Subaru Flat Four Rumble - The Most Unique Sound in Motoring?
 

Time for a bit of idle chit chat

sat in my office yesterday deep in thought - oblivious to all distractions until I head that "rumble". I thought aha must be a Scooby, looked out the window and sure enough fully stickered STi slowly moved past.

It then occured to me that I can pick out the Scoob rumble almost without fail, even from several hundred yards away. But there is no way on earth I could distinguish other car makes.

Whilst we are all obviously biased, with ears atuned to the flat four - it did make me wonder what other car makes have such a distinctive sound. I am told that the Ferrari is very distinctive also, but not enough experience to be sure.

So what other nominations do you have for "most distinctive motor sound"?

911 - but that's also a boxer engine. ;)

I've got everyone in the office trained it hear it too... :D

I know what you mean by picking out the rumble. My wife calls me sad!

I reckon the Ranger Rover V8 has a pretty distinctive sound. Sounds like it could suck in small animals ;)

J.

Any TVR without a doubt.

and

some 16 year old chav coming down the road on a scooter, screaming the b0ll0cks of it

Got to admit the flat 4 burrble round me is very common, in my works carpark we have my sport with a WR Sport BB, a MY00 STI JDM wagon and an STI 8!! Its like an owners club round here!! Also on the same business park we have 4 911's, another 3 STI 8's and 3 WRX's and an Type R, everyone knows the burrble.

everyone says they know me coming from a few blocks away, pictures falling of the walls etc

my mate bought one of those new honda integra dc5's, its got a fancy exhaust and running at high revs the thing sounds amazing, high pitched F1 type sound as opposed to our burbles

<Flame suit on>

Escort Rs Turbo with Mongoose Exhaust

An ex could hear me from streets away, that was no good if i was giving her sister one ;)

:lol: Typical RS turbo driver!! Was it the car or the sister they could hear coming? :norty:

Sorry, couldn't resist!

:notworthy Guys, my afternoon is already starting to get much better - but laughing out loud in the office is getting me funny looks

Being alongside the RS owners club at Croft this September, with some great track time, I can vouch that they know how to have a good time.

Oh no, Redman, don't encourage me....I'll start with the essex girl jokes/stereotypes next!!!! :norty: :nono:

Must resist temptation......... :freak3:

It's no good, I can't resist: :freak3:

Q. Why does an essex girl wear knickers?

A. To keep her ankles warm!

Q. How does an essex girl turn the light on after sex?

A. Opens the car door!

Ahhhh, that's so much better :D

Sincere apologies to any females from essex!

Best,

This will most certainly get me into trouble - my only excuse is my secretary sent it to me and all her female friends thought it hilarious.

Quote for the Day ...

God created the orgasm so that women can moan even when they are happy!



....... running for cover

'scort was years ago ;)

still cant beat a Blobeye with a Nur Spec R on full tilt :p

True, true. I always remeber the RS engine/exhaust note as sounding fairly tame, hard to hear much above the huge dump valves that many owners seemed to fit to them!

A scooby with a decent exhaust is just about one of the most menacing automotive sounds out there! Some of the JDM cars have had it removed. Madness. I wrote to the PR man at Subaru recently and was assured that Subaru UK have no intention of robbing UK spec models of their rumble anytime soon!

Honda's Vtec engines also make wonderful noises, particularly inside the cabin. Can't go wrong with a V8 either ;-)

Best.

Hmm not so sure about that. The offbeat burble is a result of an unequal length manifold. New JDMs now have equal length manifolds which I presume will eventually filter down to European cars, so the burble as we know it could soon be extinct !

Unique! Nah, not much difference between a Scooby and a VW camper Van :D LOL

Tony

Most Ferraris have a pleasant sound,

just as memorable were the RS1600 rally cars of the 1970s - could always knew when one was approaching. :D

I popped round to my brothers the other day and my nephew (7 y/o) had got up and opened the front door before I even appeared.

When asked by his mum why he'd opened the front door, his reply.... "Uncle Andy's here" and sure enough I pulled onto the drive :D

MJW Well, its true that Jap market components are increasing finding there way over here, but I think Subaru UK realise that the flat four rumble is a big part of the Scooby's appeal here in the UK and wouldn't risk loosing it for the meantime. That was pretty much what the PR head man said, "changes apply to JDM only, and will NOT apply to UK cars".

