Fake rumble of V-8 engine with gadgets

I have always maintained that the sound of a vehicle has an impact on its performance.

Not that it will accelerate, stop or go around corners any better than a muter counterpart, but the sound of a healthy performance engine that gets a little throaty under demand raises the pleasure bar on a motoring experience, at least in my books.

Back in the day when Detroit muscle cars were as common as gas-electric hybrids, a V-8 with a four-barrel carburetor was prime fodder for an easy sound-enhancement trick. Just whip off the air cleaner on my girlfriend's father's Dodge Monaco, stash it in the trunk and cruise the strip sporting an intake growl that made music to the ears of any young car aficionado.

"BaaaaWWWWWwaaaaa!" reverberating through the cockpit under hard acceleration not only sounded impressive, but it also gave the perception of a massive increase in acceleration. When I bought a low-restriction air cleaner for my father's new 1966 Mercury Park Lane, the intake growl from the 390's four-barrel Holley carb must have tickled my father because to my amazement, he never told me to remove it.

"BaaaaWWWWWwaaaaa!

There goes Sowerby's father in that hot Park Lane, the neighbors were surely saying.

Then there's the exhaust system itself, and although engine sizes and horsepower might be similar, individual manufacturers tuned their exhausts in different ways. Mid-1960s Ford products had the rumble down and idled with a "blub, blub, blub" unlike the Chevys and Pontiacs that were too quiet for my liking. Chrysler V-8s had a higher-pitched bark that made them different enough so that the tuned ear of a kid growing up in muscle car times could tell the make and often the engine by the sound it made.

They had to be V-8 engines, though because the inline-six-cylinder engines had a sucky sound not unlike the that of the string of Electrolux vacuum cleaners mother paraded through the house. Dad would trade cars almost every year and mother would trade vacuum cleaners in fear our next-door neighbor might beat her to the draw with the newest Electrolux that sounded exactly like their 1966 Pontiac Laurentian.

Twin brother Larry and I became experts at audio identification of those cars and learned to imitate the sound of a well-tuned V-8. Although we tried to teach our girlfriends and eventually our wives to replicate the sound, they generally came up with "VVVvVVVvvvsssshhh" instead of the deep "Brrrrrudadada" rumble. Even now, decades later, I have not heard anyone better than Larry at imitating the sound of a V-8 muscle car under max acceleration, except perhaps myself if I try really hard.

It's easy to do, though. Contort the mouth, sealing the left side of the lips against each other, then blow air out the right corner of the mouth while producing a guttural engine groan from deep in your diaphragm. Piece of cake.

Of course Larry and Garry became experts at bringing up the engine speed and gear changing so it sounded like a couple of Hemi 'Cudas were shifting gears and winding through the hallways of the Sowerby household. It must have driven mother and father crazy, two V-8 12-year-old identical twins blatting around like a well-tuned set of dual exhausts exhausting their patience.

The point? Ah, yes, there's a point here.

My 10-year-younger sister Susan witnessed our finesse at imitating V-8 car sounds so it seemed fitting that she presented Larry and I with identical birthday presents recently. The Soundracer V-8 is a gadget produced in Sweden that plugs into the 12-volt electrical outlet in your car or truck.

The fun begins after tuning the radio to a frequency prompted by the Soundracer. Turn up the volume and an amazing transformation takes place. The radio speakers spit out the snap of a rorty V-8 so the family Kia Sportage or Honda Civic sort of sounds like the Eleanor Mustang from the movie "Gone in 60 Seconds." Rev the engine and the Soundracer broadcasts the brute sound through the radio speakers.

I tried my new toy on a number of vehicles including a Porsche 911, a
V-8 BMW and a diesel pickup truck and they all sounded like a 1960s muscle car. But since I appreciate the real sound of those vehicles, I plugged it into a couple of four-cylinder econo boxes and that's when the fun really began. Nothing like pulling up beside a new Mustang GT at a stop light with a Hyundai Accent and its big muscle-car sound.

I've had some laughs with the Sound-racer V-8 but admit it gets old pretty fast, especially since I could just get Larry to sit in the back seat, twist his mouth up and do his best 426-Hemi drag-race impression.

So, sorry, sister Sue, I'm grateful and touched by your thoughtfulness, but the Soundracer V-8 birthday present just might end up a regift to someone who can't contort their mouth and spew out that coveted V-8 engine rumble.

Garry Sowerby, author of "Sowerby's Road: Adventures of a Driven Mind," is a four-time Guinness World Record holder for long-distance driving. His exploits, good, bad and just plain harrowing, are the subject of World Odyssey, produced in conjunction with Wheelbase Media. You can send Garry a note online at www.wheelbase.ws/media using the contact link. Wheelbase Media is a worldwide provider of automotive news and features stories.