I think that's not obvious at all, and quite a personal preference. There's lots of assholes in the area with extremely loud cars who seem to think that way. I have never thought the sound of a engine is cool, pleasant, exciting, impressive, or anything remotely like that. I do like adrenaline and driving fast in almost every form of vehicle, but if I could have a silent maglev sportbike that drove just like a combustion based bike I would choose it in a heartbeat.
Schermer JA. A desire for a loud car with a modified muffler is predicted by being a man and higher scores on psychopathy and sadism. Curr Issues Personal Psychol. 2023 Apr 14;11(4):339-343. doi: https://doi.org/10.5114/CIPP/162006 PMID: 38075464; PMCID: PMC10699294.
> Researchers noted that modifying a vehicle to make an illegal, disruptive noise at a distance demonstrates the callous disregard for other people's feelings that defines psychopathy.
> Because the sudden noise startles and scares pedestrians or animals, the drivers frequently score high on everyday sadism, meaning they derive personal joy from minorly distressing or startling others.
> Contrary to my hypothesis, narcissism was not a significant predictor when the other personality dimensions were included. This finding suggests that people may not, in fact, be making their vehicles louder to draw attention to themselves or to say, “Look at me!”
> The results are concerning in that they suggest that individuals who make their vehicles loud may be doing so to deliberately hurt others by disturbing them and that these individuals may be motivated by the negative state that they cause others. Although the study is a pilot study and requires replication, the results are perhaps especially concerning because some media outlets are reporting that the frequency of vehicles with loud exhaust systems has been increasing.
My car people are the absolute opposite of you. Almost all of us want noise but it doesn’t have to be obnoxious. Most high end car with high end engines have switches that will control the exhaust valve.
There are only ~420 refineries globally still operating. ~21% of global oil refining capacity (101 out of 420 assessed sites) is at risk of closure by 2035 due to rising carbon costs, environmental policies, and a long-term drop in gasoline demand.
I used to think "We're never going to run out of oil, meaning we'll never move off of it." and I was mistaken. After more research, I've come to the conclusion that while we might never run out of oil, refinery capacity will only decline into the future, creating supply chain death spirals over time in various parts of the system. If you want to end the use of fossil fuels, refineries are the weakest link in the chain.
TLDR If rich people are going to burn petroleum instead of biodiesel (used vegetable oil for diesel like engine use cases) or alcohol (top fuel dragsters), good luck refining it yourself or importing it. Similar to how if the end of the world arrives, and you need pharmaceuticals to survive, you'll only last as long as the supply chain for said pharmaceuticals survives.
It's like Swiss watches. Sure, a digital watch would be better but if you're really into mechanics and engineering a fancy hand-made swiss watch is your thing.
The future of supercars is to outlaw them to make any engine noise on the road.
There is no reason to have engine noise other then that not having engine noise is not possible at a given price point. This is obviously not the case with "supercars".
If you want to buy a toy that makes noise, get a non street-legal car for the race track.
There is no reason why 99.9..% of the population should be required to tolerate more (street-)noise than necessary.
Engine noise from traffic is so normalised that it can be hard to picture how it can not exist.
I only got the feeling of how much calmer it felt without engines revving all around after visiting Guilin, China a couple of years ago. Most cars, trucks, scooters were electric and the only noise I'd hear were tyres rolling, the odd ICE vehicle sounded like a banshee among the rest.
For some reason Salzburg had so little car traffic during the day it was eerily silent. People using their inside voices outside to talk to each other. We visited on a weekday, so that may have been why.
I don't think you even need to outlaw them. Just add aggressively progressive taxes on externalities, like Norway does (not for noise, but CO2 and NoX emissions as well as curbe weight; adding noise as well shouldn't might be an idea).
Of course you can regulate thresholds that can not be exceeded as well, but generally I think we should tax externalities more rather than outlaw things whenever possible, and do it much more often. Amp those taxes until the perceived problem goes away, whether because sufficient numbers of people won't pay them or because they're high enough to mitigate the negative effects.
When it comes to supercars, I suspect most of them will end up not being on the road much as the proportion of EV cars gets to a point where it starts to reduce the density of places to fill the tank anyway so to the extent they're a problem it will increasingly limit itself and so it's not really worth wasting time on.
Supercars aren't the excessively noisy ones. Those are the modified cars. Many have quiet modes that run off battery so you don't wake up your neighbors.
IMHO, pollution is way worse.
I'd rather a tax on gas so high that commuter ICE cars don't exist anymore. Let the enthusiasts who actually enjoy driving burn gas.
