What are your favourite engine types?

E92

To get the ball rolling, I will say a straight 6, because they sound almost as good as a V8 or a V10 but don't require an oil well to fuel them. A 5 cylinder from an 80s Audi/90s Volvo(unfortunately Volvo have muted that beautiful sound you got from them since) would come very very close or a flat 6.

They sound vastly superior to a 4 pot and a 3 pot as well.

They start off sounding great, and just get better and better. V10s are only interesting above 5,000 rpm, any V10 I've heard below 5,000 rpm is boring. V8s sound fantastic, but they cost an arm and a leg to run.

V6's don't sound as good as a straight 6 IMO.

A straight 6 is the smoothest engine type this side of a V12 too, which is an added bonus, but its by no means the reason why I like them.

If money were no object then it would have to be, well I don't know actually, I love the sound of all engines once they reach the magic 6 cylinders. 5 cylinder engines like the ones from old Audis and mid 90s Volvos sound brilliant too.

It would depend on the mood I'd be in I think!

superboy

MMMM straight six! lovely smooth engines. I like V8s also, (Aston Martins sound the best!) but one of the best sounds ever - Ferrari Flat 12. oh and superchargers improve the sound of any engine!!!

siralfalot

the Alfa Romeo Arese V6, IMO easily the best sounding six pot ever produced, also easliy the best looking six pot ever produced

JHMEG

5 cylinder

This is an unual poll as not a lot of people would have had 1st hand experience of a lot of those engines. Most people will only have experienced a 4 or 6 cyl engine.

Speaking from personal experience no 6 (eg BMW 525 and 535, S320), 8 (LS400), or 12 cylinder (S600) engine has ever done much for me, as none of the above cars interest me. The NSX is supposed to have one of the best soundtracks of any car ever made but I can't really comment as I've never driven one. A 1000bhp Skyline would probably impress me too. As would a Dodge Charger R/T (drool).

The ones I do have experience of that did impress me all are 4-cyls. The best sounding engine at idle has to be the WRX (if ever a car sounded like a V-twin (which you've left out) Harley, this is it). The shrill from the DC2 ITR sounds like a Stuka dive bomber, which is fantastic. The Mk2 MR2 has cool whirrring noises going on behind your head.

So for me the vote on personal experience would have to be inline fours.

Thumper Long

flat 6

the gurgling of a flat 4 like the boxer engine in a WRX STI is fantastic probably my favorite although personally i've never really driven bigger than a BMW straight 6, another lovely sounding engine at the moment is the new golf r32, lovely whirr off the engine.

CarLover

flat 4

I love the straight six - great noise (even below 2000rpm), smooth as butter and easier on fuel than a V8, 10 or 12 as an everyday car.

peasant

V6

You forgot one engine type!

The 8 liter "flat" one :D:D

Feast your ears on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJP5t3xh_nA&mode=related&search=

And here's another bit of long forgotten engine technology giving a rather good account for itself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXVRdSbKDT8

E92

V12

I realise I have forgotten a lot of engine types, I'd like to have included rotarys for instance. But I chose the ones that would be the most popular in cars, as I had only 10 choices.

I did up the poll just to see what kind of engine noise do people find the nicest, and of course why they prefer certain engine layouts.

Its strictly not anything to do with what kind of car it is or how much power comes from the engine, after all its not the hardest thing in the world to make a 4 pot have more power than a V12(just pit on a big turbo for a start), simply what layout is your favourite.

gyppo

You left out another engine - what about the two cylinder one from the Fiat 126 with the wasted spark ignition. I had one of these for a while - ba5tard to start if the weather was anyways damp. Def not my favourite engine though.:)

Andrewf20

flat 4

My straight 6 was as smooth as butter until a small but noticeable misfiring crept in. Grrr. I think the straight 6 does have a great sound. I think the Vtec Honda type R's have a great screamy note as well though. I think the best engine sound I have ever heard was the E46 M3 CSL. Fabtastic.

Biro

V8

JHMEG wrote: »

The NSX is supposed to have one of the best soundtracks of any car ever made but I can't really comment as I've never driven one.

