Time flies with great content! Renew in to keep enjoying all our premium content.
Turning a roar into a whisper
Dozens of changes have been made to almost every aspect of the car's design and construction to reduce the amount of noise generated and dampen what remains more effectively.
Modern cars are so much quieter than old ones. Is that mainly just their newness, or is it attributable to technical advances? Listening.
It is both newness and technology, but not just one or two design improvements. There have been dozens of changes, in almost every aspect of car design and construction, that reduce the amount of noise generated and more effectively muffle what remains.
When things explode, they emit a loud bang. Engines explode fuel in their combustion chambers many dozens of times per second, so their cascade of bangs sounds like a roar.
While that is undoubtedly the biggest source of noise, it is not alone. Even the engine itself has lots of additional mechanical noise makers.
Every mechanical part that moves (inside the engine and out) is connected to or touching something else - pulling, pushing, tapping, rubbing, twisting, shaking, vibrating, flexing, opening closing, squashing, squeaking, humming, meshing, rattling – and even if you could somehow erase the inherent din of internal combustion itself, the rest of the vehicle (gearbox, differentials, the suspension, bodywork aerodynamics and rigidity, interior trim, steering, brakes, tyres, windows, wheels, etc etc) would still have plenty to say.
Technology – by improving design, materials, insulation, engineering precision, and both construction and operating processes – has progressively addressed all of those noise generators. For example, timing “chains” have been replaced by rubberised fibre belts, many mechanical connections and movements are now operated by hydraulics and so on).
