Best Non Exotic Exhaust Notes

You are walking down the street and all of a sudden someone turns the corner and gives it some gas and you hear a glorious sound that makes you turn around to see if you can guess correctly what it is. Every so often you turn around and see an exotic that surprises you but more often than not it's something a little more ordinary. Below are some of the best exhaust notes from cars that you can spot on a regular basis.

Mercedes-Benz C63

The AMG 6.2 liter V8 that powers 63 series AMG models is on its last legs as it is replaced by smaller turbocharged V8 engines. Lauded for its excellent power the naturally aspirated V8 is one of the best sounding engines this side of super cars and exotics. The AMG V8 has the perfect balance between a low rumble of an American V8 and that of a higher revving European V8 which makes it a hard combination to beat.




Mustang V8

The Mustang has always had a fantastic V8 sound even when the 4.6 liter V8 was barely stronger than some V6s at the time. Nevertheless, Mustang V8s almost always deliver a fantastic rumble that while not as high revving as the AMG V8 does rev a little higher than your traditional American V8 giving you more glorious sound through the rev range. While the latest 5.0 cammer sounds fantastic one of my favorites is the 2003-2004 SVT Cobra that is always one of the louder street legal cars that you will spot as most are usually modified.




Audi V8

The now nearly retired Audi 4.2 V8 is another fantastic sounding V8. Most often found in the last generation S4 and the pre face lift S5 the 4.2 also has some additional revs to play with as well for a throaty sound across the entire rev range. The 4.2 also sounds pretty good in the Q7 but is far too quite in the A6 and A8 versions. Much like the AMG V8 the naturally aspirated V8 is being replaced in all but its high power version by the smaller supercharged V6 that delivers more power but lacks the sound.




To balance out all of the amazing exhaust notes one can hear on a daily basis there is always one sound that drives me insane, the various versions of the Infiniti 3.7 V6. The VQ's pitch just doesn't sound right to me especially at lower RPM and the worst offender is the FX version that always produces a loud drone even when accelerating at an extremely pedestrian pace.