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Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
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ThreeLitre
11/22/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
I am sitting here in my room, alone, at 11:17pm on a Sunday night, after having had a few drinks, and I just had a religious experience listening to that noise.

I don't know if the engineers intended it (but I'm fairly sure they did because it's freakin' Yamaha), but the noise it makes right at the red line on full throttle, right before you shift - I cannot get enough of it. Heavenly.

A choir of angels couldn't top that.
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Ford Tempo Fanatic
11/20/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
Yamaha makes pianos? I thought it was all about the SHO.
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Mobius
11/20/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
The more I know about this car, the less outrageous its price tag becomes. Still not the prettiest or the fastest or the most luxurious or the most desirable, its little foibles (all in a good way) and that sound (THAT SOUND!!!) is starting to win me over.

Now, I just need to find that money somewhere.
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Pessimippopotamus
11/20/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
Yeah. That's why Japanese cars are soulless.

I can't ever imagine Bizzarrini trying to break down engine notes into numbers and algorithms.

And I don't like how it sounds. But it is how I would imagine how a high revving Yamaha engine to sound.
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dal20402
11/20/09

@Pessimippopotamus: Exquisitely perfected technique has its own, different kind of soul.

See my comment below about just how great high-revving Yamaha engines can be.
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IronicalBalls
11/20/09

@Pessimippopotamus: Relax already.
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Muscles Marinara
11/20/09

@Pessimippopotamus: I agree, the sound is insane but I can't say I like it. It's not for everybody, that's for sure, although it's obvious that it is an amazing engine. And I'm not sure if you are referring to the small-block Chevy-powered Bizzarrini cars, which also sound awesome, or the engine that powers the car in the video above, but I'm gonna assume it's the latter... so...
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Naters4
11/20/09

@Pessimippopotamus: Agreed, it sounds totally mathed out and digitized. Listening to that I felt like I had Gran Turismo playing in the background. Video game sounds... just a little too perfect.
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Tyson
11/20/09

@Naters4: You know what though? The Italians do the same. There are all sorts of things every car maker does, like program in misfires on throttle-lift, just for the sounds that it makes. People expect an engine to sound a certain way, and the audio engineers try to make everything match up.
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donwonton
11/20/09

@Pessimippopotamus: Like this?
[www.yamaha-motor.com]
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F1Morgan
11/20/09

@Pessimippopotamus: Yes they are soulless in a way, they are a subtle and functional people, I lived there a while. But I bet if you look closely and drive one it will be a Zen like experience.
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Pessimippopotamus
11/21/09

@Tyson: Well, Bizzarrini doesn't make engines anymore, and yes. Modern supercar manufacturers tune the engine notes, but I don't quite think that even just 1 or 2 decades ago, they tuned the engines by measuring the frequencies or developing sound paths for the engine note to get into the cabin. It's too pedantic to be truely soulful.

And yes. Obviously following that logic, modern Italian cars are going to sound less soulful than the classic ones. I don't think anyone can deny that.
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geschmidtt
11/21/09

@Pessimippopotamus: Modern cars are missing (as is the case of this Muira) the deep throated intake of 6 dual Webers with tuned velocity stacks. Fuel injection is just not going to create the funky kind of combustion that you get from those air swallowing beasts, with a tuned or not tuned exhaust.
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Turboner
11/20/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
I hate it when I get something stuck in my dragon eye...

BTW sounds great, although I normally remove the accousting dampening "tanks" and other unnecessary items from my intakes. I like to hear those pulses in concert with the exhaust.
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Steve_in_NC
11/20/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
I got your dragon eye right here!
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Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet
11/20/09

In reply to Yamaha Wants You To Hear The Lexus LFA
So, they added an extra pipe into the car, because the air intake noise was too wheezy on its own?
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elev
11/20/09

@Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet: I remember Top Gear mentioning that the M3 has a similar feature
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Otto Suksumake
11/20/09

@Van Sarockin, rogue trebuchet: Yeah sounds like it.

Ferraris dont need that...
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jark
11/20/09

@elev: GTIs and Mustangs have tubes to let engine noise in the cabin also
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pauljones
11/20/09

@Otto Suksumake: Actually, they do. Ferrari recognizes that sound is one of the most important aspects of their cars, and they spend as much time tuning the exhaust note as they do tuning other major elements of the car.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I remember reading a blurb in Motor Trend where it was said that Ferrari frequently sacrifices some degree of engine efficiency just to get the right sound. Again, I don't know how true that is, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it was true.
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Tanshanomi
11/20/09

@jark: So, sound deadening insulation, then you pipe in the noise? I can't help but think of something to do with Monty Python, crates, and trenches.
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Otto Suksumake
11/20/09

@pauljones: Right i'm sure they tune for sound. But they don't pipe it in...

Might as well play a throttle-angle influenced V12 soundtrack over the speakers. Would be cheaper than pipes.

#tips
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beercheck
11/20/09

@Tanshanomi: Heh! Attaboy!
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jark
11/20/09

@Tanshanomi: I think the sound deadening is for road noise and then they pipe in some engine noise for the enthusiast models only, because who wants to hear a VW I-5 or a Mustang V-6?
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