• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!

    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

The Latest Must-have

Mickey Richaud

Moderator
Staff member
Gold
Country flag
Offline
C-BvUyo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>
 
What'll they think of next! That's cool.
 
Same as the boy racers putting a big bore exhaust on their stock Civics. On the plus side, with this we wouldn't have to hear them from a mile away.
 
LOVE IT! I want one!
 
Okay, here's the scoop on this device....... It was originally invented more than twenty years ago by those nice blokes at Hethel in Norfolk, in the UK. Yes, Lotus. In the eighties they had it set up in, of all things, a Citroen AX, which was at the time the smallest hatchback that Citroen produced. The device allowed you to select one of three engine sounds, a Ferrari being one of them.

At this time Harley Davidson were involved in sound engineering, and decided to send an engineer over to the UK so that they could evaluate and maybe use the technology. This engineer was my father.

Having arrived at Lotus they took him out to the test track, where stood the Citroen, a one-litre monster! Having selected the Ferrari as his engine of choice he took the car out on the track, and promptly started having trouble! He was going into corners way too hot, and generally driving the car over the limits of what it was designed to cope with. He brought the car back in to be greeted by the Lotus people who had all enjoyed the show immensely!

Turns out this was a common problem with the device in testing, because drivers will always take the aural information over the visual, and since the engine was not making a lot of fuss the drivers were not taking visual clues that they were going too fast! Although the little Citroen was screaming along as fast as it could, the Ferrari wasn't even getting warmed up!! The drivers could not hear the engine of the smaller car which would have given them warning that things were happening too quickly......

Because of this Lotus never brought it to the market because of liability issues, and I'll guarantee that the people behind this product have not tested it as they should, and consequently have not considered the implications!

Let the lawsuits begin.
 
Steve, Working for Toyota, I understand fully what you're saying, and until you mentioned it, I never gave that issue a thought.I think you have an extremely valid point. But that said, I think I'd like to take responsibility of my own actions, and still get one of those to use occasionally just for fun. that thing is a hoot!
 
I believe that Brabus (or AMG, I forget which) did the same thing with their version of the Tesla. The sound system could be programmed to broadcast engine sounds to the driver.

-Wm.
 
Back
Top