Ask the Best and Brightest: Your Top Five Sonic Favorites Please

Here is the closest I could find to reality on the Internet, though you'll have to skip to the middle to hear it roar. An old Jaguar in a Vintage Race at the 'Ring in very wet conditions. Or you can settle with my lame attempt. Neither is as good as hearing, and feeling it in the flesh. --chuck

Damn, hard to choose just five... 1 - The BRM V16 Grand Prix engine. There simply is nothing, and will never be anything, like it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZMPDCNyQxE 2 - any properly-built small block Chevy, but if I had to pick a particular one, it'd be the solid-lifter L79 327. At 7000 RPM. Or, if it's in a race car, the LS3-based V8s in the SPEED GT Cadillac CTS-V. 3 - Solid-lifter 427 big block in any form of racing Corvette (LeMans Owens-Corning Vette, anyone?) 4 - Any post-turbo-era Formula 1 cars, particularly the Ferraris from 1988 to 1991 or so. 5 - Cosworth DFV. I'd also put basically any other smallblock V8 high on the list, as well as any overhead cam 4 cylinders in sporty car in the 60s (Lotus Cortina, Ferraris, the original Mini, Abarth Fiat...) List of NON-good sounding engines? Every Honda ever made except the NSX... Just about every Japanese car, with a few exceptions... All diesels. ALL. And my vote for the worst-sounding engine ever is the 2.8/3.1 GM V6. Especially with aftermarket exhaust. Just awful.

Poor man's fun? My 12 yr old VW Cabrio with a Borla muffler and otherwise 100% stock. Sounds pretty good for a grocery getter while not being loud and obnoxious. Does not sound like the typical fart can. I need to install the new stock downpipe and gasket to eliminate some leakage near the manifold. Perhaps this weekend. Favorites? Aircooled flat-six engines. Porsche first of course but I have heard some really nice Corvairs over the years with a little intake upgrades and exhaust upgrades. Even aircooled flat-fours sound good with the right turbo mufflers. Second favorites? Watercooled flat-sixes. Third favorites? European inline DOHC six cylinders. Have not heard an Asian or American inline six that I get too excited about. REALLY DON'T like GM underwater sounding V-6 engines. Glug-glug-glug-glug on takeoff. Especially with after-market exhausts. Honorable mentions? Small block V-8s (when set up for rumble and not shear noise). Anything turbo including four banger diesels with large diameter exhaust systems. Again not loud, just low. The dual locomotive/marine turbo diesel engines we had on the USS Ashland. When going to full speed from some low speed the wail of the turbos and the exhaust was awesome. I enjoyed standing on the deck more or less centered between the exhaust stacks for full effect. Another favorite was standing right next to one when they went full throttle. We also had a group of SEALs onboard way back when running patrol boats to Haiti and back. Those boats were incredible. I stuck around in the well-deck just to hear them run the boats from time to time. Nice echo effect. And lastly - radial engines from the WWII era. Gives me chills every-single-time... If I fall into a time machine and go back to WWII I hearby volunteer to be an airplane mechanic. Don't want to shoot at anybody or fly the damn things but I do want to work on them.

Even though I'm not the biggest Mustang fan, it's hard to deny the awesome sound that car makes. Year in year out... Even stock... Once upon a time I had a 1989 Mustang GT with an Ford Motorsport crate SVO 302 (hot cam/heads, headers, and flow master exhaust). Made about 350HP, and sounded sooooooooooooooooo mean! Too bad in didn't handle as well as it sounded. Or brake. Side notes: 1.) 2:27+ in video. I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit... 2.) 3:35+ in video. Wow! I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of that Porsche Boxster? Sounded great....