How can two cars with similar engines and exhausts sound so different

Question

How is it that two cars with similar engines, let’s say turbocharged 2.0l straight 4cyl engines, sound so different?

Not including exhaust systems. Let’s hold that constant at a straight pipe.

In: 0

Answer 1

>How is it that two cars with similar engines, let’s say turbocharged 2.0l straight 4cyl engines, sound so different?

A huge amount of of this is due to the exhaust systems. Car makers tune exhausts to produce particular noise types appropriate to the car.

Engine design has an effect to. The firing order of the cylinders has an effect. This is more applicable to engines with more cylinders though such as a V8. How fast the engine spins affects the noise. If you have a turbocharger the different mechanisms for releasing excess pressure sound different. Petrol and diesel engines sound different due to the different ways they work.