I could be wrong, but didn't the jap market bin the unequal length manifold as it's less efficient than the equal length one? That might be more imp for the higher powered JDM cars, but less imp for the lower powered UK cars.

I'll keep the unequal ones, loose a few BHP and have the wonderful soundtrack thanks! :-)

Best.

Lots or cars have distictive sounds:

Group B Audi Quattro
Metro 6R4
Scooby or course
V12 Cars
V6 Powered cars
Rover V8 powered cars (lll with different notes)
American V8 Cars (different sound all together)
Motorbikes
3 Cylinder Cars
Saab 2 stroke's :D
BRM16 (One of the best sounding engines ever)

The list goes on!

They all have different notes which are all distinctive.

I wouldn't have said its the Scooby is the most distinctive, as there are so many different ones, but its certainly one of the nicest.

Comper100

i agree with comper100, the scooby sounds nice but there are loads of lovelly engine notes which can be picked out for miles, ferraris, big v8's in landrover as opposed to big v8's in tvr's all sorts sound different and unique.

Capri 2.8i with Janspeeds, no mistaking that one :D:D

well there's some pretty good cars mentioned - I guess I need to get out more and experience them.

The thing I find with the Scoob is that the average joe, from you 7yr old nephew upwards, can tell them coming from a mile away - my neighbour knows the moment I enter the village - not loud (well not too loud anyway) just very distinctive.

Once you hear it it seems easy to remember.

When upgrading the WRX this summer the Spec C was at the top of the list - but one of the reasons (including poor trade in and reduced warranty) that turned me away was the equal length manifolds. As much as my head says it does not matter, my heart disagrees.

I don't think it will be too long before the UK Scoob uses the same manifolds as the Jap one TBH. Exhaust design is a pretty exact science and just scraping the surface of the science behind it makes a mockery of a lot of aftermarket systems. 4-2-1 manifolds are less efficient than 4-1 manifolds unless the header lengths are equal, the centre-box should be 3 times the header length further along the system, the list goes on. It takes me back to the end of the eighties when I was chopping bits of pipe together to make straight-through systems for my Capris - no science whatsoever yet somehow they went much better when they were noisier ;)

I was horrified recently when I was forced to replace my Magnex system and, to save cash, chose a Jetex one only to find it had no centre box whatsoever! A quick enquiry found that most of their customers were more concerned with the noise than the effect on performance/economy and leaving out the centre box meant they could make it cheaper than comparable systems.

I went a bit off-track there, sorry, but what I'm trying to say is yes, you can hear a scoob a mile off but it's not going to be like that forever.

Scooby is certainly fairly unique noise, but the 5 cylinder audi quattro has to compete for "most distinctive" title. The old 5 cylinder audi TDi was also pretty distinctive, but not actually that pleasant - think Quattro spoiled by lots of added clatter. ;)

Several of the others mentioned are great sounds, but not unique - e.g. there's a fair number of different cars with fantastic sounding V8s, but only 4 or 5 "families" or types of V8 sound (e.g. Rover, Average American, Flat Plane for want of better terms) so not that distinctive.

Other distinctive noises - first beetle/campavans etc with the air-cooled boxer, 2CV.

Great noises that are a bit different to most others and still on sale - Most Ferrari's howl well, 911s, the big AMG Mercs, which do sound a bit different to other V8s I've heard, and of course the Aston V12, which is quite possibly the best sounding of the lot.

[QUOTE=Squadron-Leader]My wife calls me sad!

when the wife says sad
what she means to say is "hung like a donkey" :norty:

I'm with hades on this one....
Audi Quattro turbo (ur quattro) is an amazing sound on full chat. I owned a ur for a couple of years before the Scoob. The 5 pot warble still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up...

I love it :)

Know it's not road going spec but the best engine I've heard must be the McLaren F1 endurance racer. What a noise. The old V12 Ferrari F1 engines were pretty awesome as well - almost physically painful to the ears but great nonetheless.

The scoob has to be THE best sounding 4 cylinder around - never tire of it.

Saab 900 turbo

unique manifold design gave it a luverly burble


not bad for a inline four


Mart