Which upgrades exactly influence engine sound?

[breyzipp]

I always had my Ford GT40 Mark I 15th Anniv '66 as upgraded as it could be, that means I bought all tuning parts for it, I did an oil change and improved the body rigidity. Now today I also bought the Ford GT40 Mark I '66 from the car dealership since I like this car so much and I got tired of the blue anniversary paint. I noticed the car sounded completely different, a lot better actually. More like... what a V8 supposed to sound.

So I was wondering which upgrades actually change engine sound (in a bad way) and I've switched off all the upgrades I previously had on the anniv edition. Now the funny thing is that it's sound did change and became a bit better but it's still not nearly the same as the dealership version.

So both cars are on SH tires, on the same track, from the same camera view, none of them has any tuning upgrades whatsoever but they still sound very different? Using the engine power limiter below 100% or not doesn't seem to influence it either. The only thing I can't undo on the anniv version is the oil change and improved body rigidity but surely those can't be the reason why engine sound would change right? Installing other wheels, flat floors, aero kits etc is even beside the point because it's impossible to do that on the anniv version.

Or did those cars already sound different in the first place? That would be really weird, I always thought the anniv editions were exact copies of the dealership versions but with a fixed paintjob.

I'm confused

 

[Thomas2012]

Exhaust can completely change sounds

 

[tori]

The only thing that changes the way a car sounds is the exhaust upgrade. Generally speaking racing exhaust is to be avoided although it can be a very good thing on some cars. (M5 '05 and '08, Supra RZ, etc.)

 

[breyzipp]

So that means a stock dealership GT40 and a stock anniv GT40 don't sound the same then. Very odd. I'm going to do some more testing with this since there are more cars of which I got both the dealership and the anniv version.

 

[Greycap]

Aren't the Anniversary cars slightly tuned right from the start? There might be a "stock" part that is actually an upgrade for the normal version.

 

[Rob192005]

Yes,that's right.

 

[breyzipp]

Aren't the Anniversary cars slightly tuned right from the start? There might be a "stock" part that is actually an upgrade for the normal version.

This could very well be but then I wonder why PD went through the extra effort of making engine sounds for both unique as well. You would think they would just change the parameters of the anniv cars a bit.

 

[Greycap]

Check the specs for the AE version, apply the exact same parts (I have a feeling it has an upgraded exhaust and perhaps Engine Stage 1 by default) to the normal model and then see is they still sound different. If they do - I have no idea why.

 

[Pseudopod]

Pretty sure custom transmission also have a much louder whine than most stock transmissions have. That would alter the overall sound of the car, although this is technically not in the actual engine.

 

[JoaoSilva]

@Pseudopod yeah , it might me the transmission or the intake upgrade , i noticed that too.

 

[Vegard]

I'm pretty sure the AE Ford GT40 comes with an awful sounding sport exhaust.
It's a I6 sample from an old GT500 Skyline.

If you fit the stock GT40 with the same exhaust it sounds exactly the same.

 

[JoaoSilva]

I'm pretty sure the AE Ford GT40 comes with an awful sounding sport exhaust.
It's a I6 sample from an old GT500 Skyline.

try using the Sauber Mercedes , it sounds awful

 

[breyzipp]

Pretty sure custom transmission also have a much louder whine than most stock transmissions have. That would alter the overall sound of the car, although this is technically not in the actual engine.

I had this feeling as well, will go experiment soon.

 

[Bo]

The AE GT40 is the best sounding car in the game for me.

 

[Sturdy]

The full racing exhaust does seem to utterly ruin the sound of a lot of cars, making them sound like a completely different engine type altogether (well, for the V8s anyway)

I always try out each exhaust option when tuning a car to see what sounds best, the extra 10 or 20bhp is pretty irrelevant as I tend to drive on comfort softs anyway, so power isn't an issue

 

[JoaoSilva]

The full racing exhaust does seem to utterly ruin the sound of a lot of cars, making them sound like a completely different engine type altogether (well, for the V8s anyway)

I always try out each exhaust option when tuning a car to see what sounds best, the extra 10 or 20bhp is pretty irrelevant as I tend to drive on comfort softs anyway, so power isn't an issue

most of the times , the sports exhaust is the best sounding one.

