Engine sounds by engine type

A V12 engine sound is the smoothest and highest-pitched of the common piston layouts because it fires six times per revolution, every 60 degrees, so the power pulses blend into one continuous tone.

A V10 engine sound is higher and more urgent than a V8 at the same rpm because it fires five times per crankshaft revolution instead of four, and the best road-car V10s rev past 8,000 rpm on top of that.

A V8 engine sound is either a lumpy, off-beat burble or a smooth, high-pitched wail, and which one you get depends mostly on the crankshaft.

A flat-6 sound is a hard, metallic howl rather than a rumble: six horizontally opposed cylinders fire at even 120-degree intervals, so it is as smooth as an inline-six, while its mechanical noise and intake tuning give it a rasp of its own.

An inline-6 sound is smooth, even and silky, with a turbine-like rise in turbocharged versions, because six cylinders in a row are perfectly balanced and fire at exactly even 120-degree intervals.

A V6 engine sound is usually raspy and a little hollow: it fires three times per revolution, fewer pulses than a V8, so each one stands out more, and even-firing V6s have a snarl rather than a burble.

A rotary engine sound is a raspy, high-pitched buzz at speed and a choppy 'brap' at idle because a Wankel fires once per eccentric-shaft revolution for every rotor, through exhaust ports that open abruptly with no valves in the way.

The boxer engine sound most people know is the Subaru rumble, a lumpy, off-beat burble that comes not from the boxer layout itself but from unequal-length exhaust headers that make the exhaust pulses arrive unevenly.

An inline-4 sound is thin and buzzy compared with bigger engines because it fires only twice per revolution, so its pulses are widely spaced, and an uncancelled vibration adds a coarse edge.