4 ms·

But a lot more people find loud engines simply horrible and inconsiderate.

leetcrew 7y ago
how do you know? I live in a major city and I find loud exhausts to be only a fleeting annoyance. I'll admit I hate when people put straight pipes on motorcycles and inline fours, but I love listening to porsches and amgs go by. you might not guess it, since I drive a pretty quiet car myself. outside of hn, I've never really encountered anyone who was more than mildly annoyed by loud exhausts.
- EL_Loco 7y ago
  Sure, just as when I lived in a big crowded city I never really encountered anyone who was more than mildly annoyed by graffitti, trash in the street, minor vandalism (broken street lights, etc), and even petty theft.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    There's a massive difference between an ephemeral accelerating (unmodified and within regulations) sports car and actual crime.
- anyfoo 7y ago
  It just adds up, you know? I own a Porsche and I purposely left the sports exhaust option out (even though you can turn it off, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t still louder then). Because if using my fun car means annoying everyone else in a radius like they are annoying me when they pass my house, it wouldn’t be that much fun. Can’t imagine what it must be for parents of young children, when some exhausts are loud enough to wake me up in the middle of the night (and the surrounding car alarms).
soganess 7y ago
I try to avoid these discussions on HN as I'm a petrohead and find myself often on the wrong side of the greater audience here. That said, no car is really loud sub ~3000 rpm, at least not in the way I imagine you're implying. That is all this (or most any) car would need to muster for driving down the streets of London or any city. The problem is that some owners get really aggressive with the throttle in places they really shouldn't. I'm with you, that is annoying, but that is by no means an isolated "super fancy car" problem. Motorbikes, modified scooters, tuner cars, trucks tuned for show instead of work. This whole thing is about how some folks can't help but flaunt their opulence/excess. Talking it out on the car is like talking down to Tesla for including autopilot knowing that some drunk drivers will simply use the feature to take themselves home.
- andrepd 7y ago
  You can be a petrolhead -- among other like-minded petrolheads, in designated areas where you don't bother other people who simply have no choice whether or not they are subjected to your "taste". It's similar to smokers being inconsiderate and blowing smoke onto non-smoking persons. If I'm a "metalhead", that doesn't give me the right to blast music at 1 in the morning in my apartment, or during my morning commute.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- MegaButts 7y ago
  > That said, no car is really loud sub ~3000 rpm, at least not in the way I imagine you're implying. As someone who loves cars, I wildly disagree. There are modded cars that idle across the street that wake me up through my double-paned windows. A very popular mod is to add a downpipe to some cars, which is illegal in California (for emissions reasons), but people still do it and holy fuck it is just so god damn loud. It's great at the race track, not so great when you want to sleep. Sometimes cars are just loud and obnoxious.
  - manigandham 7y ago
    Modified cars is the keyword there. There are already regulations in every region that control for excessive noise and pollution from vehicles.
  - winrid 7y ago
    I think by downpipe you mean cutout. Every car has a downpipe. Yes, if you open exhaust cutouts at 5am you're an asshole.
- klyrs 7y ago
  > That said, no car is really loud sub ~3000 rpm... In a past life, I had a '69 Ford 250 with a big-block 390 that would beg to differ... but it got between 4 and 6 mpg so even in 2001 that was too expensive to keep...

how do you know? I live in a major city and I find loud exhausts to be only a fleeting annoyance. I'll admit I hate when people put straight pipes on motorcycles and inline fours, but I love listening to porsches and amgs go by. you might not guess it, since I drive a pretty quiet car myself. outside of hn, I've never really encountered anyone who was more than mildly annoyed by loud exhausts.

EL_Loco 7y ago
Sure, just as when I lived in a big crowded city I never really encountered anyone who was more than mildly annoyed by graffitti, trash in the street, minor vandalism (broken street lights, etc), and even petty theft.
- manigandham 7y ago
  There's a massive difference between an ephemeral accelerating (unmodified and within regulations) sports car and actual crime.
anyfoo 7y ago
It just adds up, you know? I own a Porsche and I purposely left the sports exhaust option out (even though you can turn it off, I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t still louder then). Because if using my fun car means annoying everyone else in a radius like they are annoying me when they pass my house, it wouldn’t be that much fun. Can’t imagine what it must be for parents of young children, when some exhausts are loud enough to wake me up in the middle of the night (and the surrounding car alarms).

soganess 7y ago

I try to avoid these discussions on HN as I'm a petrohead and find myself often on the wrong side of the greater audience here. That said, no car is really loud sub ~3000 rpm, at least not in the way I imagine you're implying. That is all this (or most any) car would need to muster for driving down the streets of London or any city. The problem is that some owners get really aggressive with the throttle in places they really shouldn't. I'm with you, that is annoying, but that is by no means an isolated "super fancy car" problem. Motorbikes, modified scooters, tuner cars, trucks tuned for show instead of work. This whole thing is about how some folks can't help but flaunt their opulence/excess. Talking it out on the car is like talking down to Tesla for including autopilot knowing that some drunk drivers will simply use the feature to take themselves home.

andrepd 7y ago
You can be a petrolhead -- among other like-minded petrolheads, in designated areas where you don't bother other people who simply have no choice whether or not they are subjected to your "taste". It's similar to smokers being inconsiderate and blowing smoke onto non-smoking persons. If I'm a "metalhead", that doesn't give me the right to blast music at 1 in the morning in my apartment, or during my morning commute.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
MegaButts 7y ago
> That said, no car is really loud sub ~3000 rpm, at least not in the way I imagine you're implying. As someone who loves cars, I wildly disagree. There are modded cars that idle across the street that wake me up through my double-paned windows. A very popular mod is to add a downpipe to some cars, which is illegal in California (for emissions reasons), but people still do it and holy fuck it is just so god damn loud. It's great at the race track, not so great when you want to sleep. Sometimes cars are just loud and obnoxious.
- manigandham 7y ago
  Modified cars is the keyword there. There are already regulations in every region that control for excessive noise and pollution from vehicles.
- winrid 7y ago
  I think by downpipe you mean cutout. Every car has a downpipe. Yes, if you open exhaust cutouts at 5am you're an asshole.
klyrs 7y ago
> That said, no car is really loud sub ~3000 rpm... In a past life, I had a '69 Ford 250 with a big-block 390 that would beg to differ... but it got between 4 and 6 mpg so even in 2001 that was too expensive to keep...