What is your favorite race engine sound?

[Calvin]

What is your favorite race engine music?
What engine note give you chills the most?

Any motorsports engine....even lawnmower racing applies

[smbrm]

Probably the Matra V-12

[racerbrown]

rolls royce merlin in an unlimited hydroplane.
especially 5 of them coming down for a start.
i'd love to hear a novi live though…
duane

[2lapsdown]

I'd love to hear a Novi too, but the sound of a nitro drag motor at idle is pretty cool.

John

[clm1545]

I would go for the Merlin too, but in a P51 on a low pass. The 60's Indy Fords were sweet too.

[Calvin]

I'm kinda like Duane, but my favorite is the Rolls-Royce Griffon in the Miss Budweiser Hydroplane. The Merlin was a fighter plane engine and the Griffon was bomber plane engine. The Griffon is 2,240 c.i. at 4,000 hp.

Ever since hearing this thing in real life I've always been a fan of this music! The Griffon has a little different engine note than the Merlins and its louder too!




I love this boat so much I even got the T-Shirt.

[Deleted]

Nice design on the t-shirt! Wish I could hear a Matra V-12, have read it was quite the sound! When I go to the Historic Races at Road America, there is something about the big ol' Chevy V-8's in the Can Am cars, especially as they drive through the paddocks on the way to the track that rumbles to the bone, all business, All-American!

[johnwebster]

The 1967 BRM H 16s were pretty spectacular.

The twin supercharged Miller 91s in Frank Lockhart's Stutz Blackhawk LSR car must have sounded sweet at speed.

[jamesharvey]

I vote for the Novi. As a kid going to the Speedway, I could recognize the sound of that engine. In the typical "are we there yet" kid plea, I would try to get my parents to move faster so we could get inside for a glimpse of those wonderful cars. Imagine being Lew Welch and only being able to run those cars once a year. 365 days would be a long time.
Jim

[indy]

The 30 year staple of Indy racing, the turbo 265ci V8. Was most of the field when I was first falling in love with racing then following it every week. Hearing that sound reminds me of my first 500 - good stuff!

Jordan

[indydog]

I also think the Matra V-12 was a sweet sounding engine.

Jun 5, 2014 0:18:59 GMT -5 @chucks said:

Wish I could hear a Matra V-12, have read it was quite the sound! quote]

Here ya go:


Or this:


The Griffin was also used in the Spitfire:


As for the Novi, you can't get any better then this:

[Deleted]

Thanks for posting these Mark, a quartet of sonic sweetness to start the day! The Novi video brought back great memories of going to the TT with my dad, brothers and friends as my big event for the year, almost as good as Christmas. We would arrive early in the morning and get seats up in turn 1, sit there all day, I was fascinated with the scene and have been hooked all my life!

[spyder]

Would have loved to hear the "banshee wail" of the Novis. Do have a nostalgic fondness for the bark of the old 255 Offies. Spent 1964-65 in Europe and got to attend three F1 races. The noise of the 1500cc., V-12 Hondas of Ginther and Bucknam were so much louder than all of their contemporaries that my hearing loss surely began at those races. spyder

[ampersand]

The Matra V12 was indeed a sweet sounding engine, as was the Alfa Romeo flat-12 that the Brabham team ran in F1 in the mid 70s. The most spectacular engine sound I have heard, however, was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few years back, when Renault brought an engine they had computer-mapped to play "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem. Gave the term engine note a whole new meaning....

[beardogracing]

link

How about the early 50's supercharged 1.5 litre V-16 BRM engine?

[indy]

Jun 5, 2014 10:23:38 GMT -5 ampersand said:

The most spectacular engine sound I have heard, however, was at the Goodwood Festival of Speed a few years back, when Renault brought an engine they had computer-mapped to play "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem. Gave the term engine note a whole new meaning....

mb2501.proboards.com/thread/4417/national-anthem-sang-f1-car

[raceparke]

Watkins Glen 1964 (I think). Three team Cobras vs. Mike Gammino in a Ferrari GTO. I was outside the track at what was then the pit straight. I can still hear those four cars coming off the ninety and heading for the right hander starting up through the esses. The Cobras were very loud but seemed to lift slightly at the right. The GTO, though, stayed flat all the way down the straight, through the turn and up the hill. The sound was spectacular. V-12 Ferrari at full song has to be one of the best sounds ever IMO.

[mjjracer]

Jun 5, 2014 0:42:52 GMT -5 johnwebster said:

The 1967 BRM H 16s were pretty spectacular.

The twin supercharged Miller 91s in Frank Lockhart's Stutz Blackhawk LSR car must have sounded sweet at speed.

I have a CD with the BRM on it (Nick Mason was involved, I think) and that has to be the craziest engine sound I have ever heard. Banshee keeps coming to mind.

MJ

[mjjracer]

Favorites that I have heard?

'67-'69 Can-Am anything. Chevy, Ford, Ferrari.
'70s 3 liter Flat 12 Ferrari and V12 Matra
'90s Indycar

[SteveK51]

Judd V10. In my mind I'm thinking of the Dome, Rafanelli Lola, Oreca, or Speedy Courage as a vessel for said powerplant.

[mjjracer]

Jun 4, 2014 22:20:05 GMT -5 clm1545 said:

I would go for the Merlin too, but in a P51 on a low pass. The 60's Indy Fords were sweet too.

I was at Willow Springs for a NASA race or something, and the big V8 cars were running. Then a roar overshadowed the engines, I looked up and a P51 (sexiest plane ever) was streaking down the straight at about 300 feet, needless to say, smoking the cars. He pulled straight up at the end of the track, looped around and did it again.

The highlight, easily, of the day.

MJ

[Calvin]

Or how about Rotary power!

Mazda 787b

[indydog]

In that case, I give you the Porsche 917...

[alterrenner]

I used to sleep overnight in the pits at the Nurburgring F1 and Hockenheim races in the mid-60's. The sound of the engines warming up in the morning was a great way to start the day.