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I'm up all night, work the night shift, and at around 3am, some new Camaro, with loud exhaust pipes added, comes through the neighborhood, and if I go outside, you can follow his path just by ear, some 6 blocks away.
Yourself, would you do that? Add some loud exhaust pipes to your car or truck, and for what reason? What would you expect to gain?
I've been scratching my head trying to figure exactly why car/truck owners do this, and all I can come up with is perhaps these people feel powerless in their lives (as so many of us) and it gives them the delusion of power. Or, they feel frustrated, angry, and it's a way of venting their frustrations? Don't really know.
How about you? What do you think is behind it?
Since I'm looking for deeper meaning, some psychological analysis, I avoided putting this on the Automotive Forum.
The automotive forum will give you the technical explanation - a free flowing exhaust will increase performance, and a high performance car will by it's nature give you a louder exhaust tone. Yeah, I own a muscle car that is extremely modified from it's late 70s stock form, I used to take it out drag racing. Yes that includes headers and larger exhaust, I set off car alarms as I go past. It's not that I intentionally want it loud, although I enjoy the sound, it's just a byproduct of my craft. Our cars are built for tinkering, for the hobbiest, for those that want to eek out every bit of performance from these old engines. It still has mufflers of course, no excuse for not having those.
Now the above is relevant with old muscle cars - non-computerized, carbureted, old school. We can't use the same excuse for modern cars that are already optimized using engineering technology. These loud mufflers will give very little performance improvements on modern cars...sometimes they will actually hurt performance. And don't even get me started with the 4 cylinder ricers that have exhausts that make them sound like a leaf blowers (fortunetly that fad is about dead). Those with modern vehicles with aftermarket loud exhausts UNLESS THE CAR IS ALREADY HEAVILY MODIFIED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MORE AIRFLOW are doing it for a combination of two reasons: 1.) They are giving into marketing hype by the aftermarket vehicle parts companies that say it will add performance, 2.) Indeed they are doing it because they think it sounds cool - you don't need any deep psychological analysis on that.
So give us old muscle school car owners some slack, it's just part of our hobby. For new cars driven by these kids, just laugh at them as you outrun them with your grocery-getter accord while there exhaust is screaming.
the loudest vehicle on my street other than my mustang is a billy bob type chevy pickem up truck with loud pipes all the way out the back ..that popping racket is noise to me .. my open headers is sweet music .. indecently the pickem up truck is owned by a city cop ....
Arrested adolesence. It feels good to pizz off the grown ups.
The Harley folks, in an attempt to rationalize it all, go so far as to proclaim: "Loud Pipes Save Lives"
They're wrong of course no matter how you slice it.
It's spring here in the northeast, and that means the NOISE of motorcycles that their owners decide to take out for a ride in the warm weather. I know it is temporary because most bikers seem to get bored by summer and leave their bikes home and it quiets down again. I just can't stand the noise. A beautiful day, looking at the plant world blossoming forth, listening to bird songs, and then this loud, intrusive, totally wrong and out-of-place roar from a stupid machine.
A man at my old job who has a bike pointed out that this way other cars can hear them and that it prevents accidents. Well, how about not riding between the lanes/other vehicles on major highways? Wouldn't THAT save even more lives? I don't care how much "warning" your loud exhaust gives--you get yourself sandwiched between two SUVs on the NJ Turnpike because you believe a motorcycle doesn't have to obey traffic laws, don't come running crying to me.
Just had way too much of this in the past week. Anmoying noise and stupid driving, courtesy of Steve McQueen wannabes.
Yeah that, Loud pipes = compansating for lack of substance between-the-legs. Same reason for the obnoxiously loud subwoofers and amps.
"Loud pipes save lives" is another way of saying "I'm a disaster in bed and I'm p\$$ed off because my SO left me and there's no chance in hell I'll ever get laid so I'm going to take out my anger out on everybody around me." I drive a big braappy 500+ KTM dirt/urban hybrid, I could have it deafiningly loud (it can literally get that loud) but I keep a tight muffler on it out of courtesy for others. it really kind of makes it sound more like a little turbodiesel car driving by.
Arrested adolesence. It feels good to pizz off the grown ups.
The Harley folks, in an attempt to rationalize it all, go so far as to proclaim: "Loud Pipes Save Lives"
They're wrong of course no matter how you slice it.
I've been calling the loud pipes save lives people out on the internet for almost 20 years now.
All you have to do to get to the truth is look at the advertising for aftermarket exhaust systems.
It makes you feel cool, tough, and macho, especially when you drive a manual and you can hear the gears changing (or whatever it's technically called). Similar to putting a racing mirror over your regular rearview mirror. You feel really cool.
The 6 cylinder on the Camaro (also Challenger and Mustang) is over 300 hp, still more than the typical V8 of the early 70s. The latest (2018) Mustang with a 2.3 turbo 4 banger will put out over 300 HP.
The louder exhaust is not just for the purpose of that sound that many of us love. On a performance car, larger, dual exhaust with less resistance to the flow increases horsepower. Simply changing the mufflers to get better flow can add 10 HP, and is needed to maintain balance when adding more air intake at the engine, or bigger carburetor on a classic. When I leave for work at 5am, I am on a hill and will just idle around the neighborhood to avoid disturbing the neighbors, though my Challenger is not nearly as loud as the 1972 El Camino SS I used to drive.
Ok... That makes sense if you're participating in NASCAR. Not if you're commuting to work.
In modern cars, engine mods require expert knowledge, pro tools, and expensive parts. Exhaust mods can be done with a wrench, screwdriver, and coffee can.
Completely annoying. Isn't there enough noise in the world already?
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