Renault Sport F1 has released the first snippet of engine audio from its new turbo-charged V6 engine which will power Red Bull, Lotus, Caterham and Toro Rosso in 2014.
Some have feared the engine noise would be greatly reduced with the drop from V8 to V6, but Renault’s deputy managing director Rob White is confident it will still be loud, though he admitted it will be ‘different’.
“The car will still accelerate and decelerate rapidly, with instant gearshifts. The engines remain high revving, ultra high output competition engines.”
Click here to hear a snippet of audio from the new engine.
“Fundamentally the engine noise will still be loud. It will wake you from sleep, and circuit neighbours will still complain. The engine noise is just a turbocharged noise rather than a normally aspirated noise: you can just hear the turbo when the driver lifts off the throttle and the engine speed drops.
“I am sure some people will be nostalgic for the sound of engines from previous eras, including the preceding V8, but the sound of the new generation Power Units is just different. It’s like asking whether you like Motorhead or AC/DC. Ultimately it is a matter of personal taste. Both in concert are still pretty loud.”
He went on to explain the more intricate details of the sound it will produce.
“The sound of the engine is the sum of three principal components, exhaust, intake and mechanical noise. On fired engines, exhaust noise dominates, but the other two sources are not trivial and would be loud if the exhaust noise was suppressed and contribute to the perceived sound of the engines in the car.
“All three sources are still present on the V6. At the outset, there is more energy in each combustion event but there are fewer cylinders turning at lower speed and both intake and exhaust noise are attenuated by the turbo. Overall, the sound pressure level (so the perceived volume) is lower and the nature of the sound reflects the new architecture.”
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