On Sun, 23 Oct 2005, Al Bundy wrote:
> Police don’t seem to enforce the noise ordinances on cars like they
> used to. Perhaps it’s because so many of the newer cars have loud
> systems.
Not from the factory, they don’t! Most all newer cars have very quiet
systems from the factory. Certainly there are VERY few new cars (I can
think of exactly one, the Dodge SRT4 don’t-call-it-a-Neon) that have
factory exhaust systems even beginning to approach the noise levels
routinely emitted by brand-new muscle cars in the late ’60s and early
’70s.
Yes, I must say I’m quite impressed at how little noise even a
performance-oriented late-model car can be these days. They seem to
think through those issues a lot more carefully than in days of yore.
When you encounter a loud newish car, chances are the owner put in an
aftermarket muffler (or even most of a new exhaust system, usually
focusing on the less regulated part from the cat back) to let more
noise out, either in the hope of getting more performance or as a
matter of taste.
Some cars are just quieter and/or less dependent on the muffler for
noise suppression, too. Of the three late-80s, early-90s
four-cylinder Toyotas in the family, all had near-complete muffler
failures of a very typical nature for that make and era — the flimsy
endplates rust out around the inlet and outlet pipes. This leaves the
muffler hanging from the car body (to which it is securely and
redundantly attached, as well it shoud be) as the exhaust flows around
it… without making what you would call obnoxious amounts of noise.
Note that the mufflers on all of these are at the far downstream end.
Some combination of the muffling effect of the catalytic converter
(which is rather far forward), the long undercar pipes, and the small
engine just make it a relatively quiet car, even when the muffler is
doing little or no objective good.
–Joe
On Mon, 24 Oct 2005, Ad absurdum per aspera wrote:
> Yes, I must say I’m quite impressed at how little noise even a
> performance-oriented late-model car can be these days.
Until the dumb kidzzz get their ignorant hands on them, and install all
kinds of noisy garbage in the mistaken belief it makes their car quicker,
faster, and more attractive to, like, chicks ‘n’ stuff.
> They seem to think through those issues a lot more carefully than in
> days of yore.
They have to, in order to comply with Federal noise standards!
> When you encounter a loud newish car, chances are the owner put in an
> aftermarket muffler (or even most of a new exhaust system, usually
> focusing on the less regulated part from the cat back)
It would be less pestillent if that were the case everywhere. Hereabouts
(Toronto), the kidzzz tend to gut or remove the catalytic converter, in
the misguided quest for a nonexistent power gain by doing so. Their cars
become gross polluters, and Ontario’s Drive-Clean emission testing program
is sufficiently ill-conceived not to catch them.