Am I the only one who finds most new performance car exhaust notes boring? I mean...we all expected this with the lack of high performance N/A engines in manufacturer lineups these days...and the near extinction of manual transmissions, but I guess I never thought it'd happen this soon.

Hot hatches like the GTI, Fiesta ST & Focus ST/RS have farty droning turbo inline 4s, which imo are just really unsatisfying to listen to. They lack the manic nature & song of N/A engines in favor of fuel economy & added power to move around bloated cars. Low revs, gobs of torque...reminds me of American V8s (which are great qualities to have, but at least we had the deep V8 rumble).

You can even look at BMW's newest line of M cars, the screaming V10 is gone in favor of a belching V8 muffled by twins. The 8400rpm V8 is gone in favor of last gen's twin turbo I6 formula. The M3/4 sound like pissed off Dysons to me.

Every day I learn to appreciate the S2000 even more because of how the auto industry is changing. We have one of the best Honda production engines ever fitted to a car wearing an H badge. 100% VE back in 1999, nobody can shake a stick at that, even in 2016.

Are the days of pure motoring bliss gone? Or do we all just need to spend upwards of $100,000 for a new car with the same values that made us fall in love with the automobile decades ago?

 

How about Mustangs, Camaros, and Vettes? They all sound pretty darn good!

Aston Martin as whole have amazing exhaust and engine sounds. Jaguar F Type sounds glorious and new Lotus Evora 400 is pretty wicked sounding.

 

American car makers have always given us cheap-ish performance cars with loud V8 engines. Of course when you start spending near 100k you can have whatever you want. Plenty of exotics in the 6-7 figure range that excite in terms of sound for sure.

 

Nature of turbocharged engines to meet emissions and performance targets. I'll take 400+ lbs/ft torque at 2,200 RPM over no torque and good sound for a street car. Personally I don't think the S2000 sounds that good, at redline it sounds like the motor is going to blow up. With an aftermarket exhaust it sounds like a ricer car.

 

Was behind a Jag F-Type R the other day and it sounded amazing, both on the throttle and when downshifting. The V8s from the Americans (normally aspirated) sound fantastic. The Mercedes turbo V8s sound amazing - pretty much as good as the old naturally aspirated V8s, in my opinion.

I agree that the new M3/M4 sounds pretty crappy. I haven't been in or around the new Boxster/Spyder yet so I'm not sure how good those sound. The new 911S engines are okay but not great - I prefer the sound of the naturally aspirated engines.

The turbo four-cylinder engines are hit and miss. They definitely don't sound great but some of them sound okay, to me.

 

I found the s2k to be lacking on the exhaust note from the factory. Not sure how any of the recent changes you mentioned some how came back to loving your S. I get the appeal of the S but let's not act like it had some wonderful exhaust notes.

As mentioned a turbo on a car is going to muffle most motors. There aren't many v8s out of Japan so I don't think there is much to compare here. BMW is losing it, but that's been a decade in the making as they sell out. Merc, most Italian high end brands and the v8 domestics still sound wonderful.

You heard the Chevy SS? Pretty darn wonderful for a $45k sleeper car. Probably the best m3 like sedan in the category right now less the attempt at luxury.

 

That's because you forgot to remove your airbox cover...

 

I dunno, there are still a lot of good sounding cars out there. You have to remember that most of the cars you are talking have been turbo 4/6 cyl for most of their existence. Yeah BMW dipped into v8s with the E90 but one car does not a trend make. Hot hatches have all been turbo for a while now, in fact some of the earliest turbo cars were hot hatches. Most true sports cars still put value in sound. I think the biggest letdown is Porsche. We might have a 996 2.0 situation on our hands, where it takes a generation to get back what was lost by turbocharging.

Mercedes does an excellent job of engineering exhaust sound in their turbo cars. The Italians do a pretty good job of making 4 cylinder turbos sound good. As others have pointed out, plenty of good sounding NA American and British cars.

I feel like you might be mis-equating high-revving NA engines with good sounding engines. They certainly can be very exciting sounding but I don't think that connection is as inherent as you think.

 

It sounds ok to me, but I agree that most aftermarket exhausts make it sound like a ricer car to most. Probably the only one I'd consider these days is the ASM-Siren, too bad it only comes in a single and costs $4k...


My favorite sounding motors are inline-4s from the late 70's - 80's.

Think Opel Kadett C or more recognizable, e30 m3.

See below. I like how this car still retains a standard transmission. I guess this is more "intake" sound rather than exhaust. Also more an effect of having ITBs... I'd love to have one of these for an HPDE toy.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc3m8GUl6Mg[/media]

Aircooled Porsches are distinctively awesome too. As for V8's... for some reason I haven't really been a fan, aside from the really high revving Ferraris like in the 360.

I also liked the way the old M20B25 in the e30 sounds. I guess I'm turning into an old fart, not really interested in any of the modern cars as far as "toy" cars are concerned...

 

I don't get the love for MB turbo V8's? A buddy has E550 Renntech chip/exhaust and it does not sound that great at all. The Renntech exhaust is very deep with virtually no growl or bark, just a deep deep bartone. Granted the exhaust only has 1K miles on it. Figure for 550+ HP would sound awesome, but doesn't sound like much of anything.

I forgot to mention the VW R32 and some Audi models have a nice crisp exhaust note to them.