I can comment, and it's nothing short of spine-tingling fantastic. The best engine I've heard, even marginally better than a V8 Ferrari screaming behind my ears, which was also awesome.
Straight 6's sound good, only experienced beemer's ones, but beemer's V8 sounded better to my ears, much better when pushed. Very impressive sound.
Flat 6 in a 997 S sounded great, but not out of this world impressive.
I'd go for V6 or V8, but haven't experienced V10 or V12 yet. Not impressed enough with straight or flat 6's for me to vote for them.
5-cyl Quattro was fantastic though! Most unique sound.

unkel

V10

I've voted V8. Not as optimal as W24 or even a modest V12, I know, but those lazy big engines have served me very well over the last 7 years

S.I.R

flat 4

e30 6 pot 2.5 , best engine ever made... if you don't believe me listen to one driving by you any time you see the many of them around

Rovi

V10

I voted V8, but I'd love to hear one of these in action- Deltic

Animation and soundtrack here- http://www.wis.co.uk/justin/deltic-engine.html

C_Breeze

V8

whats the difference between a Straight 6 and a V6? ... i know its the positioning of the cylinders but why are poeple so nuts about it. On some of the other threads they you seem to go on about BMW 6's like they are heaven sent.

Obviously far superior that 4 pots .. but in comparison to a V6 whats so special??!!




Edit: What about Rotary engines!? Why have they been left out??

Idleater

C_Breeze wrote: »

Edit: What about Rotary engines!? Why have they been left out??

and V-Twins.

I vote for Vtwins, certainly the ones heading for and over 1000cc's:cool:

...
...
...

and back to the bikes forum for me...

JHMEG

5 cylinder

C_Breeze wrote: »

whats the difference between a Straight 6 and a V6?

Smoothness, and that's all. An I6 is "perfectly balanced", a V6 is not and has some inherent vibrations that cannot be removed. OTOH, a V6 looks better, takes up less space, and will always have two exhaust manifolds (Better than one).

junkyard

V10

V8's for me, they're hard to beat as far as I'm concerned. Who voted for 3 cylinders btw?

E92

V12

junkyard wrote: »

V8's for me, they're hard to beat as far as I'm concerned. Who voted for 3 cylinders btw?

I made the poll a public one, so all you gotta do is click on it. I won't name and shame the person who did though, you'll have to find that out for yourself!

Its also a multiple choice poll, you can have more than one favourite type of engine(I did use the plural of type for a reason), which is why I voted for more than just a straight 6.

E92

V12

C_Breeze wrote: »

whats the difference between a Straight 6 and a V6? ... i know its the positioning of the cylinders but why are poeple so nuts about it. On some of the other threads they you seem to go on about BMW 6's like they are heaven sent.

Obviously far superior that 4 pots .. but in comparison to a V6 whats so special??!

They are a better set up than a V6. They are cheaper to build, because they don't need things like balance shafts to cancel out vibrations which do exist in a V6(and many other engine types) but don't exist in a straight 6.

A twin cam V6 actually has 4 cams(because there is 2 for each cylinder bank), a twin cam straight 6 has just 2, so that reduces cost.

A straight 6 is cheaper for another reason, and that is you can make a straight 6 a modular design, so that means that you can take a 4 pot or a 3 pot or a 5 pot, and all you've gotta do is put on extra cylinders to the crankshaft.(and remove the balance shafts as they are unnecessary on a straight 6, cause they're already balanced)

Of course you can do this to a V6, but this has problems attatched to it.

Do you add 2 or 4 cylinders to a V6 and get a V8 or a V10, or do you take off extra cylinders from a V8 and a V10 and get a V6 instead?

A V6 needs to be at a 60 deg angle for optimum smoothness, a V8 and V10 need to be at a 90 deg angle.

So you either set them up to suit a V8 and V10 at the expense of a V6 or the other way around.

Whereas with a straight 6 you just put on extra cylinders and remove the balance shafts and the job is done.

Of course, a V6 can be made as smooth as a straight 6, but you have to design it to do so, and surley the time and money spent designing an engine to do something that another layout already does automatically is a waste of time and money?

While all of that stuff I said is true, its not really important to me. My preference of a straight 6 over a V6 comes from the fact that they just simply sound better. I've yet to hear a V6 that sounds better than its straight 6 equivalent. I just prefer the noise from a straight 6. A V6 is essentially two 3 pots stuck together with a common crankshaft. You can't level that accusation at a straight 6!

The reason why a V6 is so popular and the biggest and most important advantage of a V6 over a straight 6 is the size of a V6. They are a much smaller engine than a straight 6.

The most obvious example of this is the old Merc M-class, you could fit a 3.2 V6 petrol into it, but you could not fit the company's 3.2 straight 6 turbodiesel under the bonnet. Yet the bonnet could handle their 4 litre V8 turbodiesel, and even a 5.5 V8 petrol.

