Exhausts sounds: Mustang vs Corvette

One (unlikely) possibility is that the 'senior citizen' owners like me really dislike loud exhaust systems, and Chevy may be trying to strike the right balance for a wide range of owners.

My latest C7 does have a user selected mode which very substantially affects the exhaust noise level. At the loudest, it is, to me, downright obnoxious, but I also admit that my winter car has been either a Lexus or Acura sedan with extremely low cabin noise, just the way my wife and I like it.

Certainly GM knows how to make loud exhausts but guessing it is a deliberate marketing decision and one which allows the aftermarket exhaust parts makers to sell a lot of replacement components.

Different horses for different courses.....

Can't agree more, some (meaning very few) of the Mustangs sound mean as snakes, most - not so much. The C7 NPP can be tuned to your liking by the driving mode and even that sound can be tuned in the settings. Very quiet vehicle if that's what you want on long trips.

Thanks for the comments, guys. Besides being loud, the Mustang has a lope like the 60's big blocks with high overlap cams. It is not the loudness of the exhaust of the Mustang so much but it is the sound or lope. I almost thought for a while there that the modern Corvette firing sequence had changed and the lope disappeared.

I have been behind modern accelerating Corvettes when in caravans with my club and under acceleration, the cars sound, not powerful, but bizarre. There is more to making that sound than just opening up the pipes.

Vito

I would guess you would be WAY behind, to far to hear a C7 under full accel eration with anything you own. Yes, it does not sound like a big block beca use it's not a big block, it sounds more like it's singing after about 4,00

0 RPM and just keeps on going. Not sure I have the hair on my balls to let this thing out like the older Corvettes I've had, was very comfortable in t he C5 and even the C6 but not there yet with this C7. Not scary like the '6 1 but it gets there so much faster and without the road feel of the older C orvettes.

The main reason Corvettes sound so anemic is because of cabin resonanace. Testing in a C5 showed peaks at 1100 and 2200 RPM, right in the heart of the cruising range. Later versions are probably about the same.

If these frequencies are not filtered out, the cabin becomes a giant low-frequency echo chamber. After filtering, the result is the tinny, non big-block, non-muscle car tone you hear.

My 69 BB with tripower and sidepipes was scary. At part throttle it was wimpy. Likely why I sold it and kept my 327 '64.

Never had that problem the C5s I had with Corsa exhausts and if you were at 2,200 RPM very much you couldn't afford the tickets.