exhaust is fine, but front 3 and rear 3 in separate pipes all the way to the back of the car, without a balance tube, makes for a sweet rappy effect up and down through the gears.
• Whatever IH V8 was in the ’74-’75 Loadstar 1700 or 1800 school buses that were just being phased out when I was in kindergarten and the first year or two of elementary school. Donno if they were 345s or some other size, but they sounded nifty up front (nothing else sounds like it) and out back (a prominent snap to the exhaust note).
As for engine sounds I don’t like, there are plenty, but here are a few:
• The Oldsmobubble V8. Some speak lovingly of the Blub-Blub-Blub-Blub exhaust note; to me it always sounded like one cylinder wasn’t firing.
• Most V8 engines, for the matter of that. The IHs I mention above are one of a very few exceptions; another would be the Tatra air-cooled/way-cool V8.
• The AMC 258 Six. It sounds to me like a Slant-6 with a hoarse voice.
• Any 2-stroke engine will always grate my ears.
• Any engine without an effective muffler will make me wish for a 5-pound bag of granulated sugar and a funnel.
make me wish for a 5-pound bag of granulated sugar and a funnel
Surely you know that sugar will not harm an engine (or gas tank). This myth was busted decades ago.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/so-whats-your-favorite-automotive-mythurban-legend/
Yes, I know; I was tryna be mostly-hyperbolic, only-a-little-bit-serious about it, and thought it best to avoid mention of firearms even in jest.
(…though I didn’t say anything about the gas tank. Maybe I had the crankcase in mind, or the air intake! 😉 )
(…and don’t call me Shirley.)
If someone will please fish my comment out of the trash I’ll be most appreciative.
Thank you, whoever un-purgatoried my comment.
Sorry I have no sound video to post but I nominate my 2CV Van with an aircooled flat 4 running a single seperate silencer for each bank. It’s been described as sounding like two swarms of angry bees engaged in a pitched battle at the bottom of a galvanised steel trash can…
Subaru’s 4 cylinder boxers, especially the Impreza STI even in standard form a very distinctive sound, let alone when it has a slightly modified exhaust system and dump valve.
Maybe I’m weird but there’s something pleasant about the rumbly “gur-gur-gur” school bus diesel noise. It’s a very growly and powerful sound.
Also the noises that lawnmowers make, both the buzzy noise of older two-stroke mowers and the deep, slappy noise that the four-strokes make.
Memorex reminds me I need to add one near the top of my do-not-like list: the PowerStroke diesel. The rhythmic gap out of its idle noise, like the Olds blubber, makes it sound to me as though a cylinder is missing in action. That, and earlier versions—made when Ford were still bleating and whining that they couldn’t make ’em any quieter—sound at idle as though they’re taking a particularly wet and messy metallic ѕhit.
(It is possible Memorex and I are talking about the same engines.)
Scania: 11 liters in line 6 from the 90’s 113 model tractor truck, also used on buses. This one’s a CMA body over Scania 113 frame and powertrain.
https://youtu.be/QljV-EzcFsg
The Alco 539 straight 6, turbo version. 1000 hp at 675 rpm. 12 1/2 x 13 bore and stroke.
https://youtu.be/72dd6SMe08M
Best action starts around 4:45
Auto Union V16 is hard to beat. 911 in 3 litre trim is very nice too.
The engine in any vehicle that’s paid for.
Cummins 5.9, in stock form
(particularly the old 12 valve)
Special mention goes to:
Chrysler LH 3.5
Hemi 5.7
Chrysler K 2.2
Pentastar 3.6
225 Slant 6
Don’t like:
Subcompact imports (Honda/Subaru/etc), especially and particularly with obnoxiously loud exhausts
Ford Powerstrokes (the turbo spool sounds like an industrial washing machine with bad bearings on a spin cycle)
Subaru Boxer (sounds like a motorcycle)
I would love to hear one of those Deltics in person.
Overall favorite:
Any big block wedge Mopar, musclecar or not, including the starter and the Torqueflite whine.
Second:
Any Oldsmobile V8
Honorable mention:
almost any inline 6 but the AMC 242/258 I6 might be my favorite
Gen3 Hemis, especially Hellcats
Diesels:
Cummins VT903
Detroit 6V-53
Dislike:
Any 4 cylinder except for 2 stroke outboards
HST with a Paxman Valenta engine?
Quite the sound from the Deltic – much different from the low throb of a North American diesel locomotive. I like it. I have a few other favourites…
– A BMW M3 with the V10. I see and (better) hear one a couple of times a week when I bike to work along Richmond Street in downtown Toronto. The howl echoing off the buildings is unreal.
– Any well-tuned Detroit V8 will a good exhaust system, but preferably one from the ‘60’s.
– A Merlin, of course. I’ve heard (and seen) Spitfires and Mustangs flying over Toronto during the CNE air shows – always great to hear.
– Any classic radial engine.
A supercharged Hemi running a full load of nitromethane.
Racing engine: A hemi on 90+% nitro. Nothing like it, needs to be heard in person.
Street car: My friend’s Bullitt Mustang is pretty much perfect, with my own Challenger 6.4’s sound in sport mode is not far behind.
Locomotive: EMD 567 NA on hundreds on old F and Geeps. I miss the old GP10 (rebuilt GP9) Conrail 7592 which hung on at Stanley yard forever, tied with the 645 in original form with the spaceship sounding idle and the old style transition. I heard and saw them hundreds of times going back and forth on the tracks along the back of our yard when they were first released and later on as veterans in back of our rental property. I loved that transition at 9MPH(I think). The turbo whistle always got me. A new EMD or GE at full throttle isn’t bad either.
Lanz Bulldog 😀
Some of my favorites are the Detroit 12V71, the TVR Speed 8, and the Honda 250cc 6 cylinder Moto GP engine.
I’m with Mads on the Alfa Busso, had a 3 litre 75 (a Milano to you Nth Americans) best V6 ever, no sense of strain as it hits the limiter, oh and the all alloy twin cam twin carb alfa two litre my Alfetta had. Air cooled 911s of course, twin carb BMW six 1971 2800 a friend had, redline in third = 100 MPH, triple carb 240Z we have in the family(38 0r 40 Dellortos), and my cousin’s L34 Torana the ultimate version of the Aussie 308 CI V8, 780 CFM dp Holley, engine internals upgraded by repco parts associated with the Brambam F1 V8 I believe, tall Bathurst gears in the M21 4spd gives 70MPH in first. And finally the Mazda 787 quad rotor at Le Mans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az39eqLIbyU