However Volvo have managed to engineer a straight 6, which made its debut only last year in the S80(and the Land Rover Freelander 2), and this engine is only a fraction larger than their straight 5 engine, which has 2.5 litres.
See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight-6 wrote:

BMW is a persistent maker of straight-6 petrol and turbo-diesel engines, displacing from 2.0 to 3.8 L (122–231 cu in) (as of 2005. Since BMW drivetrains are rear wheel drive, the straight-6 can mount lengthwise; therefore the width of the engine is not an issue.
Volvo produced straight-6 engines like the Volvo B30 engine for the Volvo 164 (1969-1975) and the B6304 engine for the 960/S90 (RWD). All vehicles in the Volvo lineup are front-wheel (or all wheel) driven thereafter, and yet, Volvo made it possible to mount their inline-6 engine transversely by using a very short transaxle package and relocated engine-driven accessories. In 2006, Volvo announced a new 3.2 L straight-6 for the Volvo S80 that was only slightly longer than its straight-5, achieved by moving the camshaft drive to the back of the engine and sharing the same gear train with ancillaries mounted in otherwise unused space over top of the transmission. This resulted in a package that was not only extremely short for a straight-6, but also very narrow. Volvo says a transversely mounted inline engine leaves more crush space to protect against frontal impacts than a (shorter) transverse V6 or a longitudinally mounted inline-6.

C_Breeze

V8

JHMEG thanks for answering my question simply, and E92 :eek: ... thumbs up for taking the time to compose that quality post.

Now im "in the know" i guess!


I drove a 2.5 I6 skyline before .....

I didnt find it smoother than a 2.5 v6 , it didnt sound nicer, and it certainly didnt look better in the engine compartment.

Must try out a I 6 beemer sometime.



I voted V6 is because i have owned two V6 mazdas. - They sound sweet , are silky smooth , are brilliantly effortless on the motorway ....and people seem to be impressed when you tell them its a "V6"

..either way , once you drive a car with 6 cylinders or more , its very hard to go back to a 4 banger. - It really is a different world

JHMEG

5 cylinder

I don't think it's really possible for an I6 to sound any better than a V6 just because of the cylinder layout. Most of the sound you hear is from the induction and exhaust, unless you're driving a mid-engined car where the engine is behind your head.

@Biro: how would you rate the sound of a V6 NSX versus an I6 BMW?

rash0001

V12

Why isn't there an option to vote for a ROTARY engine!?

optiplexgx270

V12

Rovi wrote: »

I voted V8, but I'd love to hear one of these in action- Deltic

Animation and soundtrack here- http://www.wis.co.uk/justin/deltic-engine.html

Sweet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBkQQftn-AM

E92

V12

rash0001 wrote: »

Why isn't there an option to vote for a ROTARY engine!?

I answered that question already, see Post Nr 9!

sc4rf4ce

V10

you cant beat the roar of a v12 engine. theres an astin martin db9 in the carpark at work. and hearing that thing roar to life a speed off is something else.
gaz guzzler or no, its a sweet sounding engine.

SouperComputer

Id rather take each individual engine, rather than judging them on layout alone. No mention of VR6 even though. Some V8's sound like pants, some 4's sound decentish. One of the first Mercedes racing engines with desmodronic valves sound pretty neat. Ferrari V12's also.

C_Breeze, heres a nice example of an I6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an5crbsOj00

Jeep still use the 4.0 I6 in their cars over here. Pretty heavy on juice (even by US standards) but its very strudy and gives decent enough torque.

Rovi

V10

optiplexgx270 wrote: »

Sweet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBkQQftn-AM

Sweet indeed, thanks.

Mahatma coat

flat 4

Why isnt there an 'I love Diesel' bit.

seriously like when our Volvo F16 applies the exhaust brake, or driving the F7 Turbo up a hill with a hefty load of logs, these are beautiful sounds.

but my fave has to be the 1HZ Landcruiser motor, or my MQ Patrol with a tractor turbo on it

Fords 250 Xflow was a sweet six if ya wanteds a petrol, and I'd rate the sound of the old 351 over the new 5.4L V8 anyday.

C_Breeze

V8

What about the Chevrolet Epica's L-6 engine .. I wonder what thats like!

Elessar

flat 4

Straight 6 for the win!

My 320ci sounds like an aircraft engine spooling up (you know that sound) below 2000rpm, then anything above that gets progressively more race-car sounding, can actually be scary above 4000rpm.