The difference being Swiss watches are elegantly engineered pieces of art whereas internal combustion engines of any kind are essentially just rube goldberg machines that we have collectively normalised as a society.
I think you’re underselling the amount of sophistication and refinement that goes into a modern ICE, which is the backbone of a big part of the global economy.
That doesn't change the fact that they are worse at what they do than an equivalent electric motor. There's zero reason we need ICE. We have better technology, we just don't have the will (at least in America) to fully adopt it.
YASA motors makes a 30lb electric motor the size of a Roomba that outputs 1000 peak horsepower. The future of many supercars will be hybrids with the electric train doing the brunt of the work.
well of course it is: it's for rich assholes who need to separate themselves and say "look, I'm an asshole with so much money and so little care, I can purchase a gas powered vehicle and ignore all the rammifications".
Dude is on point to his audience, gotta applause that.
What he actually believes about the future of cars is not the really the point of this statement. The point is to position himself now, today, in the minds of his target audience. EVs are not cool today and nostalgia-driven grievance against them is.
So: the future is the past! Specifically all the stuff you thought was cool when you were 17. But now, you have the money to pay for it.
42 comments
[ 0.25 ms ] story [ 11.1 ms ] thread> Researchers noted that modifying a vehicle to make an illegal, disruptive noise at a distance demonstrates the callous disregard for other people's feelings that defines psychopathy.
> Because the sudden noise startles and scares pedestrians or animals, the drivers frequently score high on everyday sadism, meaning they derive personal joy from minorly distressing or startling others.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/human-individual-dif...
> Contrary to my hypothesis, narcissism was not a significant predictor when the other personality dimensions were included. This finding suggests that people may not, in fact, be making their vehicles louder to draw attention to themselves or to say, “Look at me!”
> The results are concerning in that they suggest that individuals who make their vehicles loud may be doing so to deliberately hurt others by disturbing them and that these individuals may be motivated by the negative state that they cause others. Although the study is a pilot study and requires replication, the results are perhaps especially concerning because some media outlets are reporting that the frequency of vehicles with loud exhaust systems has been increasing.
I used to think "We're never going to run out of oil, meaning we'll never move off of it." and I was mistaken. After more research, I've come to the conclusion that while we might never run out of oil, refinery capacity will only decline into the future, creating supply chain death spirals over time in various parts of the system. If you want to end the use of fossil fuels, refineries are the weakest link in the chain.
TLDR If rich people are going to burn petroleum instead of biodiesel (used vegetable oil for diesel like engine use cases) or alcohol (top fuel dragsters), good luck refining it yourself or importing it. Similar to how if the end of the world arrives, and you need pharmaceuticals to survive, you'll only last as long as the supply chain for said pharmaceuticals survives.
Global refinery closure outlook to 2035 - https://www.woodmac.com/news/opinion/global-refinery-closure... - March 31st, 2025
(think in systems)
If you want to buy a toy that makes noise, get a non street-legal car for the race track. There is no reason why 99.9..% of the population should be required to tolerate more (street-)noise than necessary.
I only got the feeling of how much calmer it felt without engines revving all around after visiting Guilin, China a couple of years ago. Most cars, trucks, scooters were electric and the only noise I'd hear were tyres rolling, the odd ICE vehicle sounded like a banshee among the rest.
lmao.
Of course you can regulate thresholds that can not be exceeded as well, but generally I think we should tax externalities more rather than outlaw things whenever possible, and do it much more often. Amp those taxes until the perceived problem goes away, whether because sufficient numbers of people won't pay them or because they're high enough to mitigate the negative effects.
When it comes to supercars, I suspect most of them will end up not being on the road much as the proportion of EV cars gets to a point where it starts to reduce the density of places to fill the tank anyway so to the extent they're a problem it will increasingly limit itself and so it's not really worth wasting time on.
IMHO, pollution is way worse.
I'd rather a tax on gas so high that commuter ICE cars don't exist anymore. Let the enthusiasts who actually enjoy driving burn gas.
VW ran the numbers and realized they cant compete with Chinese $100K 2000HP EVs accelerating in 2.5 second and beating any supercar.
https://www.arenaev.com/yasa_makes_a_1000hp_electric_motor_t...
Dude is on point to his audience, gotta applause that.
I assume that's your imaginary answer. I'll let you see your way to something more rational.
So: the future is the past! Specifically all the stuff you thought was cool when you were 17. But now, you have the money to pay for it.
Bugatti CEO: "that's not a supercar."
Of course in some markets ICE engines will remain mainstream, and in some they are seen as absolute cringe.