 

[breyzipp]

Ok I've just been doing some tests with the GT40 again.

GT40 dealer exhausts : standard / sports / semi-racing / racing
GT40 anniv exhausts : sports / semi-racing / racing

So Greycap & Vegard were right, the anniv edition has the sports exhaust as 'default' and it indeed sounds aweful. The dealership GT40 has the standard exhaust which sounds a lot better, so you cannot get that sound from the anniv version. But my favorite exhaust sound for the GT40 is perhaps the semi-racing exhaust, it sounds even more brutal and raw than the standard one at low revs and you can get it on both cars. At high revs I prefer the standard exhaust sound though. Sports exhaust is by far the ugliest sound for the GT40, at high speeds it reminds me of... kart races.

If you add a turbo on the car you can hear the turbo as well, it doesn't change the engine sound but you hear the turbo whining in the background as well. It's okay I guess, but I prefer the sound without a turbo.

Intake tuning or the other power upgrades don't seem to influence the sound. But be aware that making your car more powerful means it accelerates faster as well so you spend less time in that low rev zone where the GT40's V8 sounds so nice.

Both the 5-speed transmission and the fully customizable transmission can completely ruin the sound of the engine:
1) If you have almost no other upgrades done then you can hear that your car revs up / speeds up a lot faster, meaning that you spend a lot less time in the low rev zone where the GT40's engine sounds so great.
2) If you have a lot of other upgrades (power, weight, ...) which should not influence sound in the first place then upgrading the transmission from standard to 5-speed or fully customizable can completely ruin the sound to that point that you never hear the V8 sound anymore. All you hear is this turbo-ish whining noise (even when no turbo is added) from the transmission.

Quite a lot learned today about sound and anniv cars.

 

[breyzipp]

Hmm some aditional info, it depends a lot on the camera view point as well.

With the knowledge from above, I'm now doing the 580 pp expert seasonal @ autumn ring reverse with a much better sounding GT40 Mark I anniv '66. I got a semi-racing exhaust, no turbo, a stock transmission and some other stuff to reach 580 pp. Sounds really great, especially because this is a low rev curcuit.

Now when I only exchange the stock transmission to the fully customisable one (because for this track shorter gears are better), the sound is completely ruined... in bonnet camera.

This is how it sounds now with the fully customisable transmission, depending on the camera view :

bonnet camera: a lot of transmission whine-sound, almost no exhaust sound. But you feel close to the action.
chase camera: full exhaust sound, as good as no transmission whine. But you feel more distant to the 'action'.
road camera: a mix of both exhaust and transmission sounds where exhaust dominates. Close to the action.
helmet camera: also a mix of both exhaust and transmission sounds where exhaust dominates. But sadly all in-car sound effects go throw this rather dull "sewer pipe damping filter", I guess to mimic the effect of wearing a helmet and/or sitting inside the car.

 

[Jbaffoh]

Hmm some aditional info, it depends a lot on the camera view point as well.

With the knowledge from above, I'm now doing the 580 pp expert seasonal @ autumn ring reverse with a much better sounding GT40 Mark I anniv '66. I got a semi-racing exhaust, no turbo, a stock transmission and some other stuff to reach 580 pp. Sounds really great, especially because this is a low rev curcuit.

Now when I only exchange the stock transmission to the fully customisable one (because for this track shorter gears are better), the sound is completely ruined... in bonnet camera.

This is how it sounds now with the fully customisable transmission, depending on the camera view :

bonnet camera: a lot of transmission whine-sound, almost no exhaust sound. But you feel close to the action.
chase camera: full exhaust sound, as good as no transmission whine. But you feel more distant to the 'action'.
road camera: a mix of both exhaust and transmission sounds where exhaust dominates. Close to the action.
helmet camera: also a mix of both exhaust and transmission sounds where exhaust dominates. But sadly all in-car sound effects go throw this rather dull "sewer pipe damping filter", I guess to mimic the effect of wearing a helmet and/or sitting inside the car.

You can choose the mic placement for all cameras in Options.

 

[lxmmy]

Exhaust, Mic placement, Transmission and maybe Turbo in some circumstances.