Does exhaust note affect your driving?

[Jazzbass 1]

I contend that exhaust note does affect driving.

When I'm in a quiet car, (like my present 528) I drive less aggressively, more smoothly etc and tend to just cruise around. I also listen to my stereo more.

When I'm in a noisy car, (like my last 325) I tend to want to hear that exhaust roaring, so plant foot faster, drive more aggressively etc. I never used the stereo, preferring to listen to the car noise - beautiful!!

We all tend to judge others by ourselves, that's human nature, therefore when I'm buying a car, I pay attention to the exhaust note. If its loud, I assume that the car has been thrashed and pass onto the next one.

Quiet exhaust note also has returns in NOT attracting cop attention. Thus I can actually drive faster, quieter and let the cops pick up someone driving slower, but noisier. Works for me. I first learned this when I was riding bikes in the '60s. I had a set of copper straight pipes on my Bonny which would wake the dead at full throttle acceleration. After attracting too much attention (13 tickets in 2 years), I changed to a set of super quiet mufflers and the cops never noticed me - I was still doing the same speeds (as young men everywhere do), but just didn't attract the 'wrong' attention. :thumb:

How do you perceive the affects of exhaust note on you?

[*sic 1]

auto + big bore = H O M O

as long as your after performance and not the note only then im all for it, personally it doesnt affect my driving noticeably, but most likely does in small ways.

like listening to sliknot and hitting some twisties always makes me push the car to the handling limit..

[Jazzbass 1]

That's right, *sic - music has a big affect on people's driving. If I'm playing the rock music for my age group (Zep, Tull, Sabbath, Purple, Queen, Heep etc) I do tend to drive more aggressively. If I'm playing softer stuff, I chill out and drive slower.

Mind you, I'm never gonna be holding anyone up by slow driving

[*sic 1]

music and traffic makes some people assholes on the road unfortunatly also.

[m325i 709]

When i listen to biggie it makes me want to sell crack.

[petone 0]

Jazz, I'd agree with that. I would drive faster in both our BMW's as they sound nice when you rev them, however when I'm driving the work vans they sound pretty shitty so I don't rev them as hard. Yeah might sound stupid but its true.

I can understand changing the exhasut for a better sounds, as long as its not stupidly loud and you don't lose any perfromance. I have a bigger exhaust on my car but it doesn't really do heaps for performance but it does sound a lot nicer (not too much louder but sounds way throatier) and looks way better than stock.

But nothing worse than some shitheap 1.3L with a huge exhasut that makes heaps of noise and doesn't go anywhere.

Also, if i'm going for a proper drive I"ll turn the radio off, I normally only have it one when i'm going slow (or normal speed)

Edited November 10, 2005 by petone

[Guest Andrew]

Big fan of how the revlimiter sounds - so hit that alot. E30 sounds badass - have no idea what it will sound like when i get it back - probably just plain scary.

E36 is quiet and nice - don't really rape it as much.

[my_e36 43]

Never had an exhaust mod on my cars, so exhaust note won't do much for me.

It's music that affect me more though...

[Jazzbass 1]

But nothing worse than some shitheap 1.3L with a huge exhasut that makes heaps of noise and doesn't go anywhere.

Hell yes - that always gets me laughing. I hear some car revving like mad and look up, expecting to see a blur and all it is is a Corolla or something being all show no go.

[topless 13]

But nothing worse than some shitheap 1.3L with a huge exhasut that makes heaps of noise and doesn't go anywhere.

Hell yes - that always gets me laughing. I hear some car revving like mad and look up, expecting to see a blur and all it is is a Corolla or something being all show no go.

In cases like this one needs to substitute the words "accelerator pedal" for "volume control"...

[Carl 3]

Is all true, revving my parents Accord just sounds wrong, the engine and intake of the six is far better than the exhaust note so I prefer a quieter muffler - but definately there's a correlation between noise and economy.

[m325i 709]

Big fan of how the revlimiter sounds - so hit that alot.

da da da da da da!

It will probably have some backfires mixed in when it comes back.

[Ghost 0]

Personally I like induction noise, owns exhaust. Judge for yourself:

http://www.track24.de/videos/castrol%20200...ufang%20BMW.wmv

When I get a CF airbox, Motec EMS, enlarged TB etc etc that induction noise will definitly have an effect on my driving style...

Ash

Edited November 11, 2005 by Ghost

[Guest Andrew]

Big fan of how the revlimiter sounds - so hit that alot.

da da da da da da!

It will probably have some backfires mixed in when it comes back.

sounds way different with link - its hilarious.

[OLLIE 26]

jazzbass i agree %, 4 and a half thousand through tunnels and under bridges.

[Jazzbass 1]

I've heard some truly beautiful exhaust notes on tuned cars- one that make you just drop whatever you're doing and listen, but the large majority of altered exhausts tend to sound crappy rather than nice.

I think if I was to have a doer-upper to play with, I'd use a professional exhaust tuning service to get that sound which I enjoy, rather than think that bigger bore = better sound.

[320SHKBTE 0]

My last car was a 2.5 ltr twin turbo beast...0-100 in 5 secs, to me a bmw is a crusier an not ment to be fast just hot an sexy with great luxery items..

[kiwi535 538]

mine is a bit loud and drony at lowish revs so i tend to not give it much loud pedal until i am either by myself or the traffic is spread out a bit,I think i would rev it a bit more if it was quieter...i can easily go to work without exceeding 3000rpm

[Homy.D.Clown 0]

just love the tone of my car under bridges and in covered car parks..drive slower but rev more than normal. HEHE

as for exaust making me drive faster...sometimes i like to bury the boot just to make the car growl.

but then theres angry music too....or just being angry....all the time!!!!

*FLIPPY

[E30_318i 0]

If it sounds good I always engine brake down hills, and rev match.

As well as tunnels, have the windows down when passing a tall truck while flogging the sh*t out of it, as it echoes straight back into the cabin. Above 3000rpm, the engine overcomes the diff whine in the 525

Both of mine sounds better from the outside, bugger for me.

[Guest Spargo]

I quite like hearing my 2.7 bounce back into the cabin off 320i's. My exhaust sounds so much better than my induction.