I grew up around muscle cars and loud trucks. I love the sound of a well designed engine revving through the RPM range, especially a good V8. I was actually frustrated with how quiet my truck was when I bought it, so I deleted the resonator and installed a magnaflow muffler.


That's sort of how I have my truck set up. If I'm just driving casually, I get some rumble but it's subdued and quiet. I don't want to be "that guy" in my cul-de-sac when I come and go at night. But when I do romp on it, it sounds like a Mustang.

You owe it to yourself to test drive something with a ZF8. They're great transmissions.

 

There hasn't been a time since the ZF8 was launched that we haven't had at least one and sometimes more on the driveway. It's tremendous.

 

Is there highway drone? I really want to do something like this to the LX. But only if it goes pretty much silent unless you're on it.

For sure!

 

.......Yet you had a Miata not that many years ago, which, by today's standards, is just about the epitome of loud engine/wind/road noise. I couldn't imagine an all-day trip in one....I'd be fatigued inside of 50 miles.

On the other hand, maybe (?) your former experience with the Miata is the reason WHY you like a quiet Hush-Mobile today.

One of the reasons I got to like quiet Buicks and Lincolns, even at a young age, was that I learned to drive in an early-60s Plymouth Valiant, which had a lot of noise even by the standards of the day....Chrysler products were not as well-insulated as Ford or GM products back then, the Torqueflite transmission was durable but noisy and whined, their sloppy assembly allowed for wind noise through the gaps/cracks, and the unibody frame and torsion-bar front/leaf-rear suspension transmitted road noise like a telephone line.

 

Sometimes within a narrow 100 rpm range. But it's really not an issue because I'm rarely ever in that spot.

 

Active exhausts allow both loud and quiet, I hate if a car has a high tier engine and is too quiet. My Audis are severe offenders here, the LS f-sport intake resonator allowed the 460 to have nice induction tone but the turbo car doesn't have much unless you are fully on it.

The W12 is too quiet period, it never gets loud and while it does have a very unique induction sound it's quiet even at full bore. It has a factory active exhaust but again it's too quiet, I'm going to replace the rear mufflers with a valved setup for tunnel runs etc.

 

it's great, shifts pretty seamless (especially when driving gently) and programming is slick depending on drive mode. in sport s+ it limits to 8 speeds for example, and downshifts (with rev matching) if you breathe. i love the in between sport s mode which i find drives more smoothly when being a bit more aggressive than just cruising because in normal/comfort it's eager to upshift and more reluctant to downshift, so if being more aggressive in those modes, it's less smooth. anyway, something for everyone there.

 

not many years ago? try 17, lol. anyway i think i did one long trip in it and yes, too loud with road/wind noise. it wasn't for that purpose for me. it was a joy to drive on twisty road or enjoy short drives with the top down, especially at night i loved, and while it had more road noise than a typical car, the engine wasn't very loud. i enjoyed the miata thoroughly for what it is, a light, exquisitely balanced sports car.

speculate all you want, but wrong. i've always liked quiet cars in general and the miata wasn't my main vehicle.

you're probably one of the youngest drivers of an audi w12 car so your needs/wants are, uh, pretty unique.

 

I've sold it now, but until recently I had a pretty heavily modified NC Miata Club and it was actually quite civilized with the top down, particularly with the wind deflector in place. We found it perfectly serviceable for long trips, and we did plenty of them. The main issue wasn't wind noise as much as it was being tall in a car with limited legroom and a manual transmission.

 

I would agree IF the same engine in the Bentley products wasn't as loud as it is when you have the exhausts set to open, those cars are unusually loud but IMO that's better than too quiet. I mean isn't that the point of selectable modes?

 

Thats great...thats what you want

 

it really is a very well thought out car design/engineering. when driving it i sometimes imagine those clever people in japan coming up with it and smiling to themselves!

 

Nice. All this talk and I haven't even driven an LC before....

 

Thats how it is with the S Classes too, you find little things and you're like "wow thats really smart"

 

Alright back to the Escalade